Chapter 14: A Shining Ray of Hope

Selphie fidgeted uncomfortably on the log as the hot sun beated down upon her. Unfortunately, it was not the heat that was bothering her and as she glanced around, she saw the others were equally troubled.

“How did this happen?” Squall questioned the group angrily, not actually wanting a response. “How could you have fallen ASLEEP, Zell?”

Zell turned his eyes to the ground at the rebuffle. “I’m sorry….I screwed up..”

“Sorry….” Squall repeated without emotion. His eyes were ice, his attitude separated, and his mind blank. “I should put you on suspension.”

“SQUALL!!” Rinoa cried out in disbelief. “No one meant for this to happen, especially not Zell!”

“That’s right,” Irvine stepped in, “It was a careless mistake, one I’m sure as hell Zell regrets.”

“We’re all worried about Elle and Seifer,” Quistis added with a note of sadness in her voice as if it was her fault.

“Seifer?” Squall’s eyes flickered with anger. “I can’t believe what he’s done either…If anything happens to her…..”

“Squall,” Rinoa warned as she folded her arms across hr chest. “Don’t say anything you’ll regret and have a little faith, okay?”

Squall took a step back and looked at the people before him. He saw a mix of worry, guilt, sadness, and hopefulness in their faces, but when he laid his sight on Zell, he froze. Zell’s whole body was shaking. His face was pale and his eyes, which Squall only caught a glimce of before they were turned to the ground, were filled with pain.

Squall sighed. He was torturing his friend over something Zell could do nothing about. “Zell….”

Zell didn’t move.

Squall reached his hand out towards his sitting friend and placed it on his shoulder. “I didn’t mean that.”

Zell looked up at Squall with a weak smile. “Yeah, you did. And it’s true. It’s all my fault. If she, if she dies…I’ll be the cause… she was my friend and I…”

Squall opened his mouth to protest, but Zell just shook his head and shrugged the hand off his shoulder. “It’s all my fault…”

“Yo everybody, break out the party music!” Interrupted a loud voice coming from the darkness of the cave. Suddenly, Jaimen emerged, grinning widely with a hard hat in his hand. “Wipe those frowns off your faces, good times are on their way!”

“JAY!!” Rinoa squealed with delight as she jumped towards him, embracing him in a tight hug. “What are you doing here, cuz?!”

Jay ran a hand through his hair. “Lookin’ good for all the girls,” he responded, winking at Selphie and Helen.

Rinoa pushed her cousin playfully, “Hey, I’d watch who your flirting with. Irvine and Zell could get offended….”

“Right, right, right,” Jay jumped up in excitement, eyes shining and mouth smiling, “but it’s the cave! Mertinan did it! I was sooo right with my theory of collapsing objects, hollow rocks fall from hollow spaces making hollow caverns.”

Squall listened intently as Jaimen rambled on, but still didn’t gasp what the young man was trying to say, “Whatever…..Just say it Jaimen.”

Jay stopped in mid sentence, “What I mean, Squall, is that Ellone and Seifer have been trapped in a HOLLOW cavern, meaning that they were not buried alive. We also detected movement of some kind.”

Now it was Selphie’s turn to leap up and down, “They’re alright!! They’re alright!! La la la la laaaa!!!”

Irvine grabbed her from behind around the waist and kissed her. “When will they be out then Jay?”

Jay shrugged, “Somewhere between four to six more hours.”

Quistis hooked her arm with Jay’s, “I want to see and know EVERYTHING about this Mertinan machine!”

As Quistis led their hero away into the darkness, the others smiled widely in relief and joy. One by one they filed down into the cave.

Squall looked behind him as the wind brought peaces of conversation to his ears to see Helen and Zell hugging. Zell’s face was wet with tears and he seemed to be saying something between soft sobs.

Squall turned as the wind whispered in his ear…….

“I’m not a murderer, I’m not a murderer.”

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“How long?”

“Four hours and thirty-seven minutes.”

Ellone let out a deep breath, “If you try, you can make out little songs out of all the clinks…”

Seifer ran a head through his hair, “We’ve been hearing it so long, it all just sounds like a blaring ring to me.”

Ellone slid down the wall and seated herself next to the other cave captive. She picked up his arm and placed it across her shoulders, snuggling up to his chest for warmth. “It’s cold.”

Seifer hugged her closer to him, trying to make them both warmer. “Well, how about we do something. It’ll keep our minds off the cold.”

Ellone smiled. Seifer had remained hopeful for her. He told jokes, reassured her, and comforted her. Seifer had become a pillar for Ellone to rest on. “You want to play a game?”

“If you can think of one, why not?” he shrugged.

“Ummm….” Elle raised her eyebrows in thought. “Oh, I know!!”

“Go ahead.” Seifer told her with a shiver.

“Well,” Ellone sat up, “The first person will ask a question and the next person has to answer truthfully. If someone refuses to answer they have to give the other something of theirs and they get asked another question.”

Seifer looked at her skeptically, “You want to play that?”

“Please?” she pleaded. “After all, what else is there?”

Reluctantly, he nodded his agreement.

“Okay, me first!” Elle smiled. “What or Who is Ians?”

Seifer’s jaw dropped and he sprung up in shock. “Where did you hear that!?”

“You told me,” she shrugged, “…or mumbled it during your sleep…..but still! You HAVE to answer.”

Seifer quickly glanced around the room for some sort of a distraction, but came up with nothing. There was no way he was going to get out of this and he didn’t want to be a wimp and chicken out.

“Alright…..Ians is, err, I mean WAS my duck,” admitted Seifer.

Ellone tilted her head slightly, “Your duck?”

Seifer avoided her eyes as he nodded, “A kind of stuffed…toy…”

Ellone brought her hand to her mouth to stifle a laugh, “You had a stuffed animal?”

Defensively, Seifer countered, “Ians is NOT a stuffed animal. He’s a Gufta Warrior who fought evil darkness demons until an evil sorceress named Morgaina cursed him. From that day forth he was trapped in a duck form, that’s all. I was the only one he could talk to…”

Ellone’s laughs bursted out, filling the room. “You talked to your stuffed animals? Did they all have stories? Wait, I remember now. How about that dog you always carried around with you. Bloopers, was it? And Squall cut off its tail, and you said it had feelings and cut off a lock of Squall’s hair in retaliation?”

Seifer blushed in embarrassment and tried to change the subject, suppressing chuckles of the memory of the bald spot on Squall he had ‘accidentally’ made with a knife. “Now it’s my turn so if you could stop laughing for just a second, I’ll ask MY question.”

Trying to control her self, Ellone gestured for Seifer to go ahead.

“Alright,” Seifer’s eyes lit up, “When Squall….”

“Nope!” Elle cut in, “I’m not answering that!”

“But I didn’t even finish…” Seifer began.

“I said no,” Ellone smiled, “It’s an unfair question, so you’re disqualified. I get to ask another one now instead.”

Seifer was bewildered and remained motionless with confusing. “Wha….?”

“Now,” Ellone jumped in, “Why do you always do favors for me? Why are you so nice and caring towards me? Why me?”

Seifer froze and Ellone knew her plan had worked. She had suspected that Seifer would ask an awkward question about Squall so she had planned to counter with an equally hard question to answer for Seifer. It was a trick for which he fell. Anyway, she really was interested in knowing why he acted as he did around her….

“Here.” Seifer extended a closed first toward Elle. Opening his fingers, a silver ring with a Latin inscription on it was revealed. Ellone reached over and took the ring into her hand, turning it over and examining it thoroughly. “Keep it.”

Ellone lifted her head to his in surprise. “I can’t take this from you. It was just a game and this is important to you…it was from your parents…I’ve never seen you without it…”

Seifer sighed, “I’m not giving it to you because of the game, it’s because I want to. You’re good-hearted, kind, fun to be with, and beautiful. I have always admired you.”

Ellone who was now standing facing Seifer placed the ring on her finger, “What does the inscription say?”

Seifer stared into her eyes, “Thy light shines brighter with thee here. Thee hast saved mine with thy love. I will remember. Always.”

As those words left his lips, Seifer’s brain stopped along with his heart. What was he saying? What was he doing? But looking into her eyes, deep down he knew. And so did she.

Ellone smiled and whispered, “I think I love you, too.”

With that, she leaned forward and kissed him, gently on the lips. He in turn pulled her to him and kissed her back with a fire of fervor she had never felt either for or from anyone before. They stood there locked together in an embrace neither of them wanted to end as the sound of drills and shovels clinked and banged in the background. It was their only reminder of the outside world, of reality, of Squall……

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