Stealth
Chapter xxxiv
By YuriNigasa
*standard I don't own FFVIII, Squaresoft, characters, etc. applies from now until whenever I decide I'm done*
Stealth
Chapter xxxiv
By YuriNigasa
I stood at the window in the passenger bay, watching the scenery go by in nondescript shades of blue, green, and brown. The week had gone off without a hitch. The previous evening the additional SeeD contingent had come in and following their arrival, we had seen off the field med tech Terpischore and Alisa Case. I felt a little more secure knowing that Alisa was headed for Balamb. No attempt had been made to extract the details of her experience while she had been missing, mainly due to fear of inciting post-traumatic stress. I felt someone behind me and put a hand out to gesture them to come closer.
"Squall, I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" asked Quistis.
I shook my head. "No."
"Good. I wanted to let you know that they finished the manuscript scans. Elijah thinks it will be possible to cover the rest tonight, if we want to."
"Sounds good. We can use the bridge upstairs, since it requires clearance for access."
She nodded. "I'll see that word gets around. We've still got another five hours of flight time."
"We'll stay onboard this evening. I don't want to set up in the dead of night, plus I'd like to hear the rest of that manuscript beforehand. There may be some additional information we could use."
She nodded again and walked out, the door sliding behind her with a barely audible swish.
Later that evening we sat up in the bridge, crowding the seven of us into a space intended for just slightly more than half that. Elijah had loaded up the text and once again we sat, wedged into various places, like children for story time.
"Let's see," he said, scrolling through various pages. "I think this is where we stopped last time. Ahh, yes."
"Come on," said Selphie pleadingly. "Tell, tell!"
"Okay, here goes. Last thing I read was 'It was in this one that the world placed their hopes.' Rising to aid this child of man, all but one of the Guardians submitted to Her and forsook flesh for mind, joining themselves to Her, binding the power of the ageless to her will. Clad in the protection of the Ancients, into the domain of Immamiel She walked."
"Shaeos brought his powers of Destruction to bear. He shook the very Earth where She stood, but the Wings of Wind lifted her above the destruction. Angered at this, he drew the stars from the heavens, heaving them at Her with a force that destroyed mountains. Summoning the Guardian of Rest, Shaeos was lulled into slumber. In his weakness, She withdrew the power of the Meteor, driving Shaeos into the very core of the Earth where he was trapped within."
"Thus destroying Shaeos, Myr turned his fury on Her. The fires of War were at his command, and it was he who cast Her into the heart of battle. He summoned legions to his side, the flaming minions who sought to burn the flesh from her body. Cloaking herself in the power of the Frigid One and Summoning the Power of the Guardian of the Water, she flooded the land and they could not burn her. Devoid of the flames of their power, they were helpless before the onslaught of the flood, and were washed away. Then, drawing the power of the Flare from Myr, she immolated him with his own essence."
"Thus destroying Myr, She walked without fear into the path of Necheta. Thriving on hatred, Necheta's was the power of the Shadow. Powerless to aid against that which They could not sense, She was tormented by the very form of the insubstantial. Alone and despondent, She began to weaken. For days it went thus, and it was feared that all was lost. Then, reaching within Herself and finding untapped strength, She withdrew the pure power of the Holy Light, and with Her own untainted force burned away the shadow, leaving Necheta to cower in terror for eternity."
"Thus destroying Necheta, She was beckoned into the presence of Thanateros, who held at his command the very power of death. Across the void they reguarded one another, the towering form of the Harbinger of Death and the seemingly insignificant mortal woman. Unlike the others, Thanateros was patient, and willing to wait, knowing that in time, all living things would fall into his jurisdiction. He was immortal, and She, of living flesh, must fall to him one day. She could not wait, knowing that with each passing moment the powers of Immamiel grew greater, and his influence permeated the world, tainting it. Summoning the Guardian of Life, She granted Thanateros mortality and withdrew from him the power of Death, taking from him the life that had been sustained with the lives of countless others."
"Thus destroying Thanateros, and bringing to end the reign of the Harbingers, She at last faced Immamiel himself. But Immamiel had long since taken the abilities of the Harbingers as his own, and was strong with the tainted essence. He had within him the power to breech the very Gates between worlds. Poised at the portal were his minions, and through Immamiel they brought the destruction, war, hatred, and death once wielded by the defeated Harbingers."
"There was no power She had that could bring him to defeat. Desperate to save Her people at all costs, and with the Wisdom of the Guardians, a reckless idea was brought to fruition. They would Sacrifice themselves, and with Their power, Sunder the very barriers between the realm of man and the realm of the unknown, drawing Immamiel and his minions back through the Gate. Into the unknown She crossed, and taking within Herself the Ultimate power, She Sundered the very time and space of existence, cleaving land and sky that had been tainted by Immamiel's power. The Gate was obliterated."
"The land tainted by Immamiel and his minions was annihilated and flooded with the Tears of the Earth. The power of the Guardians was split, and They were condemned, no longer able to walk the Earth as free beings, but subservient to the will of another. Hyne Herself gave up corporeal form, and a portion of Her power fled, finding refuge in the bodies of others, as if no one body could again contain it."
"It was done. Immamiel was banished, the very land where he once tread now empty. The Sacrifice of Hyne and the Guardians a priceless gift given without thought for the loss of their own existence. Even now, none know what became of Her for Her Sacrifice. None know of Immamiel, save that he is gone. It is at the prompting of the sole remaining Guardian who calls himself the Kursed One, believing that he should have suffered their fate, that I record these events that have transpired before he lays down his body and power to slumber within the Earth. Thus shall he remain, under the Eye of the Sentinel. I am the devoted servant of Hyne, called Oracle, that I may tell of that which none other knows. Thus ends the Book of the Sundering."
I sat, silent, as did everyone else.
So, finally, the Kursed Guardian, but for what? Not one single hint as to what his power was or how it could possibly help us with whatever the hell it is we're supposed to do. I made a mental note that the next time I got myself in over my head like this, I should at least know what I was getting in over my head about. At least I knew what the Sundering was now. I frowned, not liking the conclusions my mind was drawing. Squall glanced over and noticed my scowl.
"What is it, Seifer?" he asked.
I waved a hand, dismissing my thoughts as irrelevant. I was hardly an expert on what was going on. Squall just turned his gaze on me, silently demanding that I say what was on my mind, reguardless. I sighed, then inhaled deeply, and spoke. "Gates, portals, Sundering... what if whatever was used to banish Immamiel is deteriorating? What if this heinous thing is on the verge of breaking or has found a way to force open this Gate thing that's mentioned in the manuscript?" I felt a chill run up my spine and I shuddered involuntarily.
"Well, I don't know, but it seems right now that we're not dealing with something on that scale. I mean we've got those incursions up in Catania, and what else? Nothing," said Irvine.
"That we know about," chimed in Quistis. "What if there are things going on that haven't been brought to the attention of SeeD?"
"Don't know." Irvine shrugged. "Doesn't seem likely though."
"Why?" asked Quistis.
"Can't really say exactly why, just that there'd be some towns with an awfully high body count, and something would have to show up somewhere." Irvine folded his arms across his chest and leaned back against the wall.
"If there is something at work behind these attacks, and they're related to this whole bizarre Knight, Oracle, Catalyst thing, why didn't anything similar happen near Balamb?" Quistis pressed.
"Maybe Catania was bait, darling. Maybe the force behind these attacks planned to get us all there," Irvine replied.
"It seems to me that if they wanted us there, they would have done something once we got there." Quistis frowned.
"Seems to me like we got a real powerful message while we were there. It told me that we couldn't do shit to protect against whatever was going to happen, no matter what." Irvine frowned a little.
"Or maybe that was just designed to intimidate us, to make us think that way." Quistis was really having at the devil's advocate role.
"Either way, it worked, wouldn't you say? Three dead team members, one very traumatized lady, and we're flying off to Centra on what could be a wild goose chase." He pushed the brim of his hat back a little, gazing across the bridge at Quisty.
"Okay, enough you two," said Squall. "I think we need to give it a rest for this evening. Get some rest and look at it with fresh eyes tomorrow morning. It's late and we're all on edge."
Everyone was feeling the stress as we filed off the bridge. I felt a heaviness settle across my shoulders, stooping my normally self-assured gait. I was off in my own little world when I felt Squall's hand slip into mine as we walked down to one of the bunk rooms. I squeezed his hand gently, drawing unbelievable assurance from that one small gesture. It wasn't until much later that I fell into a fitful sleep, arms wrapped around Squall's sleeping form, my mind full of questions and worries.