A/N: Ahha. Here it is - the great update. Elemental Cycle eleven through fourteen, and The End. Plus a poem! Somebody tell me I'm crazy...
the elemental
cycle x: flamecapture
Seifer hurried down the stairs of the Presidential
Residence, paying no attention to the grandiose furnishings. He knew Edea would
be going out for her speech sometime about now, and he had to prepare. Some
part of him was glad that Fujin and Raijin had returned, to help him, to fight
at his side. After all, weren't squires supposed to stay near their knights?
-As knights had to keep close to their sorceresses.
Another
part of him wished they hadn't come - wouldn't need to betray Garden.
Betray
Garden? What am I thinking about? Garden doesn't matter - nothing does. And
anyway, what could be better than having a Sorceress rule the world? Like Hyne
- all was good in the times of the Hyne.
He
strode out into the courtyard, where the attendants were hurriedly rolling the
huge float on which Edea would ride behind the massive gates. Watching the
scene, he suffered a twinge of pity for the poor souls who toiled for the
sorceress, doomed to stay in obscurity for the rest of their lives, trodden
over by the rich and the famous, ignored except when someone needed something
done.
You
don't need to worry. You'll never end up like that. You'll be a star, shining
bright in the night sky along with your sorceress. The thought felt oddly
like it wasn't his, but Seifer was too preoccupied to notice.
Looking
up, Seifer grinned as he saw Sorceress Edea walk out with slow, graceful steps
to the podium, where she laid long-fingered hands beside the microphone and
started to speak. Two other people stood behind her, one a middle-aged, balding
man - Deling - and the other a teenage girl.
What
the - Rinoa?
It
was Rinoa, he realized - standing behind the sorceress, swaying slightly
as if bewitched, drawn by the sorceress' power like a moth to an open fire. Why
was she here? To serve the sorceress? No - he remembered suddenly. She'd been
dancing with Squall, the night of the inauguration dance. His mouth twisted
into a grimace. She'd probably come here to try and kill the sorceress for
Squall or something.
The
speech ended, as it had to - with a sacrifice, to catch the eye of the masses,
show them that Edea wasn't to be trifled with, to banish the last traced of the
old order. With a single swift slice of fingers now sharp as blades, Edea killed
Deling, his body falling to the floor of the podium with a horrified look on
its face. The fool. Having finished with the former president, the dark
sorceress raised her hands, working some spell. Its import became clear as two
igiuons, animated gargoyles sped forward through the mass of people, leaping up
to the podium and knocking Rinoa back into the room beyond.
The
hell-! They're going to kill Rinoa! Only the weighty gaze of Edea's amber
eyes kept him from rushing in the save her.
Sorceress
Edea floated through the bottom of the podium, to land gracefully on the throne
set on top of the float. She sat down, arranging the folds of her gown. Then,
before the float began to move, she gestured imperiously to Seifer, motioning
him to join her.
Me?
Seifer looked up, surprised. Join her? Edea smiled at him. Forgetting Rinoa,
Seifer climbed up to stand at the front of the float where Edea indicated,
heart filled with exultation. Now the world would know Seifer Almasy was Edea's
knight.
The
star-spangled night sky suddenly got spangled with more than just stars as
fireworks positioned in various parts of the city were set off. The float
slowly moved through the open gates of the Presidential Residence and into the
city, accompanied by haunting, strange music played by speakers underneath the
float.
Grinning,
Seifer planted the Hyperion's tip on the floor and surveyed the masses of
people crowding the roadside to watch Sorceress Edea - their savior, their
leader. Adulation, respect, love... all that he wanted, he would get. Except
for one thing... he squelched that thought faster than he thought it.
Better
not to think on the things he didn't have.
**o**
Angry.
Seifer was angry that he'd lost. Angry that he'd lost favor in the eyes of the
sorceress, who had reproached him for his failure. Angry that Rinoa actually
cared for Squall - enough to shout his name when the brat had been
knocked off the float. Angry, that he'd actually lost to the one-year
younger, brat of a Squall Leonhart.
He'd
taken it out on Zell earlier, watching the martial artist, normally so
talkative, clamp his mouth shut and get kicked around in return. Now, he took
it out on the prone body of Squall himself, who yelled something incoherent as
the electricity ripped into and across his body, setting his nerves afire.
Seifer hoped it wasn't Rinoa's name.
He
simply watched, holding Hyperion. Glared, anger seething along his veins. He
couldn't remember being so angry before. Some part of him still felt uneasy,
like something was wrong, but the rest of him shoved that part aside in the
dash for glory as Edea's knight.
And
what would a knight be if he couldn't even get one simple piece of information
out of a helpless enemy?
'I...
won't... tell you... anything!' Squall gasped through gritted teeth. One of his
hands was clenched into a fist. Seifer smirked - what did the idiot think he
could do?
Walking
in front of Squall, Seifer tilted his head to look up at the boy, eyes
narrowed. Squall glared back defiantly, stormy gray eyes unreadable.
'It's
your choice,' he calmly informed the black-garbed SeeD. And gestured for the
warden to turn on the electricity.
When
Squall was done screaming, Seifer repeated the question.
'What
is the true meaning of SeeD?'
'I
don't know...' Squall moaned, a muscle in his cheek twitching irregularly.
'Edea
wants to know the meaning of SeeD!' Seifer repeated, irritated at the brat's
stubbornness. 'There must be some secret you're given when you make SeeD. Edea
wants to know it.'
Squall
fell silent, eyelids drooping shut for a moment. Then they shot up, and the
look Squall gave Seifer was filled with anger and hatred.
'I
don't know!' he snapped, then grated out,' And - even if I know, what makes you
think I would tell you?'
Seifer
sighed. 'Is that all you can say? That's soo clichéd, you know?'
'Aaargh...!'
'That's
better,' the knight said approvingly. 'Straight from the heart.' Warning alarms
were ringing in his brain, a tiny voice yelling. 'This isn't like you! You
don't normally act like this! What's going on!' it screamed, wailing in confusion and fright. Seifer ignored it,
wondering if he was going mad.
Turning
on his heel, Seifer strode out, with a parting order to the warden.
'Carry
on. I want an answer out of him.'
As
the door swished shut on the screams behind him, Seifer smiled.
He
had a Garden to acquire. For Edea.
**o**
Even
through the walls of the room he imagined he could hear the screaming outside.
The battle for Galbadia Garden was in full swing, and nothing was stopping it
now.
Seifer
Almasy stood behind the sorceress' throne, not even fidgeting. He couldn't
understand why Edea wanted him here when he could have served her better
leading the troops, but it wasn't his place to question the Sorceress.
Since
when did you become so subservient? The inner voice questioned, and Seifer
chose, as always, to ignore it.
They
waited there for what seemed like an eternity to Seifer, who was inwardly
fidgeting and outwardly calm. 'What are we waiting for?' he tried to ask, but
his body froze before he even uttered the first syllable. The sound of booted
feet slapping the floor outside hit his ears.
Edea
released him immediately, so fast he almost felt it never happened, but he was
shaking inside.
The
door hissed open, disclosing a grim-looking Squall, an excited-looking Selphie,
and an indignant-looking Zell, who was bouncing up and down eagerly. Squall had
a perpetual 'I'm putting up with this only because you can fight well'
expression on his face. Understandable - being with Selphie Tillmitt and Zell
Dincht for some time could do that to someone.
Raising
his gunblade to an offensive position, Seifer stepped in front of Edea's
throne.
He
had to do his duty.
**o**
I
failed... again?
'Worthless
little fool,' Edea said, moving gracefully to stand. Magic tugged at him,
making him feel light and dizzy. The sorceress' body went transparent; sinking
through the throne like when she had went through the podium to land on the
float.
Still
sprawled on the floor, Seifer heard Squall say 'The auditorium is downstairs!'
The three of them rushed out of the room, Squall in the lead. Seifer lay there,
unable to stop them. It gnawed at him like a bug.
Has...
has Edea abandoned me? Like... like my mother? He had no idea where that
thought came from - he couldn't even remember his mother.
Now
that the adrenaline rush that had carried him through the battle was rapidly
draining off, Seifer felt a curious emptiness inside, as if something vital had
been taken away. A sour feeling of dread filled him.
What
have I don't? I've led Galbadia Garden against Balamb Garden, led SeeDs and
soldiers to their doom... I'm a monster. A murderer. A knight shouldn't have to
do that... we're supposed to protect our sorceresses, not act as executers,
torturers, murderers...
It
was as if he'd seen himself in a mirror. And what he saw wasn't a knight in
shining armor, but a young man in a tattered, bloodstained trenchcoat with
blood on his hands.
A strange sensation washed through
him, as if he was being detached from his body. He could still feel, think,
talk, but he felt like the edges of his mind were swathed in cotton wool,
numbing him.
For
the sorceress. All for the sorceress. Everything for the
sorceress. Nothing else matters. Nothing anymore...
**o**
'Seifer,
my knight...'
Seifer
Almasy opened his eyes. There was nothing else he could do, in the face of that
hard, forceful command that tightened the cotton wool around his brain to steel
and took over his body. A blurred face focused slowly into Rinoa Heartilly,
half-bent over him. Her expression was strange. Not the kind of expression he'd
have expected from Rinoa. The next words out of her mouth explained it all.
'The
sorceress awakens. The sorceress demands.'
Edea
was Rinoa? The hell... No. Ultimecia. He didn't know how he knew;
he just knew... that Ultimecia was Edea, and now, Ultimecia was Rinoa. The
thinking part of his mind pondered and catalogued this, while his body moved
automatically. He didn't know what was happening, and didn't care anymore.
'Seek
out the Lunatic Pandora where it lies under the ocean. When you have it, I will
return to you.'
Sitting
up, Seifer felt like a puppet.
'As
you wish, Ultimecia.'