It's been an eternity since I posted anything, but I found this in my files and reading it back it was better than I remembered. So I'm sharing. Might be chapter 1 of more, might be stand-alone. I haven't decided yet.

Disclaimer: Square owns them, I just get to play with them.

"No! I changed my mind!"

Seifer gritted his teeth and tightened his grip on Rinoa's arm. "Too bad, lady. You promised him you'd do this, and now you're damn well going to."

She struggled with all her might as he dragged her down the ramp, but even with sorceress' powers her frail frame was no match for his strength. She whined and cried. All together the whole situation was far too reminiscent of that other time he'd hauled her away against her will.

With one crucial difference.

"Please, Squall!" she screamed hysterically. "Please, don't do this! Please!"

Seifer winced at the noise torturing his ears.

"Oh, shut up," he snapped. "He can't hear you anyway."

"SQUALL!"

He involuntarily followed her pleading eyes to the control room upstairs. Behind the observation window stood the solemn figure of Squall Leonheart, his motionless face set in determination. Then, so slight you'd nearly miss it, he nodded.

Seifer grabbed Rinoa by both her arms and lifted her into the pod at the machine's centre. She cried hysterically.

"Nothing personal, Rin," he said as he locked the shackles around her wrists. "But you said yourself it had to be done." Then he closed the pod's door and locked it.

When he stepped back onto the ramp, he forced himself to look at her. She had stopped struggling, her cries subsiding to a silent sobbing. She met his eyes once and only briefly, but he could sense her deep-running fear. For once, he didn't hold that against her. Not with what she was facing.

Beside him, the machines hissed. Hanging tubes suddenly stood taut and the temperature on the ramp dropped dramatically. The pod itself flooded with fog, while the air's humidity condensed on the metal outer casing. For several seconds, the fog obscured Rinoa's figure, but then settled as quickly as it had come.

The pod was filled with ice. Inside, Rinoa now slept in cryo-stasis, her tears crystalised on her cheeks for all eternity.

Seifer turned when he heared footsteps approaching from behind. Squall came down the ramp, followed by two Esthar technicians who proceeded to check whatever panels and gauges they were supposed to check.

"And? Are you proud of yourself?" Seifer growled.

Squall frowned in his characterisic way. "It had to be done. Even she admitted losing control."

"Hell, no argument there! She had it coming, all right." Seifer narrowed his eyes. "But next time you decide to sacrifice someone for the global good, get a backbone and do it your-bloody-self."

"I pushed the button, Seifer. I sealed her there."

"From a safe distance and out of earshot." The smirk on his face was as sarcastic as his tone. "A horror movie isn't scary when it's muted, either."

Squall folded his arms. "Are you calling me a coward?"

"We both know well enough you aren't. But what you are is frozen to the core and sealed up in your own little world. Just like she is now."

"You misjudge me, Seifer."

"Do I? From where I'm standing, you're just using me to do your dirty work for you."

"Someone has to."

The smirk became a snarl. "Just as long as it ain't you, right?"

Squall watched Seifer pace away, resisting the urge to rub his sternum where Seifer's finger had jabbed him hard enough to hurt.

He could have argued. He could have explained that while he wanted to be the one to push the button and make sure Rinoa was sealed, Seifer was the only one he trusted to lock her in the pod without succumbing to her pleas. He could have. But he doubted that Seifer would have wanted to hear it, anyway.

Short, I know. Tell me if there should be more where that came from!