Chapter 4: The New Crew
After waking up the next day, I went to the hallway outside the classroom and saw many students gathered there as if waiting for something. Before long, Seifer and Yaru showed up and Yaru went to me excitedly "I am so nervous but with you and Seifer i know we mustve passed!" Yaru giggled and said "You two are so cool too. And Ultimeya.... you look a lot like the legendary Sorceress Ultimecia. Kinda strange huh?" I acted casual and decided to nod but didnt speak. Seifer shook his head "That reminds me... any idea what we're supposed to do about that strong monster we let escape? If Ultimecia is dead then assuming youre right Yaru we have no way of defeating it." Yaru sighed and looked down "I dont know... hopefully Ultimeya or Sorceress Edea can learn time compression..." i sighed and explained "Time compression, whether used on a greater or lesser scale, is not something that can be easily mastered. Even if we were to train our powers consistently it can take generations to master the control completely." Seifer grew curious "How do you know?" I paused, then answered "Because ive done my research..." Yaru moaned and shook her head sadly "No way... so we're already goners....?" I shook my head "I will see what i can do or learn when theres time. But for now the beast should remain more calm so we have time to sort this out. Dont give up so easily, Yaru." Yaru immediately lightened up and nodded then smiled "You bet! Lets do this as a team!" Seifer shook his head "You really never change... talk about a change of emotion." I continued "And apart from my own studies as a sorceress, think about it, Seifer. Do you really think such legendary power would be easily achieved?" Seifer replied "Yeah, guess you have a point... dumb question i guess when you put it that way." Soon after that conversation we got called into the bridge upstairs, and Squall and Quistis handed us our papers of certification for joining SeeD. I read over mine a bit and sighed trying to hide my disgust. I still didnt like joining the group that took everything away. But having nowhere else to go and my castle gone, my options were limited to this. Quistis looked at me and asked "Is something wrong, Ultimeya?" I shook my head after gently folding my paper and tried to focus. Squall said "I expect you three to give this your best. Theres more to this than just following orders; its very important to do whatever feels like the right decision. Its true the mission generally takes priority in this job... but there are times where more important things might be at stake and you have to do whatever you must to protect them." Yaru nodded and Seifer also did. I remained silent and Quistis went to me "I hear youre a sorceress from your battle reports that Seifer submitted. We might not have a very positive history with your kind here, but you will be treated with respect and i promise that regardless of the past." Squall continued "I will have you three continue the search for Sorceress Edea as your first official mission. I also want you three to look into the legends regarding this legendary dragon that recently appeared and do whatever measures necessary for keeping its dangers away from the people. We might lack the power to defeat it, but it should be possible to hurt it enough to repel the beast whenever necessary." Yaru nodded "Leave it to us, captain! We'll get the job done." Quistis smiled and Squall nodded. Quistis explained "The latest reports of enemy activity are coming from Deling City. You three will need to head there next and stop them, and get whatever information you possibly can about Edea's whereabouts." I sighed "That brings us to something that might be worse than the beast running amok... we still dont know for sure what theyre planning." Squall replied "Shes right. Seifer and Yaru, you two are to keep Ultimeya out of the enemy's clutches at all costs. If they know what Sorceress Ultimecia looks like theres a high chance theyll mistake Ultimeya for her. If they already have Edea, Sorceress Ultimeya might hold the necessary power for Ultimecia's revival if they choose to sacrifice her and Edea." I hardened my expression immediately "I will not be humiliated by such pitiful mockery. If they so much as think of using me for a lost cause i will use my full power." Yaru reacted in shock "Yikes... better not make her angry..." I sneered "'I will not the tool of some shameless filthy lot like them." Squall narrowed his eyes at me for a bit but then shook his head and went on "I cant blame you for your defiance Ultimeya, but if you throw yourself right into the enemys hands and get overwhelmed things might get a lot worse than they already are. Please use more caution..." Yaru mumbled "That was awfully rough... id never talk like that no matter how mad i get... Shes kinda scary sometimes..." Seifer nodded "We wont let them get her. And plus i think shes strong enough to win if theres any kind of accident." Quisitis agreed "If shes stronger than Sorceress Edea she should be alright. But you two cant let guard down just to be safe." Yaru nodded and so did Seifer and we left the garden to head for the nearest train station.
Seifer sighed "Got a little feisty in there dont you think, Ultimeya?" I sighed but didnt answer. After a long silence i decided to answer "I dont like the idea of being someone else's toy for world domination. Nothing more, nothing less." Yaru replied "Yeah... it cant be any fun when you have to be someones robot like that... but who are the new soldiers anyway? Even the captain doesnt seem to know much about them." Seifer said "Wish i knew but i dont. Ever since Sorceress Ultimecia's defeat all sorts of weird things have been happening everywhere. First Sorceress Edea's disappearance on a mission she left to do alone, then the soldiers in those weird black suits, and now this black dragon that i didnt think actually existed. I dont get whats happening but i bet Sorceress Ultimecia isnt actually dead and is pulling the strings once again." Yaru sighed and shook her head sadly "But why? Why would she do this? She could be using her time compression to undo all these bad things instead of creating them..." Yaru went on "Are you sure its even her?" I interrupted "We wont learn anything by talking about questions we cant answer now will we?" Seifer nodded "Shes right. This talk wont get us anywhere even though its important, and most likely its something really bad. Lets go to the station." We got to the train station but had to wait in a long line. Seifer sighed "Standing in line... this is gonna be fun." Yaru laughed a bit and i managed to smile. However, I suddenly found myself looking at a familiar woman in a long black dress and black fashion gloves that covered her arms completely, only they had a lot more glitter than i remembered. She had makeup a lot like Edea's design but she had more black and much darker purple than she did. She took notice of me and giggled gently waving at me and i couldnt take my eyes off of her. I managed to sneak past Seifer and Yaru without them noticing and went to her. I said "You... youre...." The woman answered "The name is Matron--Sorceress Matron. Im your sister remember Ultimecia?" I stood in silence, then said "My sister? What are you talking about?" I turned around briefly to make sure Yaru and Seifer werent looking and then turned back to her "And take care saying my real name around here... Im trying to stay hidden around these people. Especially now that I know something weird is going on and people are after my powers." Matron shook her head as if disappointed "Dont waste time playing with these fools... come home with me where we belong, Ultimecia. I want to be as close as we were before mother died once more..." She looked hurt and i didnt know what to say. She was so kind to me and i didnt even want to walk away or turn around. Matron said "I would love to go with you in SeeD so we can be together but.. this task is just too dangerous. For me and for you, Ultimecia." I decided to ask her a question "Do you know what this enemy group is trying to accomplish, Matron?" Matron shook her head and replied "I still cant say for certain, but... they want your power. And they wont hesitate to kidnap other sorceresses either. i know they wont. What they plan to use our great powers for i do not know but i fear its the bane of our royal and regal legacy... possibly the bane of all existence if theyre mainly after you..." I hardened my expression and looked at her worried "Dont die on me Matron is that clear....?!" I tightened my fist and realized i was crying. Matron nodded silently and looked surprised suddenly, then she submerged through a dark purple void, disappearing to somewhere else. I felt Seifer touch my shoulder from behind "Ultimeya, whats going on? Youre acting strange." Yaru asked "Are you ok? Why are you crying?" I replied "...I dont know. I guess im just scared of what might happen on this mission... but im not backing down." Yaru nodded and Seifer gently patted my back to calm me down. Yaru asked "Who was that girl? She disappeared the second i saw her..." I shook my head after calming down "I dont know, but it wasnt Edea." Seifer got confused "I heard you say Matron... were you daydreaming or something? Because Edea isnt here." I got shocked when he said that. I remembered that Sorceress Edea WAS Matron... or at least she used to be. I immediately started to think Matron was a separation of magical energy from Edea and that was why she was here just now. But something seemed different about this one. Her gloves and dress had more glitter for starters, and her makeup was all black with some very dark purples, much like the colors of mine. And she seemed very loving towards me which was even more notable. Edea never wouldve shown love for me knowing my name. I didnt remember having a sister either which was also strange. Did i lose a portion of memory when i was attacked at my castle?
I decided to answer "I dont know who that is... lets just keep going for now." Seifer nodded and so did Yaru. Seifer said "Yeah, as long as i dont fall asleep first. Man lines are boring." Yaru laughed a bit and i started to calm down. I just had Matron call me her sister, and she looked a bit different too. I wondered what other strange things were going to happen and what was causing them. I started to suspect that the fall of my era where time was formerly compressed might be responsible, especially seeing Edea or Matron treating me like close family. If that was the cause of this strange series of events, i no longer had enough power to undo it. The most my time compression would do now is make things disappear or teleport me and my comrades somewhere else nearby. Unless training during the SeeD missions would allow me to regain the necessary strength, the events would not only become stranger with time but also more than likely, theyd be progressively worse. I didnt know if it would get to the point of endangering the world itself, but it was certain to sow greater and greater chaos if something wasnt done on time. Being unable to return to my rightful time and re-compress time there, the SeeD missions and using my lesser forms of time compression were my only options now. Whatever was to come next was unpredictable at this point. I hoped desperately that i still had the power to summon my trusted beast, Griever. He was my best trump card so to speak if things got too ugly for the team. If Griever also disappeared that would really put me in a rough spot on power limitations. Especially because i wasnt used to being powered down this long. Everyone before Squall who tried to defeat me failed miserably, and Griever crushed and plunged them into oblivion, allowing me to absorb them into time. But without time being compressed, that was yet another power I now lacked: i cannot absorb people into time without full scale compression of time. The fabric of the entire dimension and temporal-spatial paradox must be compressed for me to turn people into nothingless like that. It takes too much strength for me to do it if time is not compressed. In simpler terms, many of my powers and deadly spells are more potent when time is compressed. Its almost impossible to make people become absorbed into time if its not compressed. If the dimension is not crushed into an isolated time like that, where there is no past, future or present, its impossible for me to make people vanish like that. Without them having their history erased it takes too much work to do this. So i was stuck sending people somewhere else or warping any structures in the area instead. I hoped I was still strong enough to avoid capture. I could not let the strange group get hold of my power to compress time. I also started to worry about Matron. If they found her and got her, id have no choice but to unleash my unique power to save her. I was trying to avoid using my time compression in battle so they wouldnt get suspicous of me I also didnt want the enemy to know I had the power they wanted. That was another reason i really needed to depend on Griever in a worst case scenario. I knew they wouldnt suspect me just for summoning a powerful beast.
To Be Continued...
After waking up the next day, I went to the hallway outside the classroom and saw many students gathered there as if waiting for something. Before long, Seifer and Yaru showed up and Yaru went to me excitedly "I am so nervous but with you and Seifer i know we mustve passed!" Yaru giggled and said "You two are so cool too. And Ultimeya.... you look a lot like the legendary Sorceress Ultimecia. Kinda strange huh?" I acted casual and decided to nod but didnt speak. Seifer shook his head "That reminds me... any idea what we're supposed to do about that strong monster we let escape? If Ultimecia is dead then assuming youre right Yaru we have no way of defeating it." Yaru sighed and looked down "I dont know... hopefully Ultimeya or Sorceress Edea can learn time compression..." i sighed and explained "Time compression, whether used on a greater or lesser scale, is not something that can be easily mastered. Even if we were to train our powers consistently it can take generations to master the control completely." Seifer grew curious "How do you know?" I paused, then answered "Because ive done my research..." Yaru moaned and shook her head sadly "No way... so we're already goners....?" I shook my head "I will see what i can do or learn when theres time. But for now the beast should remain more calm so we have time to sort this out. Dont give up so easily, Yaru." Yaru immediately lightened up and nodded then smiled "You bet! Lets do this as a team!" Seifer shook his head "You really never change... talk about a change of emotion." I continued "And apart from my own studies as a sorceress, think about it, Seifer. Do you really think such legendary power would be easily achieved?" Seifer replied "Yeah, guess you have a point... dumb question i guess when you put it that way." Soon after that conversation we got called into the bridge upstairs, and Squall and Quistis handed us our papers of certification for joining SeeD. I read over mine a bit and sighed trying to hide my disgust. I still didnt like joining the group that took everything away. But having nowhere else to go and my castle gone, my options were limited to this. Quistis looked at me and asked "Is something wrong, Ultimeya?" I shook my head after gently folding my paper and tried to focus. Squall said "I expect you three to give this your best. Theres more to this than just following orders; its very important to do whatever feels like the right decision. Its true the mission generally takes priority in this job... but there are times where more important things might be at stake and you have to do whatever you must to protect them." Yaru nodded and Seifer also did. I remained silent and Quistis went to me "I hear youre a sorceress from your battle reports that Seifer submitted. We might not have a very positive history with your kind here, but you will be treated with respect and i promise that regardless of the past." Squall continued "I will have you three continue the search for Sorceress Edea as your first official mission. I also want you three to look into the legends regarding this legendary dragon that recently appeared and do whatever measures necessary for keeping its dangers away from the people. We might lack the power to defeat it, but it should be possible to hurt it enough to repel the beast whenever necessary." Yaru nodded "Leave it to us, captain! We'll get the job done." Quistis smiled and Squall nodded. Quistis explained "The latest reports of enemy activity are coming from Deling City. You three will need to head there next and stop them, and get whatever information you possibly can about Edea's whereabouts." I sighed "That brings us to something that might be worse than the beast running amok... we still dont know for sure what theyre planning." Squall replied "Shes right. Seifer and Yaru, you two are to keep Ultimeya out of the enemy's clutches at all costs. If they know what Sorceress Ultimecia looks like theres a high chance theyll mistake Ultimeya for her. If they already have Edea, Sorceress Ultimeya might hold the necessary power for Ultimecia's revival if they choose to sacrifice her and Edea." I hardened my expression immediately "I will not be humiliated by such pitiful mockery. If they so much as think of using me for a lost cause i will use my full power." Yaru reacted in shock "Yikes... better not make her angry..." I sneered "'I will not the tool of some shameless filthy lot like them." Squall narrowed his eyes at me for a bit but then shook his head and went on "I cant blame you for your defiance Ultimeya, but if you throw yourself right into the enemys hands and get overwhelmed things might get a lot worse than they already are. Please use more caution..." Yaru mumbled "That was awfully rough... id never talk like that no matter how mad i get... Shes kinda scary sometimes..." Seifer nodded "We wont let them get her. And plus i think shes strong enough to win if theres any kind of accident." Quisitis agreed "If shes stronger than Sorceress Edea she should be alright. But you two cant let guard down just to be safe." Yaru nodded and so did Seifer and we left the garden to head for the nearest train station.
Seifer sighed "Got a little feisty in there dont you think, Ultimeya?" I sighed but didnt answer. After a long silence i decided to answer "I dont like the idea of being someone else's toy for world domination. Nothing more, nothing less." Yaru replied "Yeah... it cant be any fun when you have to be someones robot like that... but who are the new soldiers anyway? Even the captain doesnt seem to know much about them." Seifer said "Wish i knew but i dont. Ever since Sorceress Ultimecia's defeat all sorts of weird things have been happening everywhere. First Sorceress Edea's disappearance on a mission she left to do alone, then the soldiers in those weird black suits, and now this black dragon that i didnt think actually existed. I dont get whats happening but i bet Sorceress Ultimecia isnt actually dead and is pulling the strings once again." Yaru sighed and shook her head sadly "But why? Why would she do this? She could be using her time compression to undo all these bad things instead of creating them..." Yaru went on "Are you sure its even her?" I interrupted "We wont learn anything by talking about questions we cant answer now will we?" Seifer nodded "Shes right. This talk wont get us anywhere even though its important, and most likely its something really bad. Lets go to the station." We got to the train station but had to wait in a long line. Seifer sighed "Standing in line... this is gonna be fun." Yaru laughed a bit and i managed to smile. However, I suddenly found myself looking at a familiar woman in a long black dress and black fashion gloves that covered her arms completely, only they had a lot more glitter than i remembered. She had makeup a lot like Edea's design but she had more black and much darker purple than she did. She took notice of me and giggled gently waving at me and i couldnt take my eyes off of her. I managed to sneak past Seifer and Yaru without them noticing and went to her. I said "You... youre...." The woman answered "The name is Matron--Sorceress Matron. Im your sister remember Ultimecia?" I stood in silence, then said "My sister? What are you talking about?" I turned around briefly to make sure Yaru and Seifer werent looking and then turned back to her "And take care saying my real name around here... Im trying to stay hidden around these people. Especially now that I know something weird is going on and people are after my powers." Matron shook her head as if disappointed "Dont waste time playing with these fools... come home with me where we belong, Ultimecia. I want to be as close as we were before mother died once more..." She looked hurt and i didnt know what to say. She was so kind to me and i didnt even want to walk away or turn around. Matron said "I would love to go with you in SeeD so we can be together but.. this task is just too dangerous. For me and for you, Ultimecia." I decided to ask her a question "Do you know what this enemy group is trying to accomplish, Matron?" Matron shook her head and replied "I still cant say for certain, but... they want your power. And they wont hesitate to kidnap other sorceresses either. i know they wont. What they plan to use our great powers for i do not know but i fear its the bane of our royal and regal legacy... possibly the bane of all existence if theyre mainly after you..." I hardened my expression and looked at her worried "Dont die on me Matron is that clear....?!" I tightened my fist and realized i was crying. Matron nodded silently and looked surprised suddenly, then she submerged through a dark purple void, disappearing to somewhere else. I felt Seifer touch my shoulder from behind "Ultimeya, whats going on? Youre acting strange." Yaru asked "Are you ok? Why are you crying?" I replied "...I dont know. I guess im just scared of what might happen on this mission... but im not backing down." Yaru nodded and Seifer gently patted my back to calm me down. Yaru asked "Who was that girl? She disappeared the second i saw her..." I shook my head after calming down "I dont know, but it wasnt Edea." Seifer got confused "I heard you say Matron... were you daydreaming or something? Because Edea isnt here." I got shocked when he said that. I remembered that Sorceress Edea WAS Matron... or at least she used to be. I immediately started to think Matron was a separation of magical energy from Edea and that was why she was here just now. But something seemed different about this one. Her gloves and dress had more glitter for starters, and her makeup was all black with some very dark purples, much like the colors of mine. And she seemed very loving towards me which was even more notable. Edea never wouldve shown love for me knowing my name. I didnt remember having a sister either which was also strange. Did i lose a portion of memory when i was attacked at my castle?
I decided to answer "I dont know who that is... lets just keep going for now." Seifer nodded and so did Yaru. Seifer said "Yeah, as long as i dont fall asleep first. Man lines are boring." Yaru laughed a bit and i started to calm down. I just had Matron call me her sister, and she looked a bit different too. I wondered what other strange things were going to happen and what was causing them. I started to suspect that the fall of my era where time was formerly compressed might be responsible, especially seeing Edea or Matron treating me like close family. If that was the cause of this strange series of events, i no longer had enough power to undo it. The most my time compression would do now is make things disappear or teleport me and my comrades somewhere else nearby. Unless training during the SeeD missions would allow me to regain the necessary strength, the events would not only become stranger with time but also more than likely, theyd be progressively worse. I didnt know if it would get to the point of endangering the world itself, but it was certain to sow greater and greater chaos if something wasnt done on time. Being unable to return to my rightful time and re-compress time there, the SeeD missions and using my lesser forms of time compression were my only options now. Whatever was to come next was unpredictable at this point. I hoped desperately that i still had the power to summon my trusted beast, Griever. He was my best trump card so to speak if things got too ugly for the team. If Griever also disappeared that would really put me in a rough spot on power limitations. Especially because i wasnt used to being powered down this long. Everyone before Squall who tried to defeat me failed miserably, and Griever crushed and plunged them into oblivion, allowing me to absorb them into time. But without time being compressed, that was yet another power I now lacked: i cannot absorb people into time without full scale compression of time. The fabric of the entire dimension and temporal-spatial paradox must be compressed for me to turn people into nothingless like that. It takes too much strength for me to do it if time is not compressed. In simpler terms, many of my powers and deadly spells are more potent when time is compressed. Its almost impossible to make people become absorbed into time if its not compressed. If the dimension is not crushed into an isolated time like that, where there is no past, future or present, its impossible for me to make people vanish like that. Without them having their history erased it takes too much work to do this. So i was stuck sending people somewhere else or warping any structures in the area instead. I hoped I was still strong enough to avoid capture. I could not let the strange group get hold of my power to compress time. I also started to worry about Matron. If they found her and got her, id have no choice but to unleash my unique power to save her. I was trying to avoid using my time compression in battle so they wouldnt get suspicous of me I also didnt want the enemy to know I had the power they wanted. That was another reason i really needed to depend on Griever in a worst case scenario. I knew they wouldnt suspect me just for summoning a powerful beast.
To Be Continued...
