Doppelgangers
Chapter 1 – Treachery, Lechery, Treason and Plot.
Irvine wandered into the small dark room, in which Selphie, Quistis and Seifer were sitting around a small table in a conspiratorial huddle. Occasionally Seffie would nod her head, or trace a line across the huge map on the table, in response to something said by one of the others. What they were saying, he couldn't hear, so he just stepped in, spun Seffie's chair around and picked her up in his arms, kissing her madly. She struggled free suddenly, dropping to the floor wiping her icy-cold lips in disgust. Irvine stepped back; "Huh?" and was just about to say something else, when Seifer, rising from his chair like a tsunami, smashed him across the face.
"Moron!" he snapped "Keep off my girl!" Irvine was understandably startled.
"Your girl!" he yelled, furious, then looked pleadingly at Selphie,
"Selphie?" her eyebrows were raised in amazement, and she seemed as shocked as Irv, until Seifer moved closer to her and put his arms around her protectively.
"Not Selphie," he growled menacingly, daring Irvine to come any closer.
The girl pulled herself free of Seifer's embrace, and smiled apologetically at Irvine.
"I must apologise," she said, in a husky voice, much easier on the ear than Selphie's. "Sakuya Seito. I don't believe we've formally met."
It took Irvine a second to realise that this was the girl he had been hearing about for the past few weeks. Seifer's girlfriend. She lived and worked in Garden, although no one was really sure why she was there. She tinkered with machines and computers, formulated elaborate battle strategies, and studied Aikido, often training in the Dojo there with Zell. Most importantly, her resemblance to Selphie was uncanny, and now attired in Selphie's clothes she looked just like her.
Irvine apologised hurriedly, deeply embarrassed. She laughed, "Don't worry, I've already been slapped once by Rinoa. Selphie apparently walked in on one of her and Squall's 'Private moments' It's no big deal." Irvine grinned, Quistis sniggered, and even Seifer couldn't suppress a smirk at the thought of Squall being put off his stride by Selphie opening the door to the room. He snorted with mirth, then laughed, "I now present our doppelganger, Sakuya Seito!" Sakuya bowed low, "Call me Set," she said, in that hypnotic voice which froze the blood in their veins. Her resemblance to Selphie was, even on closer inspection, almost perfect, except for a few details which told them apart. Sakuya's face was more drawn and world- weary, and her skin was pale, tinged with grey at the tips of her fingers. Most importantly, her eyes were a bizarre shade of gold, something which only deep-green contact lenses would blot out.
"Remind me again why we need a duplicate Selphie?" Irvine queried, as Set carefully applied the makeup that would transform her gothic appearance into the youthful and carefree look of Selphie. Seifer sighed, it seemed that he had been asked this question a hundred times before.
"The Onion Deadthing concert is tonight - the same night as the SeeD ball. Selphie really wants to go to that concert, so since Set isn't a SeeD yet, she's going to the ball instead. Neither of them'll be missed." Irvine nodded slowly.
"But what about me?" he asked, "Will we have to…" Sakuya shook her head.
"I'm going to stage an argument between 'us', after the party we'll make up and get the real Selphie back." Irvine nodded, slightly reluctantly.
At this point, the real Selphie entered the room, dressed in Sakuya's loose black T-shirt and heavy denim jeans, which were so wide they hid her shoes completely. Sakuya herself looked decidedly uncomfortable in the tight yellow dress, and kept fidgeting, which Seifer found very amusing. Selphie grinned at Sakuya, who returned the grin.
"You look great!" they chorused, "No, you look nicer!" they both replied, before dissolving into a fit of giggles. The normally sombre Sakuya was getting into character already, hopping from foot to foot and smiling, exactly like Selphie. Selphie was leaning nonchalantly against a wall near the corner of the room, behind Seifer, and scanning the room with her false- gold eyes malevolently. She appeared lost in thought and brooding, a great achievement for the happy-go-lucky SeeD.
Sakuya twisted her hair upwards into a wide flick, coating it with wax.
"I don't know how you do this" she laughed, spilling wax on the floor and beckoning Selphie over to help. She fixed it up in a few minutes, and, as soon as she was finished Set whipped a baseball cap up off the table, and would have thoughtlessly pulled it on if Seifer hadn't snatched it out of her hand and dropped it onto Selphie's now tangled hair. He looked at the final result incredulously.
"Surreal…" he murmured, seeing Selphie's innocent green eyes looking out of Sakuya's face. Irvine stepped forward and put an arm around each girl,
"Don't ya just want both of 'em?" he drawled. Seifer eyed him suspiciously.
"Even though she looks like Selphie, she's still mine." He warned. Sakuya shrugged free and put one arm around each of the arguing trenchcoat- wearers. She looked at Selphie conspiratorially.
"Hmm…" she purred, "Don't ya just want both of them?" she drawled, mocking them both. Selphie giggled, then quickly got back into character. "Anyway," she croaked gruffly, trying to mimic Sakuya's low growl. "Where's Zell?" Quistis shrugged. "Training I suppose. He wasn't invited. Something about loud-mouthed idiots who'd eat all the hotdogs, burp loudly and embarrass us all." Seifer grinned "Damn!" he moaned, sarcastically, "What am I going to do for fun?" Quistis grinned back, "As I recall, Seifer, you weren't invited either. Something about not really being a SeeD?" He backed down hurriedly. "I'd better go, I've probably got things to do…" he muttered, and with that he left. The others slowly filed out, leaving the gothic doppelganger alone with her thoughts. She covered her dark gold eyes with tinted lenses to mimic Selphie's green, and set out to find Irvine.
A few minutes later, Squall wandered idly down the corridor. Perfectly on cue there was a resounding crack, and Irvine flew out of a dormitory into the corridor, landing inelegantly on the floor.
"And that's for everyone you ever hurt!" screamed Selphie's voice.
"Selphie I…" he began. But stopped as he noticed Squall. He stood up, hurriedly, dusting the dust off his coat, and mumbled;
"Nothin' wrong. Jus' a li'l woman trouble," before hastily retreating down the corridor, Sakuya's very convincing handprint burning into his cheek.
Inside the dorm, Sakuya leaned against the wall nonchalantly, and looked at Seifer sitting at the desk, sketching idly on a sheet of paper with the words "From the pen of [sorry we didn't have your name]" printed onto it. He mumbled something, then said, "If you want to, we could escape out of the ball… maybe go somewhere more quiet?" Sakuya sniggered. He inclined his head and smiled.
"I'll send an announcement over the PA, to ask Selphie Tilmitt to go to the Training Centre. I'll meet you there." Set nodded.
"Let's not mention this to Selphie, I don't want to drag her reputation in the mud. She'd go mental." Seifer was about to speak, when Sakuya heard footsteps down the little used corridor. She motioned for silence, and smiled broadly as Selphie breezed into the room, in full costume.
"Just putting the final touches on our outfits!" she giggled. Seifer stood up.
"So I suppose I should go…" he purred smoothly, making Sakuya shiver. "Much as I wish I could stay…" Selphie pointed to the door firmly, and, deflated, he left.
As soon as the door closed behind him, Selphie turned to Set and exclaimed,
"I have a plan!" Sakuya raised her eyebrows. "How about we swap places?" she continued.
"We are, remember?" explained Sakuya, "That's why you're dressed as me, and I'm dressed as you." Selphie giggled again.
"I mean swap back – I pretend to be you pretending to be me!" Sakuya looked puzzled.
"Why?" she asked "Don't you want to go to the concert?" Selphie smiled "I got free tickets for tomorrow's performance, you go tonight and I go tomorrow when this is all over. I really wanna see how they act when I'm not around." Sakuya shrugged. Pretty much the same as when you are around, she thought.
"Whatever", she shrugged again and took her cap back gratefully.
"Let Zell know," said Selphie, "And Seifer too, if you want. They won't be at the party so it doesn't matter." Sakuya smiled. Hmm, she thought. If only she knew how much it mattered that Seifer knew… better cancel our little meeting.
They swapped their clothes back, and quickly washed off the makeup. Selphie set off as soon as they were changed to go to the party. Suddenly, Sakuya remembered.
"Wait!" she yelled, but Selphie didn't hear, and she didn't know about Sakuya's plan with Irvine.
Neither Seifer nor Irvine were anywhere to be found, but Sakuya eventually found Zell queuing for hotdogs in the cafeteria.
"Zell!" she gasped "You wouldn't believe how glad I am that I found you. Look, you have to find Seifer and Irvine and tell them that it's Selphie at the party, not me." Zell looked utterly bemused. "Just repeat it!" she roared, exasperated, looking more feline than ever. Zell jumped back terrified.
"Y-y-y-yessir!" he stuttered, and sprinted off in search of the conspirators. Set smiled, safe in the knowledge of a job well done, and set off in the Garden armoured vehicle to Balamb Arena.
A few minutes later, the rapidly-accelerating, nearly-hyperventilating and severely panicking Zell crashed into the long-suffering physician, Dr Kadowaki. She had already treated him for indigestion-related injuries four times that week.
"Right then." She said. Firmly casting Stop, and freezing Zell in his tracks. "You're confined to quarters until that wears off. Just a few hours…" she smirked, slowly pushing the paralysed Zell back to his quarters.
"And stay there!" she yelled, locking the door behind herself, with Zell inside.
Sakuya was gone, Zell was trapped, the message was lost, and Selphie was heading into the strangest night of her life.
Chapter 1 – Treachery, Lechery, Treason and Plot.
Irvine wandered into the small dark room, in which Selphie, Quistis and Seifer were sitting around a small table in a conspiratorial huddle. Occasionally Seffie would nod her head, or trace a line across the huge map on the table, in response to something said by one of the others. What they were saying, he couldn't hear, so he just stepped in, spun Seffie's chair around and picked her up in his arms, kissing her madly. She struggled free suddenly, dropping to the floor wiping her icy-cold lips in disgust. Irvine stepped back; "Huh?" and was just about to say something else, when Seifer, rising from his chair like a tsunami, smashed him across the face.
"Moron!" he snapped "Keep off my girl!" Irvine was understandably startled.
"Your girl!" he yelled, furious, then looked pleadingly at Selphie,
"Selphie?" her eyebrows were raised in amazement, and she seemed as shocked as Irv, until Seifer moved closer to her and put his arms around her protectively.
"Not Selphie," he growled menacingly, daring Irvine to come any closer.
The girl pulled herself free of Seifer's embrace, and smiled apologetically at Irvine.
"I must apologise," she said, in a husky voice, much easier on the ear than Selphie's. "Sakuya Seito. I don't believe we've formally met."
It took Irvine a second to realise that this was the girl he had been hearing about for the past few weeks. Seifer's girlfriend. She lived and worked in Garden, although no one was really sure why she was there. She tinkered with machines and computers, formulated elaborate battle strategies, and studied Aikido, often training in the Dojo there with Zell. Most importantly, her resemblance to Selphie was uncanny, and now attired in Selphie's clothes she looked just like her.
Irvine apologised hurriedly, deeply embarrassed. She laughed, "Don't worry, I've already been slapped once by Rinoa. Selphie apparently walked in on one of her and Squall's 'Private moments' It's no big deal." Irvine grinned, Quistis sniggered, and even Seifer couldn't suppress a smirk at the thought of Squall being put off his stride by Selphie opening the door to the room. He snorted with mirth, then laughed, "I now present our doppelganger, Sakuya Seito!" Sakuya bowed low, "Call me Set," she said, in that hypnotic voice which froze the blood in their veins. Her resemblance to Selphie was, even on closer inspection, almost perfect, except for a few details which told them apart. Sakuya's face was more drawn and world- weary, and her skin was pale, tinged with grey at the tips of her fingers. Most importantly, her eyes were a bizarre shade of gold, something which only deep-green contact lenses would blot out.
"Remind me again why we need a duplicate Selphie?" Irvine queried, as Set carefully applied the makeup that would transform her gothic appearance into the youthful and carefree look of Selphie. Seifer sighed, it seemed that he had been asked this question a hundred times before.
"The Onion Deadthing concert is tonight - the same night as the SeeD ball. Selphie really wants to go to that concert, so since Set isn't a SeeD yet, she's going to the ball instead. Neither of them'll be missed." Irvine nodded slowly.
"But what about me?" he asked, "Will we have to…" Sakuya shook her head.
"I'm going to stage an argument between 'us', after the party we'll make up and get the real Selphie back." Irvine nodded, slightly reluctantly.
At this point, the real Selphie entered the room, dressed in Sakuya's loose black T-shirt and heavy denim jeans, which were so wide they hid her shoes completely. Sakuya herself looked decidedly uncomfortable in the tight yellow dress, and kept fidgeting, which Seifer found very amusing. Selphie grinned at Sakuya, who returned the grin.
"You look great!" they chorused, "No, you look nicer!" they both replied, before dissolving into a fit of giggles. The normally sombre Sakuya was getting into character already, hopping from foot to foot and smiling, exactly like Selphie. Selphie was leaning nonchalantly against a wall near the corner of the room, behind Seifer, and scanning the room with her false- gold eyes malevolently. She appeared lost in thought and brooding, a great achievement for the happy-go-lucky SeeD.
Sakuya twisted her hair upwards into a wide flick, coating it with wax.
"I don't know how you do this" she laughed, spilling wax on the floor and beckoning Selphie over to help. She fixed it up in a few minutes, and, as soon as she was finished Set whipped a baseball cap up off the table, and would have thoughtlessly pulled it on if Seifer hadn't snatched it out of her hand and dropped it onto Selphie's now tangled hair. He looked at the final result incredulously.
"Surreal…" he murmured, seeing Selphie's innocent green eyes looking out of Sakuya's face. Irvine stepped forward and put an arm around each girl,
"Don't ya just want both of 'em?" he drawled. Seifer eyed him suspiciously.
"Even though she looks like Selphie, she's still mine." He warned. Sakuya shrugged free and put one arm around each of the arguing trenchcoat- wearers. She looked at Selphie conspiratorially.
"Hmm…" she purred, "Don't ya just want both of them?" she drawled, mocking them both. Selphie giggled, then quickly got back into character. "Anyway," she croaked gruffly, trying to mimic Sakuya's low growl. "Where's Zell?" Quistis shrugged. "Training I suppose. He wasn't invited. Something about loud-mouthed idiots who'd eat all the hotdogs, burp loudly and embarrass us all." Seifer grinned "Damn!" he moaned, sarcastically, "What am I going to do for fun?" Quistis grinned back, "As I recall, Seifer, you weren't invited either. Something about not really being a SeeD?" He backed down hurriedly. "I'd better go, I've probably got things to do…" he muttered, and with that he left. The others slowly filed out, leaving the gothic doppelganger alone with her thoughts. She covered her dark gold eyes with tinted lenses to mimic Selphie's green, and set out to find Irvine.
A few minutes later, Squall wandered idly down the corridor. Perfectly on cue there was a resounding crack, and Irvine flew out of a dormitory into the corridor, landing inelegantly on the floor.
"And that's for everyone you ever hurt!" screamed Selphie's voice.
"Selphie I…" he began. But stopped as he noticed Squall. He stood up, hurriedly, dusting the dust off his coat, and mumbled;
"Nothin' wrong. Jus' a li'l woman trouble," before hastily retreating down the corridor, Sakuya's very convincing handprint burning into his cheek.
Inside the dorm, Sakuya leaned against the wall nonchalantly, and looked at Seifer sitting at the desk, sketching idly on a sheet of paper with the words "From the pen of [sorry we didn't have your name]" printed onto it. He mumbled something, then said, "If you want to, we could escape out of the ball… maybe go somewhere more quiet?" Sakuya sniggered. He inclined his head and smiled.
"I'll send an announcement over the PA, to ask Selphie Tilmitt to go to the Training Centre. I'll meet you there." Set nodded.
"Let's not mention this to Selphie, I don't want to drag her reputation in the mud. She'd go mental." Seifer was about to speak, when Sakuya heard footsteps down the little used corridor. She motioned for silence, and smiled broadly as Selphie breezed into the room, in full costume.
"Just putting the final touches on our outfits!" she giggled. Seifer stood up.
"So I suppose I should go…" he purred smoothly, making Sakuya shiver. "Much as I wish I could stay…" Selphie pointed to the door firmly, and, deflated, he left.
As soon as the door closed behind him, Selphie turned to Set and exclaimed,
"I have a plan!" Sakuya raised her eyebrows. "How about we swap places?" she continued.
"We are, remember?" explained Sakuya, "That's why you're dressed as me, and I'm dressed as you." Selphie giggled again.
"I mean swap back – I pretend to be you pretending to be me!" Sakuya looked puzzled.
"Why?" she asked "Don't you want to go to the concert?" Selphie smiled "I got free tickets for tomorrow's performance, you go tonight and I go tomorrow when this is all over. I really wanna see how they act when I'm not around." Sakuya shrugged. Pretty much the same as when you are around, she thought.
"Whatever", she shrugged again and took her cap back gratefully.
"Let Zell know," said Selphie, "And Seifer too, if you want. They won't be at the party so it doesn't matter." Sakuya smiled. Hmm, she thought. If only she knew how much it mattered that Seifer knew… better cancel our little meeting.
They swapped their clothes back, and quickly washed off the makeup. Selphie set off as soon as they were changed to go to the party. Suddenly, Sakuya remembered.
"Wait!" she yelled, but Selphie didn't hear, and she didn't know about Sakuya's plan with Irvine.
Neither Seifer nor Irvine were anywhere to be found, but Sakuya eventually found Zell queuing for hotdogs in the cafeteria.
"Zell!" she gasped "You wouldn't believe how glad I am that I found you. Look, you have to find Seifer and Irvine and tell them that it's Selphie at the party, not me." Zell looked utterly bemused. "Just repeat it!" she roared, exasperated, looking more feline than ever. Zell jumped back terrified.
"Y-y-y-yessir!" he stuttered, and sprinted off in search of the conspirators. Set smiled, safe in the knowledge of a job well done, and set off in the Garden armoured vehicle to Balamb Arena.
A few minutes later, the rapidly-accelerating, nearly-hyperventilating and severely panicking Zell crashed into the long-suffering physician, Dr Kadowaki. She had already treated him for indigestion-related injuries four times that week.
"Right then." She said. Firmly casting Stop, and freezing Zell in his tracks. "You're confined to quarters until that wears off. Just a few hours…" she smirked, slowly pushing the paralysed Zell back to his quarters.
"And stay there!" she yelled, locking the door behind herself, with Zell inside.
Sakuya was gone, Zell was trapped, the message was lost, and Selphie was heading into the strangest night of her life.