Sadie charged, hoping to throw Lina to the ground and beat on her like she'd done to other junior students, but she was underestimating Lina's skill to the tenth degree. Lina stepped aside and dodged, a plain blank expression on her face. The others ran in closer to catch a glimpse of what was going on, each person thoroughly frightened. Sadie lunged again, hoping to catch Lina off guard with the others as her distraction.
It was a useless effort. Lina stepped aside and the second Sadie passed by her she lowered a fist into her back. Sadie fell forward, being pushed into the dirt and having it cake her cheek. She stood up weary, regretting having even started this brawl. She attempted to redeem herself--knowing Zell was watching--and jumped straight in for the kill. Meanwhile, Selphie and Rinoa ran off to retrieve the Ragnarok. You know... why waste time?
Lina deflected her punch with a flick of her wrist, then pushed her aside. She raised a hand into the air and above her an emblem of rose of light formed in thin air. Sadie stood back in fear. Lina's hand went down and so did the emblem, the light crashing through Sadie's body and landing on her feet. Oh no. It wasn't over yet. Not a chance in hell. Lina snapped and the light exploded in thin lines upwards, etching the shape of the rose into both the ground and sky. Sadie yelled--that was pretty much all she could do. Then, she toppled over. This battle was over.
The white glow suddenly left Lina and she lost her balance too, heading straight for the ground, but very luckily, Quistis was quick enough to reach a hand behind her head as she crashed to the grass.
"Lina! Lina!" Quistis shook her. It was no use.
Lina woke up a while later in a seat near the back of the cockpit on the Ragnarok. Her eyelids slowly eased themselves open after the long nap and she found herself surrounded by Zell, Quistis, Irvine, and Selphie.
"Whoa... hi guys," she said. They looked relieved as she sat up, straightened her shirt, wondering how that nasty stain had gotten there, and blinked the sleep from her eyes. "Is there something the matter?"
"What do you mean 'is there something the matter'? What was that? You starting glowing all white and beat the crap out of the librarian!" Selphie exclaimed. Lina said nothing for a few seconds, letting her words process. She started to notice what was going on around her. For one, they were all on the Ragnarok. Also, Rinoa and Squall were both missing from the scene.
"Um... what?" she asked. Quistis reached down to touch her shoulder, but her outline flashed white and they were all thrown back two or three steps. Lina pulled her legs up into the seat with her and clutched her forehead in her palm. "Aagh.." The others looked concerned. They had never seen this kind of behavior from her before.
Lina, you have amnesia from your car crash. Don't worry about it though. Squall and I will take care of you. She could recall Rinoa telling her the day she'd woken up from her temporary coma. We'll do everything in our power to make sure that you get through it all right. We've already talked to a few people and they've agreed to train you and get you back into shape and everything. Don't worry about your past. It's not important anymore. All that matters is the future.
It's not important anymore. Her past wasn't important anymore. What a way to make her feel loved. They said they'd get people to train her. What was that? Cloud? CLOUD! Lina fished her cell phone out of her pocket, her fingers fumbling across the numbers. The others only had enough guts to watch out of the corner of their eyes, although Zell was staring full on, eyes wide with an emotion Lina could not comprehend. Lina popped out of her seat and walked to the window, pressing her hand against the glass.
"Cloud... are you there? Cloud... This is Lina. Call me back when you get this message, okay? I have to talk to you. Bye," Lina hung up, breathing heavily. She turned around, but the only person that would make eye contact with her was Zell. "Hey... where's Rin and Squall?"
"They're um... trying to get the job done. If it doesn't work, then we'll come in. Who was that? On the phone?" Zell asked. He looked at Lina long and hard with analyzing eyes.
"Oh um.. Strife. I mean Cloud, he's a friend of mine I was working with for the past couple of months." Lina explained. Lina pressed a palm on her forehead, still hot with pain. "Zell, what.. um... what did I do?" Zell kind of chuckled.
"You beat the crap out of Sadie. That's what you did," he said. Lina stood frozen. How come she had no recollection of this except for this stupid headache. She clenched her fists together and felt that her muscles were sore. Had she been fighting though? The last thing she could remember was Sadie pushing her over and how her shirt had gotten dirty. She looked down; nope, no dirt at all. In fact her sweater was suspiciously clean. How did she end up in the Ragnarok?
"I hate amnesia," she muttered--more to herself than to anyone else--in a tone that almost pleaded for freedom from this petrifying condition.
"A success!" Rinoa and Squall popped into the room, Rinoa flailing documents in her hand. "Martine took the papers immediately! It was so awesome! It was almost without question that he sat down and took his pen out! I was really amazed by Squall's suave negotiation skills." Rinoa winked in Squall's direction and to everyone's surprise, he blushed. They chuckled and patted him on the back--all in good fun, right?
It wasn't long before they arrived back at Balamb Garden's front gate. They dispersed by the time they crossed the threshold into Garden territory. Zell ran off towards the training center, muttering something about relieving some wrath of his, Quistis waltzed off to her office to check over some files, Irvine headed to the dorms to flirt with the juniors, Selphie obviously followed him to keep him in check, and Rinoa and Squall went to the balcony to enjoy the sunset. Lina shrugged at this--she was already used to being alone. She headed for the library herself, hoping to check out a book. It was her only other way of escaping from the torments of even her own mind. Nothing ceased to remind her of something she'd forgotten, but she'd always be stuck in the middle in between remembering and forgetting, and when she felt like she was getting closer to the answer, the light would slip from her fingers and she'd be once again cast out into the darkness.
She was scanning through a row of books when suddenly, the books on the shelf above her literally toppled over onto her. She tripped and remembered next hitting the floor, books piled on top of her, and when she finally emerged from the wreck, she saw Sadie standing above her, arms crossed. It was a rather pathetic sight considering resorting to such idiotic measures was her only means of redemption while she still had a black eye from the battle earlier.
Lina sighed, readying herself to squeeze out of the books. She didn't care however many people were watching. It all didn't matter anymore. She was sick of this knowing, but not knowing. She didn't want to be stuck in the middle anymore. Determined, she promised she'd set out to get out of that crack. To either know, or not to know. Once and for all.
"Need some help?" Lina looked up, realizing she'd been sitting on the pile of books for a minute or so, and saw Zell, chuckling. "Unless you're comfortable down there." Lina shook her head and took the hand offered to her. In no time, she was up and about.
"Thanks. This can get pretty frustrating. You'd better get back to your girlfriend before she decides something against you too," Lina chuckled, shaking her head.
"She's doing it," Zell laughed. Lina didn't. "Yeah okay, sorry. Forget what I said. I fought a Rex in the TC and I'm beat. Don't really know what I'm saying." Lina nodded.
"Yeah, okay. Well thanks, I'd better get going," Lina said, staring at the clock and finding some excuse to leave. She waved subtly, forgetting to check out a book, and left to the dormitory. Zell waved goodbye.