Final Fantasy 8-2

Chapter 9: Learning to Fly

When I woke up from my sleep I noticed that we were at Timber Garden. When did we get here I wondered. I got dressed in my SeeD uniform because that was all that was clean. I went and found Heero and said, "Heero, help me find Irvine and Zell, tell them to meet me at the front gates in 30 minutes."

"Alright, so I'll see you in a bit, Amara," Heero said.

On my way to go and find Irvine and Zell, Rinoa came up to me and said, "Hey, Amara, if you are going into Timber Garden I'll meet you there."

"I'm not the boss of you Rinoa so go right ahead and go into the Garden," I replied.

"Okay, I think though that somebody got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," Rinoa joked.

"Whatever.Look Rinoa I have a lot on my mind right now and I don't need you pestering me right now," I said rudely.

"Okay, no problem. I'll see you in Timber," Rinoa said.

When Rinoa left I noticed a kid was watching me and I said to the kid, "Hi, there."

"Why do you have a lot on your mind?" the kid asked.

"I just do, but I don't want you to worry about it, little one, okay?" I replied.

"Okay. Do you want to play a game with me?" the kid asked.

"That would be very nice to play a game with you, but I can't. I have to many things to take care of today, but whenever I can I will, I'll promise you that, ok?" I replied.

"That sounds perfect!" the kid said jumping up and down.

"Well, I must leave now, but I will not forget my promise. I'll see you later," I said as I went to the front gates.

I waited for about five minutes before I saw Zell, Irvine, and Heero walk up to me. I then said, "Hello everyone. We will be entering Timber Garden right now. I was going to go alone but I thought that you all would like to see Selphie."

"I'm glad you thought of us, Amara," Irvine said as he and Zell started to laugh.

"That was not funny. Look I'm going to Timber Garden by myself. You morons can do whatever you want to do," I said sounding pissed.

"Amara, I'm sure they didn't mean to hurt your feelings," Heero said as he ran up to me.

"I know that, but right now I'm not thinking straight. I just want all of this to be over with. Heero I have been thinking that I should tell you my secret, but I can't, not yet," I said as we entered Timber Garden.

"That is alright, Amara. I only want you to tell me what you feel that you are ready for. I don't want you to force what you want to say to me, okay," Heero stated.

"Yeah, I know," I said. "You know, Heero, it would be nice to be a little kid again. Having big dreams and no cares in the world."

"It would be nice, but we still have our whole future ahead of us," Heero stated. "And, Amara, I want you in my future."

I stopped walking to look at Heero. I then spoke up, "Heero, we can't always get what we want, no matter how hard on tries. Ones future is already decided when they were born. Destiny can't be changed."

"Destiny can be changed. If one tries hard enough destiny will change," Heero said. "People create their own destiny."

I sighed and then said, "Heero, look, I'm going to go find Selphie. I don't care what you do for now, but please leave me alone."

Heero was about to walk away but then said, "No, Amara, I'm not going to leave you alone until you quit this stupid act of yours. You can't be having fun pretending that you are the great one here and that what you say goes."

For the first time in my life I had nothing to say back. I kept searching inside my mind for words that I could say, but nothing came. I said nothing as I started to walk again, looking for Selphie as Heero, of course, followed me.

"Amara, I'm sorry, for what I said earlier, but it is the truth," Heero said to break the silence.

"What kind of hope do you have, Heero?" I asked.

"Isn't there only one kind of hope?" Heero asked back.

"There is more than one. There is false hope and then there is true hope or no hope. What one do you fall under?" I replied.

"I guess true hope," Heero said.

"True hope is what I have. There is no hope except reality. That is my kind of hope and that is the true hope," I stated. "Almost everyone has false hope, including you, Heero. People don't want to face the reality, they want to be happy and not drown in their own sorrow."

"Why don't you have any hope?" Heero asked.

"My past, my future, even the present, each and every one of those are falling apart, including the world and I see that," I said. "Hey look, it's Selphie. I believe. Selphie!"

Selphie turned and looked at us and then came over to us. "Hi, do I know you?" Selphie asked.

"No, you don't know us, but we were looking for you. My name is Amara and that is Heero. We heard that you could fly the Ragnack. Is that true?" I asked.

"Yes, sure is. Here in this Garden lies the Ragnack, but why did you seek me?" Selphie asked.

"We have to get to Ether, but we don't have a ride there. Also I thought you might like to see your old gang, Selphie," I said.

"Really! The old gang is back, wow! Of course I will help you guys," Selphie said with a big smile.

Oh great, now the group has a prissy girl. "I'll take you to were the group is," I said.

"I already know where they are, they went to the basketball court," Selphie said as she started to run ahead of us. "Come on, follow me."

Heero then started to run after Selphie as I took my time following them. Why are they wasting their energy? We could be attacked by Duo at any moment. Why do I have so much hatred towards Duo? I mean sure I know that he made me what I am today, but.I then dazed off in my thoughts as I continued to walk towards the basketball court.

"Hey, Amara, are you in there?" Heero asked as he stood in front of me.

"Huh, what? Oh yeah, sorry about that," I said.

"Amara, remember I told you that we want you to open up more to us and we can't read your mind so you have to tell us," Heero said.

"What I was thinking wasn't important at all," I said.

"Hey, come on you two," Selphie said. "Can't we all just get along?"

"Whatever. Look Duo could attack us at any moment. We have to be on our guard," I said. "Selphie, we came here to ask you if you could fly us to Ether. If you can't, tell me now."

"I can, but why don't we just chill for awhile?" Selphie said smiling.

"Fine, but we will only stay here for a day. We should get to Ether as soon as we can," I stated. "I'm going to go for a walk. I'll probably be back in my room later, so if you need me just wait for me by my room."

"Hey wait, Amara. I'll go with you," Heero said.

"No, that is quite all right, Heero. And plus you should take a break. I'll be fine okay," I said. "And don't worry, Heero, if anything bothers me, I will tell you, okay."

Heero looked down at the ground looking disappointed. "Alright," he then said.

I then took off in my own direction. I walked around for a while just in a dazed thought not caring where I walked. I must have walked for a long time and pretty far too. When I came out of my daze I almost walked right into a large, black, deep hole.

"Whoa, good thing I came out of my daze, but where the hell am I?" I asked myself. I looked around my surroundings, but I didn't recognize anything. I then noticed there was an airship flying over my head. "Hey, over here!"

The airship saw me and landed close to where I was. A guy came over to me and asked if I was, "Amara Masumi?"

"Yes, how did you know my name?" I asked.

"We are," the guy paused. "We are from Balamb Garden search committee. Your friends said that they couldn't find you so we came and started a search party."

"I didn't know that the Garden had a search committee. Oh well," I said as I climbed in the airship.

Then the two guys from the airship whispered to each other, "So, do we now take her to where Squall and president Laguna?"

"Yes," the other guy replied.

I decided to keep quite about what they said. I thought if they take me to where Squall was I could ask Squall if he knows anything about Duo.

Then one of the guys came over to me and said, "I am Kiros. I am a friend of president Laguna and Squall. We do not mean you no harm but if you start to hesitate we will have to use brute force on you."

"I wont hesitate for one reason. I want to speak to Squall right when you take me to wherever you are taking me," I said.

"That will be great because Squall would like to talk to you as well," Kiros stated.

"Who is your friend that is piloting the airship?" I asked.

"Oh, his name is Ward, but he can't talk. He lost his speech on a mission a long time ago, but you can tell what he wants just by the way he acts," Kiros said.

I walked over to Ward and said, "Hello Ward. I am Amara."

Ward nodded as if he too said hello and nice to meet you.

I then walked back over to Kiros and asked, "How long until we get to wherever you are taking me?"

"We are going to Ether. Laguna is the president there. Laguna is also Squall's dad," Kiros stated.

"Kiros, if you don't mind, I'm going to take a nap," I said as I curled up on the cot in the back of the airship.

"Yeah, go right ahead. I'll wake you when we get to Ether," Kiros said as he went back to the pilots seat.

I dozed off and went into my own little dream world. I wanted to try and contact Shiva in my dream. I wanted to tell her that I am right on top of Duo and he should be stopped pretty soon, but no luck. I tried so hard to contact Shiva and Ifrit, but the more I tried the more I worried. I thought what if they are already, I paused, are gone? I then woke up in a rush and I looked as if I just had a nightmare. I put my hand over my head and tried not to think of the GF world.

I looked around the airship for my GF functions. I hurried and grabbed Shiva's. I was going to summon her to see if she was still alive, but I knew I couldn't. Not on a small airship. Shiva, with her ice like demon powers, she would destroy the small airship.

I then looked out the very, small, stained window. I wanted to see where we were and how much further Ether was. To my surprise, I could see Ether was only a few minutes away.

"Oh, hey, Amara. I see that you are already up. I was just going to get you up. So how are you feeling?" asked Kiros.

"Fine," I said still starring out the window. "Kiros, about how many minutes until we land and will we be landing outside of Ether?"

"We will be landing in about three minutes and we will be landing inside of Ether on top of the president's mansion," Kiros stated.

"Oh, okay," I said sounding depressed.

Kiros then got up and came over to me. "Hey Amara, what is the matter?" he asked.

"I am afraid I can not tell you. I really do want to tell somebody, but in the end it will not matter," I said as I fought back tears.

Kiros then started to rub my back, like a farther would do. Kiros then said, "Amara, you can not always keep the whole world to yourself. You need to tell someone or something, about the stuff you keep inside to yourself. I know this must not be too obvious to you right now, but you have many friends who care about you very much. I know you want to try and take on the world by yourself, but no matter how hard one tries, nobody can survive by themselves in this cold, brutal world."

"I know that and I plan to tell Squall a lot about what is inside me. Oh, and Kiros, please don't worry about me. I hate it when people worry about me. When they do I feel as if I made them worry and that puts more burden on my shoulders," I stated.

"Alright, I wont. Looks like we are landing," Kiros said as Ward landed the airship. "Are you ready to meet Squall?" Kiros asked me.

"If I wasn't then why did I come so easily?" I barked back.

"Do you always pretend to act tough?" Kiros asked me back.

"What is this, the only questions game?" I replied.

"If it is, I didn't know we were playing it," Kiros said.

"Yeah, whatever. So where is Squall," I asked as we climbed out of the airship.

"He probably is in the office room. We'll be going there right now," Kiros stated.

We walked down to the elevator and took the elevator down to the fifth floor. Once the elevator stopped at the fifth floor we walked down a hallway and turned left and on the third door on the right we entered. I looked around the room to see if anybody was in the room, but nobody was in there.

"Where is Squall?" I asked impatiently.

"We will be contacting him in a bit so if you would just stay here we'll go get him," Kiros said.

"Fine with me," I replied as Kiros and Ward left the room. I then decided to summon Shiva, right here, right now. I figured that this place was big enough for Shiva to be summoned.

As I summoned Shiva, I started to feel dizzy. Right when Shiva was summoned I passed out.