Blaze of Glory
by TacomaSquall
Wake up in the morning -
And I raise my weary head
I got an old coat for a pillow
And the earth was last night's bed
I don't know where I'm going,
Only God knows where I've been -
I'm living on the run,
A six-gun lover,
A candle in the wind.
Seifer Almasy yawned as
he stretched. For the last three years,
he had lived the life of an outlaw, ever since Ultimecia's defeat. From day to day, he never knew whether the ever-present
pursuit would catch up to him or not.
He had ran from Fisherman's Horizon to the far reaches of the Kashbakald
Desert, from northern Trabia to the plains south of Winhill. His current hideout was in a dry creekbed in
the ruined Centra Plains.
His nearest neighbors
were unlikely to turn him in, being the tonberries that lurked in the Centra
Ruins. They were far more likely to
attack him in an attempt to carry out vengeance for all those who had fallen
beneath the sweep of the Hyperion. The
constant need for caution against the tonberries had forced Seifer to keep his
skills sharp, even though he had been able to keep himself hidden from the SeeD
pursuit for the last two months.
Besides being on guard
against the tonberries, Seifer had little to do. Much of his time was spent reflecting upon the choices that led
him to where he was. There were very
few who would not dare to turn in the tall young man, and even fewer who would
risk the wrath of the Gardens by giving him aid. His only friends were both dead.
Raijin died in a pitched
battle against Ultimecia's slayers in the streets of fabulous Esthar, buying
Seifer and Fuujin's escape. Seifer
could still remember the haunting sound of Raijin's head being split open by
the fury of the Lionheart. Fortunately,
Squall was distracted enough by Raijin's sacrifice that he had not even noticed
Seifer and Fuujin, disguised as Estharian soldiers.
Fuujin died three months
ago. In the Deep Sea Research Center,
the two had made a home. Seifer finally
realized the devotion that his silver-haired friend had felt, and the two had
begun a family. That fantasy came
crashing to an end when the persistent SeeDs found them again, after almost a
year's absence. A barrage of Pulse Ammo
from the barrel of the Exeter was enough to end the life of their newborn
child, and Fuujin went berserk. Fuujin
charged the ponytailed gunslinger, only to be blasted into nothingness by a
rapid combination of the Angelo Cannon and the Shockwave Pulsar. Numb with grief, Seifer exacted what revenge
he could, killing the woman he once loved and the instructor that had bedeviled
his time in Balamb Garden. He fled in
the face of another party of SeeDs, led by Zell Dincht, the Chicken-wuss no
more.
Seifer spent more and
more time in reflection. He tried to
figure out where things had went so wrong.
All he had wanted was to be the storybook hero, the knight in shining
armor that rode in and saved the day.
How did he become this man who had to live on the fringes of the society
whose adoration he craved?
When you're born into this world,
They say you're born in sin -
But at least they gave me something,
I didn't have to steal or have to win.
They tell me that I'm wanted,
Yeah, I'm a wanted man -
I'm the colt in your stable,
I'm Cain, where is Abel,
C'mon catch me if you can.
It all went back to the
events of the Second Sorceress War.
Ultimecia's rise had been sudden, after she took over Edea's body. It was a matter of days from her appearance
at Vinzer Deling's side as an advisor until Ultimecia's bold seizure of power
by her blatant assassination of the Galbadian dictator during the celebration
that was supposed to celebrate Galbadia's recent military triumphs. As soon as she cemented her power, she
turned her eyes outwards, towards her true goal, now attainable with the
political and military might she had just gained - the location and seizure of
Ellone Loire, the young woman who had the power to project people through time.
By the time Ultimecia
took over Galbadia, Seifer had already joined her. He had been seduced by her promises of fulfilling every one of
his wildest fantasies. Unprepared for
the promises Ultimecia made, Seifer had little choice but to follow her. He became the protector, lover, and
confidant of the sorceress. Whenever he
objected to things that she had him do, she smothered his protests in the
sensuality of her embrace. Overwhelmed,
he offered no resistance as Ultimecia cultivated his innate tendencies towards
cruelty and outright sadism.
Soon, Seifer had
forgotten everything that Edea and Cid had taught him about morality,
succumbing to a twisted hair-trigger impulse for self-gratification. Seifer cheerfully tortured his childhood
rival, seeking the answers that Ultimecia demanded from Squall Leonhart. Seifer hungered for the power that Ultimecia
eventually gave him as the commander of Galbadia Garden. His orders were the ones that triggered the
assault upon Balamb Garden as it flew over the Centra Continent, the ones that
led to the deaths of hundreds of SeeDs and cadets.
You ask about my conscience,
And I offer you my soul.
You ask if I'm gonna be a wiseman
When I ask if I'll grow old.
You ask me if I've known
What its like to sing songs in the rain -
I've seen love come,
I've seen it shot down,
I've seen it die in flames.
It took the incident in
the Lunatic Pandora to make him realize how much of a monster he had
become. Squall and his other friends
had come to the fantastic craft, in an effort to prevent time compression. The SeeDs fought their way to a control
room, in which they found Seifer and the Posse.
Seifer was horrified
when his best friends betrayed him, pleading for him to turn away from
Ultimecia and surrender to the SeeDs.
They told him that if he gave himself up and helped them save the world,
he could be given a pardon for the actions he had already committed. Unfortunately, Seifer realized that such
promises were only empty lies. No
matter how wrong he was, he would continue to support Ultimecia.
He fought against the
SeeDs then, cutting down the dread Guardian, Odin. The SeeDs fought him valiantly, but were no match for
Seifer. They only defeated him through
the intervention of the masked being who wielded the Masamune, Excalibur,
Excalipoor and Zantetsuken - the mysterious being named Gilgamesh.
As Seifer prepared to
slink away in defeat, he saw an opportunity and seized Rinoa Heartilly. Using the woman who had been his first love
as an hostage, he fled back to the Sorceress Adel, now the mortal host for
Ultimecia. The others pursued him,
arriving as Seifer held Rinoa in front of the Sorceress.
In the moment before
Rinoa was junctioned to Ultimecia, Seifer looked her full in the eyes. The look of unending terror reflected there
pierced the Sorceress' Knight to the core.
He was unable to face the wrath of the SeeDs, and fled. His desertion of Ultimecia, dictated by his
sudden realization of the evil he had become, led eventually to her defeat in
the realm of compressed time.
Cold comfort was that
knowledge to Seifer, though, as he found himself pursued by SeeDs bent on bringing
him in for their kangaroo courts. Even
with the knowledge that he had done wrong, he was not going to surrender
himself to the tender mercies of the people who he had fought so frequently. The Posse followed him into his exile,
helping him stay one jump ahead of the law.
Bitterly he regretted
their choice, now. If Raijin and Fuujin
had not joined him in exile, they would not be dead now. On the other hand, he might very well have
already been captured by the forces that he had successfully, to this day
eluded...
Each night I go to bed,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep -
I ain't lookin' for forgiveness
Before they put me six foot deep.
Lord, I gotta ask a favor,
An' I hope you'll understand.
That I've lived life to the fullest -
Let this boy die like a man.
Staring down a bullet,
Let me make my final stand...
Too many lives
lost. Rinoa and Quistis, cut down by
the Hyperion. Raijin, his body cut in
two by the relentless force of the Renzokozuken technique's most powerful move,
the Lionheart. Little Edea, Seifer's
daughter, blasted apart by Pulse Ammunition designed to be used on the
resistant flesh of Ruby Dragons.
Fuujin, whose flesh had been ionized by the hellish energies of the
Shockwave Pulsar. Selphie, mowed down
by a fusillade of automatic fire when trigger-happy Galbadian troops opened
fire on the Sorceress' Knight. Irvine,
who died a week after he killed baby Edea from internal injuries sustained
during the battle in Deep Sea Research Center.
Seifer picked up the
satellite-band commlink that he had picked up three months before, from Rinoa's
corpse. He looked at the small item as
he turned it over in his hands. He had
used it only once, to send a taunting message to Rain Boy about his beloved's
death. He started to clench his hand around
the delicate device, intending to crush it, but stopped.
He shook his head. How many more needed to die? He regretted the trail of death and
destruction strewn behind him. He was
unable to just lay down and die, but he was tired of running and hiding. Let there be an end to it all.
Seifer donned the
commlink's headset and spoke tersely into the device's microphone. "Squall Leonhart. This is Seifer Almasy. If you want to end this game once and for
all, meet me at the orphanage where everything began. I'll be there, if you come alone. I don't care what happens after we face each other, but I want
one last duel."
"It's your
choice. We can continue this game and
watch Hyne knows how many others die.
Or you can meet me, and we will end our feud once and for all. Afterwards, if I still live, I will give
myself up to your people."
Shot down
In a blaze of glory
Take me on,
And we'll know the truth.
Goin' down
In a blaze of glory
Lord, I never drew first
But I drew first blood -
I'm no one's son,
Call me young gun
Seifer Almasy set the
commlink down on the ground after he ended his call. He started walking towards Edea's Orphanage. When Squall arrived at the orphanage, Seifer
would face him one last time. Squall
would have to kill him, for Seifer was not about to give himself up. If Squall failed, he was sure that the other
SeeDs would oblige him.
One way or another,
Seifer knew, the better man would win.
Fin
