Walking In Darkness

~Squall…~



“Squall!”



~Squall…~



“Squall!!”



The voices called his name, so many different voices, yet one whispered it entreated, it was bitter sweetly familiar. Just a whisper of his name, softness coated in steel. He wanted to follow it, to see where it led him. It promised him answers if only he’d slip away from the other voices tugging at his awareness, pulling him further and further away from the answers he was seeking. He fought them, the other voices, fought with every fiber of his being, just that whisper was important, so much lay in just a word, his name.



All he had to do was reach out and grasp it all, remain with the whispers…



“Squall. Squall, can you hear me? Squall man?”



“When is he going to wake up? Hasn’t he been out a long time?”



“He should probably start to regain consciousness any time now, his wounds were quite superficial, the curaga’s you spelled upon him took care of most of them. I think it was a combination of exhaustion and the bleeding that have kept him out this long. He’s been running himself ragged trying to find out what happened to Seifer.”



The words disturbed him, angered him. Couldn’t they leave him where he was? The answers were there, he knew it, if only they’d let him be! They pulled at him when all he wanted was to remain in the dark, remain where that precious whisper could speak to his soul.



Their words greedily pulled him like hands ripping pieces of him apart to be hoarded like some hard-won prize. He’d had that happen once at a parade, became the object of several teenage girls’ dreams as they pulled at his clothing and hair with avarice shining in their eyes, they’d wanted souvenirs of their idol. He shuddered in remembrance. He’d fought monsters of all kinds, Sorceresses, and even Seifer, but he’d never felt as helpless or as afraid as he had when he’d been surrounded by a gaggle of teenage girls.



“But what about…?”



The question pushed him farther from the whisper, his mind needed to know what was being spoken about. The last bit of whisper faded as he came to full consciousness, lying there with his eyes closed, waiting to hear more of what they were speaking of before giving himself away.



What about what? What was Zell asking, Squall grit his teeth waiting in vain to hear what the hyper blonde was asking about?



Even with his eyes closed he could imagine the looks each of them gave one another, questions in their eyes, till it would be Zell of course that would put words to their questions hoping Kadowaki would give them a favorable answer they wanted.



“I’m not sure why it bled. Or even why it bled for so long, I had to give him a transfusion. We couldn’t get his blood to coagulate and there was no sign of the scar being re-injured. I don’t know why it suddenly just stopped either. I’ve got tests being run though, so hopefully we’ll have an answer soon.”



His scar? His scar had bled? Without thought he reached up in an attempt to feel his forehead, only to find himself hampered by the I.V. hooked to his right wrist. It seemed the world was against him remaining in his dreams. He sat up quickly having to stop all movement as he became a little dizzy, his left hand moving toward his scar. Several pairs of hands moved to attempt to push him back down, but he brushed them away, wanting to remain sitting up. He quickly glanced around the infirmary realizing he was at Garden. So they’d brought him home.



Home. What a simple word for what should be an important place for a person. Balamb Garden was the closest thing he had to a home, but most of the time he felt it was just a place he resided, a place to rest, to eat, to train. It lacked that vital piece to make it a home and Squall wasn’t sure what that piece was.



“Squall, please, lay back down, you lost quite a bit of blood let the transfusion finish its job.”



His gaze locked onto the brown professional ones of the doctors, attempting to impose his will over hers if that would help him gain answers quicker.



“…How serious were the wounds?”



He looked at each of their faces, cool professionalism was all Kadowaki ever allowed anyone to see in her infirmary while, Zell, unable to stand still bounced lightly on his heels as if ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice. He looked away nervously while, Selphie with her hands crossed on her chest smiled at him attempting to make it look reassuring. Quistis and Irvine looked at one another and then avoided his eyes.



“The wounds themselves were minor, healed there at the warehouse, what caused the loss of blood was the fact that your scar began to bleed for no apparent reason that I can see and you remained unconscious for so long.”



“How long?”



“A day and a half.”



So, it was now Wednesday and by the sunlight filtering through the covered windows, it was late afternoon. They’d gone on the mission, no, not a mission, he’d gone off following a lead he’d found hoping to find Seifer, and instead found Hyperion in a glass coffin half buried under a pile of old shipping crates.



He’d torn the warehouse apart trying to find anything that could lead him to Seifer’s whereabouts and had stumbled across the glass box accidentally.



The tall-scarred blonde had disappeared suddenly; Fuujin and Raijin had come to Garden asking for help in finding Seifer. That had been eighteen months ago, a year after the Sorceress wars.



Things had died down according to Raijin, people had quit harassing Seifer and instead simply ignored him as he walked around Balamb. So long as he didn’t wear his signature jacket or carry his beloved Hyperion with him. So who would want to kidnap the Sorceress’s Knight now?



That was the true question that Squall worked to find out. They’d had false leads and false sightings that had gotten his hopes up only to dash them, like ocean waves fighting against the rocks. Those were the worst, the idea that maybe, maybe this time he’d have something to go on, some truth that would lead him back to his…no, to Seifer.



He made no distinctions, not even in his mind, any wanting, any needing was buried deep and never brought out into the light of day.



But this last time, they’d found Hyperion, though it had chilled him to see it. Someone had taken great pains to build that coffin. It wasn’t the standard size of a human coffin, instead it seemed to be built the exact length of the gunblade. It was rounded like most coffins were. The glass was frosted just slightly, the sides of the coffin carried etchings of rose vines covered in thorns. Bits of the roses carried the color red, like drops of blood. But it was the top of the coffin that gave him the chills, that and the fact that inside nestled in blood red silk lay Hyperion. He went ice cold at the symbolism that must somehow represent.



When Zell had called him over to look at what he’d found, Squall had mistakenly thought it was a glass case, like those in museums, but on closer inspection, and running his hand over the top, feeling the invisible etchings in the glass, he’d frozen, breath held. The words made out slowly, the team surrounding Hyperion there upon an old rickety table. Squall had taken his right glove off, making sure he didn’t miss any of the words.



“Keeper of nothing,

Flames of a chosen fate,

Blooded Knights filled with screams,

Hallowed souls and empty dreams,

A weapon that feasts, a hand that trembles,

Unhealed Wounds,

The ties that unbind…



The meaning had eluded them, every time Squall thought he might grasp its meaning, was on the precipice of that understanding, like some feather on the wind, it’d fly away teasingly. He didn’t know what it meant, but it left him afraid. Afraid of what was going on, of what could be going on with Seifer, or if Seifer was alive still?



He refused to think otherwise. Seifer was alive, that much he was sure. There was so much silence between them, so many unspoken words, he needed to find his friend, his rival, his…



He simply needed to find him.



When he’d attempted to open the coffin, something had clicked behind them all, and he’d turned around quickly scanning the surrounding area to see what it was, or where exactly it had come from. It had been Selphie who had spotted the tiny blinking lights, not quite hidden in a crate, picking up speed in their blinks indicating a bomb of some sort that was about to go off. He’d yelled at them to get out, to run, giving Zell the coffin to carry, the hyper blonde was in the best physical condition to quickly get it out of there. Squall wanted that casket, wanted it badly. It was the only link he had to Seifer at the moment.



But more importantly, Hyperion was an extension of Seifer, just as Lionheart was a piece of Squall. He fully intended to return it to his rival, sooner rather than later!



“Where’s the…where’s Hyperion?” He looked at his hands while waiting for a response, fists clenched as a feeling of hopelessness washed through him. He nearly gasped at the strength of feeling, but after years of remaining impassive, giving nothing away with his placid façade, he was able to keep his face from showing what he felt. He wouldn’t give up, no matter what. If he lost hope, he’d lose Seifer. That was unacceptable!



He looked up from his pale skin laying against crisp white sheets to the worried looks they all gave him.



“Cid has it, he took charge of it when we got back.” Zell had the good grace to look away. They all suddenly had other things to look at except Dr. Kadowaki, and Squall felt a rush of anger and possessiveness wash through him. It was HIS to take care of, what did Cid want with it anyway.



“Did he say what he was going to do with it?”



“He said he was going to have Edea have a look at it and see if she could decipher what the text means and see if anything magical was going on with it.” Selphie’s words nearly tripped over each other.



“Is it even in Garden still?” Right now, Squall trusted no one, anyone could have had a hand in whatever was happening to Seifer and he’d take no chances. Not now that they had something concrete, now after what felt like years.



“He has it up in his office, Edea is supposed to come here within the next day or so.” Irvine tipped his hat back as he gave Squall the information.



“Where’s Fuujin and Raijin?” He’d left them out of the mission, unable to put them through the pain of not knowing if the lead had been right or wrong. They’d been through so much already over their missing friend and leader. He’d wanted to bring them back solid proof if there had been something, and if not he’d merely be saving them even more heartache.



“They’re outside the infirmary, waiting for you to wake up. Raijin was worse than Zell in that he couldn’t sit still, wanted to shake you awake while Fuujin never speaks softly. I banned them temporarily from my infirmary. But now that you’re awake, I’ll go and get them.” Dr. Kadowaki walked away with a slight smile on her lips.



He looked back down at his hands once more, thoughts racing through his mind. Did he tell them that they’d found Hyperion, but still no word on Seifer himself or should he cover up what they’d found, play it down to keep worry to a minimum.



“What are you going to tell them?” Quistis’ soft modulated voice asked.



“You can’t tell them we have the gunblade, especially how we found it.” Squall looked over at Zell’s worried expression, wondering if this time his own face echoed those around him or was it as placid as it ever was.



“I will tell them the truth, they deserve it.” He realized as he spoke that they did deserve to know, Seifer was theirs in a way he’d never been anyone else’s. Squall also realized that he’d cheated them by keeping them from going on the mission and he vowed to himself he wouldn’t do that again. They were trained SeeD, they could handle anything anyone threw at them.



Squall also thought that if and when, he refused to think otherwise, they found Seifer, between himself, Raijin and Fujin, the tall blonde would be in the safest of hands.



“Hey Squall! Didja find anything good? Got any good leads ya know?” Raijin’s full bass preceded the large dark man, while Fujin walked ahead of him silently, her one eye trained on him intently as soon as she cleared the doorway.



The others all moved to the other side of the hospital room to give the two access to Squall, but he noticed they watched closely, in case they felt they might be needed.



“REPORT!” Fujin it seemed had run out of patience and refused to wait any longer for information.



“As you know, we received an anonymous tip that Seifer had been seen in an abandoned warehouse in Galbadia,” he watched as they both nodded, the gravity on their faces had probably matched his when he’d first heard the tip. “The others,” he looked over to where Irvine and Zell, Quistis, and Selphie all stood, “and myself went to see if there was any truth to this. The place was empty when we got there, it looked as if no one had been in there in some time, but we did find Hyperion, encased in a glass box shaped like a small coffin with wording etched on the glass. Later I’ll have the both of you look it over and see if you can see if there is anything recognizable.”



“As we attempted to open it, we heard ticking and realized that someone had set up a sort of bomb. We have Hyperion still, its up in Cid’s office-“



“ONE PIECE?”



It seemed strange to him the way he could understand what Fuujin was saying in that strange way she spoke. Probably because he himself tended not to speak all that much, therefore her single or double words were clear as water to him.



“Yes, its in one piece, or at least it was before it got to Garden.” Squall looked over towards the group in the corner with his last word spoken.



“I think Cid is waiting for you to come up there before he tries opening the case, Squall.” Quistis gave him that arched brow look that always attempted to make a person feel like they’d been reprimanded for bad manners. She’d perfected that look on all those students who had been in her class while she was instructing.



It was one thing Seifer and he had agreed on. It drove them nuts.



“So, someone left Hyperion there with the rumor that Seifer had been there, and then set up a bomb for anyone lookin’ for him ya know? It just ain’t right ya know!” Raijin rubbed the back of his head, anger and fear fighting for position across his face. Squall could feel echoes of those feelings slipping through his own body. Every time he thought of that glass coffin and what that could possibly mean for Seifer, coldness spread like a blanket over him.



Squall stared into Raijin and Fujin’s eyes moving back and forth between them, “We will find him, that I can certainly promise you.” He made the promise not only for them, but for him as well. He needed to find Seifer nothing else would suffice. And seeing in their eyes the resolution and tenacity that allowed them to remain ever vigil in their friendship with the edgy blonde, he knew that if no one else helped, these two would be all the help he’d need till the very end.



Selphie broke through his thoughts with her own. “I’ve been thinking, that bomb, it was pretty elaborate; the glass box didn’t have anything that I could see in it that would serve as a tumbler. And the timer didn’t kick in till we tried to open it. I’m thinking that maybe whatever was the hook in the coffin, that-“



“STOP!”



Selphie stopped speaking and looked at Fujin in confusion, “Stop what? Talking?”



“COFFIN!”



Squall could see that Selphie still didn’t understand what Fujin was asking and took pity on them both, “I think she’s asking that you stop calling it a coffin.”



Fujin’s focus snapped on Squall and with one precise nod affirmed what he’d just said. Selphie’s mouth took on a silent “OH!” shape and she quickly amended what she was saying, “Okay, so whatever had been in the box, it could have disintegrated without leaving a trace to the naked eye. I think we definitely need to have the red material in it along with the cof…-er,” with a quick nervous glance at Fujin, Selphie continued speaking when she realized she wasn’t about to be barked at, “the box analyzed to see what exactly we’re dealing with.”



The others nodded their agreement and Squall found himself nodding, though with chin in hand, he put words to his thoughts, “I definitely want to be there for every bit of analysis, I need to see what is done to it and once that’s done, I want Hyperion with me.



“We certainly need to find out why something so elaborate was set up. That denotes professionals, not amateurs. And why leave Hyperion there in such a way, throw out the rumor that Seifer had been there simply to kill whoever went near it. And yet it gave us enough time to get out of the warehouse before it blew, it gave us enough of a warning before going off.” Quistis wore an intent look of concentration as she worked the puzzle from different angles in her mind.



‘It sounds like they wanted it to be found don’t it?” Zell had once again begun shadow boxing.



“Ya mean, like they planted it so we would find it? But then why try to blow it up? I don’t get it ya know.” Raijin looked so lost for a moment that Squall felt like reaching out and patting the big man’s shoulder soothingly.



“We’ll have to wait for answers till I can get out of this bed and we get the tests running.” Squall felt the beginnings of a headache coming on and grit his teeth.



“PAIN.”



Squall’s eyes snapped toward a crimson one, “Yeah, I’m getting a bit of a headache.”



“All right, everyone needs to clear the room, my patient needs some rest and I need to remove the I.V. and give him some aspirin it seems.” Doctor Kadowaki stood in the doorway watching with a gimlet look on her face as the others filed out in single file like the children she always called them.



Squall lay back down, letting her work in silence, questions running rampant through his mind as sleep tugged at the edges of his consciousness. The last thing he remembered as her hand upon his forearm and her softly spoken words.



“I have faith in you, you’ll bring him home for us all…”



Yes, he would, he’d bring Seifer home and woe to anyone who tried to stop him, and sleep claimed him fully with the hope that those whispers would return for him.