[Final Fantasy VIII] Quistis Trepe "A New Chapter" Theme #01 Crossover
Title: A New Chapter Author/Artist: Tripsoverhercats Fandom: Final Fantasy VIII Character: Quistis Rating: Gen Warnings: Hmmm…. Endings of FFVIII and FFX Theme: Meta #1 - Crossover Notes: This is really a prologue that should lead into a larger fic, but I got to the end of the opening and realized… I don’t have a plot yet. *pokes the muses* And they’re not giving me one yet either. This should stand alright, sort of like a pilot episode.
She’d gotten lost on the way back somehow. Laguna had told her - told them all - to concentrate on being home again, being with friends and family. Zell had winked right on out, Irvine and Selphie had held onto each other and faded away. Squall and Rinoa - Quistis wasn’t sure, but they were probably fine and together.
//Self doubt little mageling,// came Diablos’s dry snort from inside her mind. //You second guessed yourself and now where are we?//
Lost. That’s where she was. There wasn’t even a reference point, just gray mist everywhere. Quistis doubted there was even any ground under her feet. Just her and three GF’s and she knew better than to ask them to find her a way out. They shared their strength but seldom offered council.
//The choice to live is yours.// Shiva had been with her a long time now, they worked seamlessly together in battle. That statement was also as about as empathetic as a creature aspected to Ice and Death would ever get.
So she walked forward. The direction didn’t matter, only that she wasn’t staying here. How long she walked, she wasn’t sure, she didn’t carry a watch and asking a GF about passing time was futile.
//Time? Time is now.// //Past is done.// //Future is not yet.//
“Unless you’re Ellone,” Quistis answered Cerberus aloud, her voice was harsh, disused. The dog snorted its three heads in unison, none of the GF’s liked Compression. Well, neither did she. For a little variety, she decided to see if she could brighten the mist a bit make it glow some, the gray was frankly annoying after an eternity of looking at it.
Eventually, it did, taking on a golden glow with little baubles of light flickering around. Odd, she hadn’t thought about making those, perhaps she was actually getting somewhere? One of the little globes bobbed in front of her and she adjusted her stride to follow it. Quistis was so absorbed in the thing that when she was run into she was off guard enough that she went sprawling ungracefully into the non-existent ground.
It still hurt.
“Whoah! Hey sorry! Wasn’t watching where I was going and Dad tends to spike the ball pretty hard and… hey are you alright?”
At first she simply stared, wondering if she’d finally just gone mad. Zell? She wanted to say, but he wasn’t. Blond, yes, baggy shorts and spiky hair and exuberant attitude, but the voice wasn’t the same and once her eyes started to focus on him - how it hurt to actually focus - he was nothing like her friend. But he was offering a hand up and she took it.
It felt odd, like it wasn’t completely there and he seemed to be surprised at it. “Well… um, that’s not supposed to happen,” he muttered. Not-Zell turned his head and raised his voice in a shout, “Hey Old Timers! Need some help here!”
“Brat. Auron, didn’t you teach him any manners at all?” There were more shapes forming out of the mist now, walking towards them, “What’s the matter kid, lose the ball again?” Three men, all of them older, the lead pair looking like hard bitten warriors the trailing third dressed as if he was an Estharian gentleman.
“No,” and Quistis’s tackler rolled his eyes at the man speaking to him, “I found a girl.” He gestured to Quistis in a grand swoop that she had to duck under or get whacked in the head.
There was a terrible pause as the older men looked at the younger and then assorted laughter broke out. The shirtless man nearly dissolved into howls, slapping at his thigh and waving a finger at the young man while the other two were slightly more restrained.
“Dad…” Not-Zell growled and leapt at the laugher in a tackle which quickly turned into a scuffle.
“Forgive them,” the well-dressed man said, his eyes still crinkled in amusement. “They do that quite a bit. I’m Braska, this is Auron,” and the third man nodded looking at Quistis over a pair of sunglasses, “and that’s Jecht and his son.” Braska reached over to brush a bit of Quistis’s hair back and blinked at the sensation.
“Well, that is different. How did you get here?”
Quistis went for the only answer she had, “I’m lost.” Her voice was even worse than the one time she’d spoken to Cerberus.
“Indeed you are. This is no place for the living, my dear. Where are you from?”
“Garden. Balamb Garden,” she managed. No place for the living? Were these men dead?
“Any relation to Radient Garden?” Auron asked, shifting over to her other side and looking her up and down. “Know anyone named Sora perhaps?”
Quistis wordlessly shook her head at Auron, throat too tight now to speak. “Well, that leaves out anyplace I know. Jecht, have you ever heard of Balamb?”
Jecht looked up from where he had his son in a headlock, “Nope, sorry, no place I’ve explored,” he said offhand. “How’d she get here if she’s not dead? She a dream?”
“No, Dad,” there was a flurry of punches and flips as the pair scuffled again and finally broke apart. “If she was, then my hand wouldn’t have nearly sunk through her.”
Quistis didn’t understand that at all. Dead? A dream? Maybe she had gone mad?
“Not mad, but you’re not well either, my dear,” Braska said. Had she spoken aloud there? “I am a bit surprised you’ve managed to get all the way out here and we need to put you back before you do die.”
Auron fixed Quistis with a look and shook his head a bit, “It’ll have to be Spira, I doubt she’d last a trip through the Underworld.”
They were sending her to someplace called Spira? “But… I…” she tried to speak and Braska laid a kind hand on her arm.
“I’m sorry that we can’t send you home, but you can’t stay here either. It’s a good world though, I hope you’ll be happy there.” Braska said, stepping back as Auron wrapped an arm around her waist. She wanted to protest, but Quistis found she just couldn’t summon up the energy.
Auron didn’t start walking anywhere, but Quistis suddenly got the sensation of movement and the other men flickered out of sight. “It’ll be a bumpy landing, but there’s not many places I can put you these days,” Auron said gruffly. “So hang on, girl.”
Everything suddenly spun, Quistis felt the arm around her waist loosen and she heard Auron’s voice one last time, “Just think of it as a new chapter.”
Then she was falling and she hit something that wasn’t exactly soft and was very very cold. Everything hurt, even breathing and the GF’s had retreated into the back of her mind, complaining about how they didn’t like that transition, thank you very much. She tried to open up her eyes and failed a few times before finally getting a view full of white. Lots of white. She was in a snow bank for Hyne’s sake. Which meant she ought to Junction Blizzaga to her defenses before she froze the logical side of her brain suggested. She prodded at Shiva until the GF grumblingly obeyed and felt the bitter cold recede. It took three tries to roll over enough so she wasn’t looking straight up at the gray snow laden clouds and she blinked in startlement.
Two pairs of yellow eyes blinked back at her.
“Blue?” she managed to croak out. They were blue, the both of them, like large overgrown blue moombas. Wearing clothes. They looked at each other and back at her before running off shouting.
“Kimahri! Kimahri! Found something! Tanti has found something!”
“Rall has too, Kimahri! There’s a human in the snow!”
She’d traveled through time to defeat a Sorceress, gotten lost on the way back, run into men who were either dead or a dream and now she was about to be rescued from a snowdrift by oversized blue moombas. Quistis decided that if any time in her life was a good time to simply pass out and hope that it was all a dream, now was the perfect time.
So she did, sinking gratefully into darkness.
Kimahri strode through the snow a few minutes latter, following the chattering cubs and looked over the unconscious woman in the snow. There was no sign as to how she’d gotten there and he rumbled a bit under his breath. “Kimahri dislikes complications,” he muttered, but he picked the little human up anyways to bring her inside. He’d find out if she was a fiend when she woke.