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I counted my lucky stars. By my count, it had been at least a month and both Emi and Zoey, as we would come to call her, were still with me.
I’m sorry, Zoey Williams. She’d gotten cross with me for omitting it before. Since both Emi and I could still remember our names, it was decided that the three of us should forge stronger ties with one another to better our chances out here in this wretched place. To that end, Emi had suggested we come up with a name for her as a placeholder until she could remember her true name. As all she could really remember was the name of her GF, Zodiark, Emi offered her the name Zoey. It was her hope that having a name given to her could even inspire some memories to return, arising as a result of hearing the unfamiliar name and attempting to correct it. It sort of worked; Zoey would immediately add the surname Williams, confirming that it had been a reflex, some small memory deep inside her that had been drawn out by her renaming. After that, though she refused to accept any pet names and demanded her surname be included when we called her.
For Emi’s part, she’d been much more easygoing, though she refused to consider the possibility that she’d become lost thanks to overusing a GF. She didn’t have any other ideas on how she might have become lost or why her memories were also limited, but she was adamant that it had nothing to do with the GFs. To her credit, she was honestly not junctioned a single one and trying to bond her with one of the ones I had available didn’t work as well as her compatibility with them was surprisingly low. We were still in unpredictable and dangerous territory, though, so I decided to give her my pistol. It shouldn’t pose too much of a problem to part with it as I’d remembered my Limit Breaks and Abilities didn’t require it.
For my part, I was just happy they were still here. My mind dwelled on Damien and Yelena and I related the latter to Zoey Williams. It haunted me that any of us could be taken at a moment’s notice. With Nicola still missing and not a sign of where she might have even gone, with Koemi having been gone for even longer, priority one for me was to ensure these two didn’t share their fate. I’d still wanted to find those two, but now that goal had shifted to an optional objective should a trail ever be found. I’d gotten better about tracking monster movements and, along with Zoey Williams, we’d managed to continue exploring the landscape in search of information on where we were and how we might get back to Garden, planning treks only between secure rest stops within view.
On this day, I’d found a Draw Point for my fire magic, which I decided to take my time and max out. It wasn’t something I usually had the patience for, and it would have been easy to skip out on it again now with the excuse that we were out in the open here, but monsters weren’t becoming any less common and I doubted our luck dodging them would hold up.
"How much longer do you need? We’re not safe here." Zoey Williams asked, visibly on edge as her eyes darted back and forth to all of the points of possible ambush.
“Not long now. I just want to make sure I’m fully stocked. The less we rely on our GFs the better, but this is only the third fire magic Draw Point I’ve found since getting here.”
Emi had been looking at me as I pulled the magical energies, oddly asking, “What is it exactly that you’re doing? Why do you need one of these for magic?”
“What do you mean? This is a Draw Point. Certain kinds of spells are available to obtain from them if you have the right GF junctioned.” I explained.
"This one has fire magic like Fira to draw. Both my Zodiark and his Ifrit allow us to use the spell." Zoey Williams added, also saying that, "But it’s advisable to keep your stock high in case you ever need to use it. That way these Draw Points only need to be used when absolutely necessary so you don’t end up standing out with no cover and many points of ambush."
“I understand your point loud and clear. I’m fully equipped now so we can go. Sorry for that.”
"Fine, let’s be off then."
We’d find our way to an overpass where we had decided to take shelter. Emi continued to be puzzled by the Draw Point, which meant she was the worst off of us. She even oddly believed that natural magic existed and that humans could channel these spells directly. It was possible she wasn’t part of SeeD and hadn’t learned that those of us that used magic only did so because of the Guardian Forces and not any innate ability. I also had to explain that the only ones capable of magic like that were the sorceresses and the only sorceress left was Edea. Well, if anything at least she seemed to enjoy the conversation.
"Do you hear that?"
“What is it?”
“Oh no.”
I turned to Emi seconds before the overpass came crashing down on us. Two weapon-class monsters had rammed into the structure from either side. I tackled Emi out into a clearing, looking back to find that Zoey Williams had been separated from us by one of them. The other one was approaching behind her as she looked for a means of escape, but she didn’t have enough time.
“Hey ugly, this way!” I shouted loudly, sending a fireball at the head of the weapon in front of her.
The momentary distraction was enough to get it to look our way, which allowed Zoey Williams to get away. The one behind her charged forward in pursuit, keeping her from rejoining us and the other one was making its way to us. With Emi still in my arms, I knew we wouldn’t be able to outrun it, but if I could keep the remains of the overpass in between us, it could provide a temporary shield and maybe even a smokescreen to escape. That wouldn’t happen. As soon as I bent my legs to start for the rubble, the weapon charged a powerful blast and fired it at us.
The explosion was blinding and I felt my grip on Emi loosen. Slowing, I calmed the ringing in my ears and refocused my vision, but when that finally happened neither weapon was in sight. Neither were the girls. Instead, I found myself in a strange flat place, some form of water on the ground that wasn’t getting my boots wet. There was nothing but what appeared to be a bright daytime sky all around me. I played with the idea that the weapon had hit us with some transporting spell, but that wouldn’t last for very long.
“The anomaly.” A soothing, but monotonous voice echoed.
Turning around, I found nobody to link this voice with, but in a bright flash suddenly a woman stood before me. She was adorned in heavy blue armor with gold accents and she held a large spear and round shield in her hands. I couldn’t get a good enough look at her face because the light that she’d arrived with was still emanating around her, but I did make out long blonde hair draped over her chest plate and shoulder guards.
“You are not the one I seek.” She continued.
“I’m Tross Cerend. Who are you looking for?” I replied.
“Tross Cerend of SeeD. You travel with the anomaly. She does not belong here.”
“None of us do. Who are you? Can you help us find Balamb Garden?” I asked, though I was at a loss over what was happening.
“I am Minerva, though that is a name foreign to you in this time.”
“Foreign to you? This time?” I questioned before chancing a guess, “Could you... could you be a Centra?”
“I am before the time of Cetra, but this is irrelevant. The anomaly is not here. She must be found and returned to her proper place.” Minerva stated, the light surrounding her becoming blindingly bright again.
The next thing I knew, I was back crouching next to the rubble of the overpass. The weapons had gone, but it was still the same time as when they’d attacked. Surveying the area, I found that I was alone, as well. Curses! We’d been so careful. The path we’d marked out from the Draw Point to the overpass was devoid of monsters and we’d cut no corners rounding any small herds of them if they seemed to be moving towards us. Could it have been the magic? I’d seldom stockpiled the spells so it never occurred to me, but it was possible they could sense the collected magic. I pondered the idea of Nicola having been tied to that monster and how she’d seemed to know it was following her. She’d been a rather heavy magic user even infusing her normal weaponry with the elements.
"Now that’s lucky." I looked up to find Zoey Williams staring down at me, beads of sweat sliding down her face as she took several ragged breaths. "I thought for sure we’d be separated after the attack, but here you are."
I was overjoyed to see her, immediately asking, “Are you alright?”
"Wasn’t expecting a marathon, but I’ll survive. How did you manage to escape, though? That stunt you pulled, I thought for sure you’d doomed both of you."
“Couldn’t be helped. I saw you were pinned down by them. How did you manage to outrun the other one anyway?”
She dusted herself off and sat down next to me, "I didn’t. After you lured away the other one, I took off running and then it was about to fire its beam attack so I rolled down into a ravine I came up on. The thing didn’t even slow down, but as it bore down on me, it suddenly vanished into a puff of streaking particles of light."
“That’s not something you see everyday. But it is fortunate. I hadn’t ever thought those lights would end up being a good thing.”
"You’ve seen them before?"
“I’m sure you have, too, if you ended up here. If anything, you were probably on one of the earlier rescue ops. As far as I can remember, the Junction System was on the fritz and those lights you saw are somehow connected to it.” I explained.
"I suppose the same happened to the one attacking the two of you?"
“Not exactly. I guess it was too much to ask that maybe Emi would be with you, too. Actually, I’m not really sure how I’m still alive. Just like the weapon chasing you, the one I hit fired its beam. It missed, but after the beam struck the ground over there, everything turned white and... Never mind. Long story short, I think Nicola might be in danger. We need to find her and Emi, too.”
I decided that my encounter with Minerva wasn’t what was important. After I was brought back, Emi had disappeared. With her memory loss and not having a GF supporting her, she wouldn’t last long out here. As for Minerva, the important part of my conversation with her was that she was after Nicola. At least, that’s who I supposed she was looking for with how she described it. We’d need to find her quickly, too, especially since that other monster was already following her.
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