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Entry tags:
FFVIII: Visitation (3)
Fandom: Final Fantasy VIII
Main characters: Quistis, Zell, Irvine, Selphie
Referenced characters: Squall
Pairings: Quistis/Selphie, Irvine/Selphie
Contains: Angst, deathfic
Chapter: Three
Rating: PG
Summary: Selphie is supposed to be dead, but her ghost disturbs Quistis' sleep. Pairings and warnings are by chapter.
"This place... ugh. It gives me the creeps."
Zell shivers. Quistis can see it, the shiver running up and down his back and not relenting even a little. She walks forward to join him at the mouth of the cave, looking into the darkness, and she has to agree. It feels like... it feels like Selphie's touch, cold ghost hands on bare skin. She shivers, then, too, and turns to one of the young SeeDs. "Go tell the pilot to stand fast. Pick up some transmitters and torches."
"You expectin' us to need to call for help?"
Quistis turns to look at Irvine, shakes her head just a little. She lowers her voice so the others don't hear, so only Zell and Irvine catch her soft words. "Even if we need to, even if we do, Squall won't send us reinforcements. We're on our own."
"He thinks it's a suicide mission."
"It's going to be tough." Quistis looks down at the ground, thinks of Selphie's panic at the idea of them going in there. She wonders what waits in there, laying in wait in the dark and cold beyond that horribly mouth-like entrance. "After all... Selphie didn't make it back."
"No, she didn't," Irvine says, softly. He meets Quistis' eyes for a moment. "But we don't need to let the other SeeDs realise that."
"Exactly. Hence the transmitters. And we definitely do need the torches if we're heading on in there."
"Well... if Selphie went in there, we certainly can."
"This whole mission is giving me the creeps," Zell whispers, with an air of almost disagreeing, but he doesn't show a sign of it as he collects his torch and his transmitter from the young SeeD. He turns to the group and grins. "Everyone ready?"
Quistis is thankful that Zell and Irvine are with her. Zell for his cheerful face on things, his cheerful face on everything, come to that. Irvine, because, well, he's as nervous about this as she is. As worried. As desperate to find out as she is, and as upset about having to do so. He's company, all in all. Understanding company.
"I'll go in first."
It's an easy decision to make, she thinks, strapping the transmitter to her wrist and stepping up to the entrance. If danger is to come, it'll come to her, not to Irvine. To some extent she's keeping Irvine safe for Selphie, safe from the horror that Selphie couldn't explain. Her torch's beam cuts the darkness easily, and she checks the place before she steps in. No nasty surprises. No sight or sound of a monster, no sight or sound of the missing SeeDs. She steps inside.
"Can't see much. Just... rock."
"And vines," Irvine points out, following her, waving a hand at all the greenery covering the walls. "There's a whole lot of those."
"I don't like this place," one of the more inexperienced SeeDs whispers, and Quistis is quietly glad when Zell hushes her, walking beside her to calm her down. She has to agree. Her hand strays closer to her whip with every step she takes and yet there's no threat to be seen. Just felt, prickling the back of her neck, speeding up her breathing and the thump of her heart.
It seems like an age, down there in the dark. Quistis wonders if they'll need spare batteries for their torches, pushes that thought away because the only spare batteries they have are in their transmitters. Although she still feels the threat all around her, she can't find any reason for it. There's no reason why her breath suddenly catches and she spins to look behind them, into the dark that closes and opens around them. There's no reason for the frightened girl's whimpers.
Quistis trips over the body even as she thinks that.
The frightened girl screams.
"Light, please," she says, softly, a little stunned, picking herself up. Irvine takes her elbow, steadying her carefully, and she takes a couple of deep breaths while the other SeeDs gather round, training their lights on the body. Zell bends down to examine it, checking for breath, for pulse, and then shaking his head.
"Dead. Strange, though..."
There's a note of fear in the SeeD's voice. "What's strange?"
"No decay." Zell spends a moment longer looking the corpse over and then stands, looking shaken. "No blood, either."
There was a soft sound and then a thump. Quistis spins to the source of the sound, heart hammering again, and then sighs in almost relief when she sees the girl has just fainted.
"Get her back to the airship," she commands the two other SeeDs. They aren't important, anyway. She's sure that if it comes down to a fight, they have everything. Zell for close range, Irvine for long range, and her to dance between the two, her whip as long or short range as she needs it. She's ready, too, ready for anything. Ready to find Selphie's body cold and dead and drained of blood, if that's what waits. Seeing that body there is like a slap to the face, recalling her from baseless fears to the mission.
"Quistis?" Zell touches her arm gently.
"Let's go on."
"Shouldn't we wait for them to come back?"
Quistis shook her head, pointing her torch into the blackness yet to explored. "They can catch up."
-----
"I thought you said they'd be able to catch up," Irvine says, softly. It's the first word anyone has said in a long while. It feels like longer because of the dark but Quistis knows it's only been half an hour. Half an hour of walking in the tangle of tunnels until she felt tired with more than just the physical exercise.
"Maybe they wanted to stay with her. It doesn't make much difference."
"It would in a fight."
"Hopefully, we won't get into a fight."
She smiles at Irvine, even though she can barely see him and he can barely see her. She senses that he returns it, anyway. Doesn't matter if they get into a fight or not. A certainty has been steadily growing. She knows they'll find Selphie, find out what happened to her. She thinks of it, pictures Selphie's ghost sat there beside her body, cold and angry, but...
But what?
Most likely they'll find Selphie's body half eaten by monsters already, killed by some monster. Maybe they won't even find Selphie's body, maybe they won't make it that far.
Selphie must have warned them off for a reason, after all, even though the dead body on the floor is the only reason they've found so far. And somehow Quistis can't see Selphie leaving a body just laying there. Surely she would've done something, even if it was just a rough fire spell fueled cremation.
Nothing rings true about this mission, though.
"Maybe we should go back to look for them," Zell says, after five minutes more silence.
"No. Let's keep going."
Nobody says anything more. Even though Zell talked about turning back, he feels they're just about to reach something, too. Quistis is not sure why. It just feels different. The dull terror is gone, replaced by a flood of adrenaline, her heart thumping quickly.
"Holy -- "
"What the -- "
"My god..."
They've found something. They've found something alright.
"What are those?"
"They look like... pods. Seeds."
Quistis turns her torch off. The whole room glows -- bioluminescent -- and she might as well save the batteries. She puts it down on the floor carefully, walking towards one of the pods. Again the air is like ice, like cold ghost hands, touching her, all around her. The pods are almost clear in places, and she goes to look inside, to see whether it's hollow or what.
"Quistis?"
She hears Zell coming up behind her, hears the concern in Irvine's voice as he moves toward her as well. But she can't turn to face them. Can't look away from what she's found, the horror at the heart of the labyrinth.
"Look," she whispers, and her voice is shaking even though she thinks she's in control. "Find a clear part and just look."
She knows when Irvine sees. She hears the intake of his breath, tears her eyes away from the pod to see the shake going through him. But Zell reacts faster than both of them, his fist driving into the side of the pod. "Fucking hell -- !"
The thick skin of the pod doesn't even quiver at the hardest punch Zell knows. The movement and the angry exclamation break Quistis from her trance, though, and she looks up at Irvine with confused eyes. "It seems we found Selphie."
"We've done more than that, Quis," Zell says, quietly. He's grinning. She can't understand why he's grinning. Selphie is there. Her body is there, cold and unmoving and --
Breathing.
------
She waits. She's good at waiting but even she gets impatient. And she's beginning to realise that it was a bad idea to decide to sit alone in the room with the two pods containing the still living, breathing bodies of Selphie and one of her SeeDs. She can't imagine what's happening to Selphie. She doesn't even want to think about it with her back against Selphie's pod and a prickle in her skin as if someone is staring at her.
It's been an hour, she realises. She gets up. Best to do something. Busy herself with something -- anything. She picks up her transmitter and starts to fiddle with it, starting a signal. Maybe she can open a channel to the pilot. Find out what's taking so damn --
"What are you doing, Quisty?"
Selphie's voice is soft and gentle, nothing like the way Quistis heard it last. It's thicker, too, as if every word is a struggle. Quistis gets up quickly, spins to put her back to a wall -- a wall, not a pod -- and face the ghost. The 'ghost'. Since Selphie isn't dead.
"You're not Selphie."
"Of course I am." The ghost takes a step forward and Quistis finds herself pressing further back against the wall. She can feel the vines against her back. The only thing that could make her feel worse would be if they started moving under her back. A chill crawling up her spine says they might. "I'm Selphie. Your Selphie."
"Selphie has never been mine. What are you, really?"
It never rang true. Selphie's hands on her. Selphie's words. Selphie's words that weren't words Selphie would ever have said, because Selphie was open and bright and honest, because Selphie was always so full of hope. Not even death could strip that from her and Quistis tells herself she should've known. As much as she has always loved Selphie, she should have known.
The thing stops. "Ah. I see. You've discovered the truth, as you see it."
"You're not Selphie."
"No, I suppose I'm not. Not yet. But I could be."
"Tell me what you are."
It smiles. It stays where it is, eyes fixed on Quistis'. It seems to taste the words, speaking each one slowly and making it whole, making Quistis hear and remember every word of it. "You might call me a... leech. Or a vampire. I feed on her thoughts, her feelings, her deepest desires and her greatest fears. Everything she is. Her body is of no use to me, but her mind..."
Quistis desperately looks at the transmitter, starts trying again to configure it. Where the hell are Zell and Irvine? They were just going to bring cutting tools. Nothing complicated. Nothing complicated at all.
She flinches away from the ghost's touch to her cheek.
"That's useless to you now. They won't come to your call."
"What do you mean?"
"I have them here already."
It's barely a smile, on that pale translucent face, but Quistis sees it. It steps back and for a moment Quistis almost sees what it really is, but before she has any time to grasp it or memorise it, it's gone, leaving only the almost-Selphie. The vines start to move and Quistis steps away from the wall quickly, biting her lip. Her eyes are wide and her skin crawling, but she tries not to show a glimmer of it. Two more pods slide slowly forward, translucent all over and softer looking.
Her whip is in her hand almost before she sees the spikes of Zell's hair and she lashes out at the ghost. It shouldn't be able to feel anything, but it always has been able to touch her. Not a real ghost at all, and it flinches back from the bite of her whip. "Let them go," she says, coldly.
The cold smile she gets in return would chill her, except she's chilled to the bone already. The two pods release, spilling Zell and Irvine out onto the floor, barely breathing and paler than death.
"They live. For now."
Main characters: Quistis, Zell, Irvine, Selphie
Referenced characters: Squall
Pairings: Quistis/Selphie, Irvine/Selphie
Contains: Angst, deathfic
Chapter: Three
Rating: PG
Summary: Selphie is supposed to be dead, but her ghost disturbs Quistis' sleep. Pairings and warnings are by chapter.
"This place... ugh. It gives me the creeps."
Zell shivers. Quistis can see it, the shiver running up and down his back and not relenting even a little. She walks forward to join him at the mouth of the cave, looking into the darkness, and she has to agree. It feels like... it feels like Selphie's touch, cold ghost hands on bare skin. She shivers, then, too, and turns to one of the young SeeDs. "Go tell the pilot to stand fast. Pick up some transmitters and torches."
"You expectin' us to need to call for help?"
Quistis turns to look at Irvine, shakes her head just a little. She lowers her voice so the others don't hear, so only Zell and Irvine catch her soft words. "Even if we need to, even if we do, Squall won't send us reinforcements. We're on our own."
"He thinks it's a suicide mission."
"It's going to be tough." Quistis looks down at the ground, thinks of Selphie's panic at the idea of them going in there. She wonders what waits in there, laying in wait in the dark and cold beyond that horribly mouth-like entrance. "After all... Selphie didn't make it back."
"No, she didn't," Irvine says, softly. He meets Quistis' eyes for a moment. "But we don't need to let the other SeeDs realise that."
"Exactly. Hence the transmitters. And we definitely do need the torches if we're heading on in there."
"Well... if Selphie went in there, we certainly can."
"This whole mission is giving me the creeps," Zell whispers, with an air of almost disagreeing, but he doesn't show a sign of it as he collects his torch and his transmitter from the young SeeD. He turns to the group and grins. "Everyone ready?"
Quistis is thankful that Zell and Irvine are with her. Zell for his cheerful face on things, his cheerful face on everything, come to that. Irvine, because, well, he's as nervous about this as she is. As worried. As desperate to find out as she is, and as upset about having to do so. He's company, all in all. Understanding company.
"I'll go in first."
It's an easy decision to make, she thinks, strapping the transmitter to her wrist and stepping up to the entrance. If danger is to come, it'll come to her, not to Irvine. To some extent she's keeping Irvine safe for Selphie, safe from the horror that Selphie couldn't explain. Her torch's beam cuts the darkness easily, and she checks the place before she steps in. No nasty surprises. No sight or sound of a monster, no sight or sound of the missing SeeDs. She steps inside.
"Can't see much. Just... rock."
"And vines," Irvine points out, following her, waving a hand at all the greenery covering the walls. "There's a whole lot of those."
"I don't like this place," one of the more inexperienced SeeDs whispers, and Quistis is quietly glad when Zell hushes her, walking beside her to calm her down. She has to agree. Her hand strays closer to her whip with every step she takes and yet there's no threat to be seen. Just felt, prickling the back of her neck, speeding up her breathing and the thump of her heart.
It seems like an age, down there in the dark. Quistis wonders if they'll need spare batteries for their torches, pushes that thought away because the only spare batteries they have are in their transmitters. Although she still feels the threat all around her, she can't find any reason for it. There's no reason why her breath suddenly catches and she spins to look behind them, into the dark that closes and opens around them. There's no reason for the frightened girl's whimpers.
Quistis trips over the body even as she thinks that.
The frightened girl screams.
"Light, please," she says, softly, a little stunned, picking herself up. Irvine takes her elbow, steadying her carefully, and she takes a couple of deep breaths while the other SeeDs gather round, training their lights on the body. Zell bends down to examine it, checking for breath, for pulse, and then shaking his head.
"Dead. Strange, though..."
There's a note of fear in the SeeD's voice. "What's strange?"
"No decay." Zell spends a moment longer looking the corpse over and then stands, looking shaken. "No blood, either."
There was a soft sound and then a thump. Quistis spins to the source of the sound, heart hammering again, and then sighs in almost relief when she sees the girl has just fainted.
"Get her back to the airship," she commands the two other SeeDs. They aren't important, anyway. She's sure that if it comes down to a fight, they have everything. Zell for close range, Irvine for long range, and her to dance between the two, her whip as long or short range as she needs it. She's ready, too, ready for anything. Ready to find Selphie's body cold and dead and drained of blood, if that's what waits. Seeing that body there is like a slap to the face, recalling her from baseless fears to the mission.
"Quistis?" Zell touches her arm gently.
"Let's go on."
"Shouldn't we wait for them to come back?"
Quistis shook her head, pointing her torch into the blackness yet to explored. "They can catch up."
"I thought you said they'd be able to catch up," Irvine says, softly. It's the first word anyone has said in a long while. It feels like longer because of the dark but Quistis knows it's only been half an hour. Half an hour of walking in the tangle of tunnels until she felt tired with more than just the physical exercise.
"Maybe they wanted to stay with her. It doesn't make much difference."
"It would in a fight."
"Hopefully, we won't get into a fight."
She smiles at Irvine, even though she can barely see him and he can barely see her. She senses that he returns it, anyway. Doesn't matter if they get into a fight or not. A certainty has been steadily growing. She knows they'll find Selphie, find out what happened to her. She thinks of it, pictures Selphie's ghost sat there beside her body, cold and angry, but...
But what?
Most likely they'll find Selphie's body half eaten by monsters already, killed by some monster. Maybe they won't even find Selphie's body, maybe they won't make it that far.
Selphie must have warned them off for a reason, after all, even though the dead body on the floor is the only reason they've found so far. And somehow Quistis can't see Selphie leaving a body just laying there. Surely she would've done something, even if it was just a rough fire spell fueled cremation.
Nothing rings true about this mission, though.
"Maybe we should go back to look for them," Zell says, after five minutes more silence.
"No. Let's keep going."
Nobody says anything more. Even though Zell talked about turning back, he feels they're just about to reach something, too. Quistis is not sure why. It just feels different. The dull terror is gone, replaced by a flood of adrenaline, her heart thumping quickly.
"Holy -- "
"What the -- "
"My god..."
They've found something. They've found something alright.
"What are those?"
"They look like... pods. Seeds."
Quistis turns her torch off. The whole room glows -- bioluminescent -- and she might as well save the batteries. She puts it down on the floor carefully, walking towards one of the pods. Again the air is like ice, like cold ghost hands, touching her, all around her. The pods are almost clear in places, and she goes to look inside, to see whether it's hollow or what.
"Quistis?"
She hears Zell coming up behind her, hears the concern in Irvine's voice as he moves toward her as well. But she can't turn to face them. Can't look away from what she's found, the horror at the heart of the labyrinth.
"Look," she whispers, and her voice is shaking even though she thinks she's in control. "Find a clear part and just look."
She knows when Irvine sees. She hears the intake of his breath, tears her eyes away from the pod to see the shake going through him. But Zell reacts faster than both of them, his fist driving into the side of the pod. "Fucking hell -- !"
The thick skin of the pod doesn't even quiver at the hardest punch Zell knows. The movement and the angry exclamation break Quistis from her trance, though, and she looks up at Irvine with confused eyes. "It seems we found Selphie."
"We've done more than that, Quis," Zell says, quietly. He's grinning. She can't understand why he's grinning. Selphie is there. Her body is there, cold and unmoving and --
Breathing.
She waits. She's good at waiting but even she gets impatient. And she's beginning to realise that it was a bad idea to decide to sit alone in the room with the two pods containing the still living, breathing bodies of Selphie and one of her SeeDs. She can't imagine what's happening to Selphie. She doesn't even want to think about it with her back against Selphie's pod and a prickle in her skin as if someone is staring at her.
It's been an hour, she realises. She gets up. Best to do something. Busy herself with something -- anything. She picks up her transmitter and starts to fiddle with it, starting a signal. Maybe she can open a channel to the pilot. Find out what's taking so damn --
"What are you doing, Quisty?"
Selphie's voice is soft and gentle, nothing like the way Quistis heard it last. It's thicker, too, as if every word is a struggle. Quistis gets up quickly, spins to put her back to a wall -- a wall, not a pod -- and face the ghost. The 'ghost'. Since Selphie isn't dead.
"You're not Selphie."
"Of course I am." The ghost takes a step forward and Quistis finds herself pressing further back against the wall. She can feel the vines against her back. The only thing that could make her feel worse would be if they started moving under her back. A chill crawling up her spine says they might. "I'm Selphie. Your Selphie."
"Selphie has never been mine. What are you, really?"
It never rang true. Selphie's hands on her. Selphie's words. Selphie's words that weren't words Selphie would ever have said, because Selphie was open and bright and honest, because Selphie was always so full of hope. Not even death could strip that from her and Quistis tells herself she should've known. As much as she has always loved Selphie, she should have known.
The thing stops. "Ah. I see. You've discovered the truth, as you see it."
"You're not Selphie."
"No, I suppose I'm not. Not yet. But I could be."
"Tell me what you are."
It smiles. It stays where it is, eyes fixed on Quistis'. It seems to taste the words, speaking each one slowly and making it whole, making Quistis hear and remember every word of it. "You might call me a... leech. Or a vampire. I feed on her thoughts, her feelings, her deepest desires and her greatest fears. Everything she is. Her body is of no use to me, but her mind..."
Quistis desperately looks at the transmitter, starts trying again to configure it. Where the hell are Zell and Irvine? They were just going to bring cutting tools. Nothing complicated. Nothing complicated at all.
She flinches away from the ghost's touch to her cheek.
"That's useless to you now. They won't come to your call."
"What do you mean?"
"I have them here already."
It's barely a smile, on that pale translucent face, but Quistis sees it. It steps back and for a moment Quistis almost sees what it really is, but before she has any time to grasp it or memorise it, it's gone, leaving only the almost-Selphie. The vines start to move and Quistis steps away from the wall quickly, biting her lip. Her eyes are wide and her skin crawling, but she tries not to show a glimmer of it. Two more pods slide slowly forward, translucent all over and softer looking.
Her whip is in her hand almost before she sees the spikes of Zell's hair and she lashes out at the ghost. It shouldn't be able to feel anything, but it always has been able to touch her. Not a real ghost at all, and it flinches back from the bite of her whip. "Let them go," she says, coldly.
The cold smile she gets in return would chill her, except she's chilled to the bone already. The two pods release, spilling Zell and Irvine out onto the floor, barely breathing and paler than death.
"They live. For now."
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