Aftermath

Aftermath

Shards of glass and fragments of wood littered the floor, torn photographs and letters strewn among the chaos as Squall Leonhart knelt in the midst of it all, his fists clenched and pushed into the carpet before his knees, blood seeping from the grazed flesh of his knuckles, splinters of wood and pieces of glass embedded in his fingers and the back of his hands. His head was bowed, his hair falling down to obscure his face, hiding the tears that flowed down his cheeks, tears of pain and rage, his chest heaving as he tried to control his breath once more but still it came harsh and rapid.

How could she do this to him? He had opened his heart to her, let her into the darkest reaches of his soul, gave her all his love and still she had abandoned him, walked away with someone else after seeing them behind his back for all that time.

He felt such a fool, no doubt all of Garden was laughing at him now, their Commander torn down by a woman. He felt empty, his heart torn beating from his chest leaving a trail of blood, much like that which littered the floor of his office from where it sprayed from his wounded hands as he had smashed everything he could find. He wished he had never given it away to her, had remained cold as before he had met her for he could feel himself becoming ever colder now, how could he be anything else when the one person he had loved more than anyone, had held above himself and everything he believed in had done this to him? For now all he could do was weep amongst the destruction he had caused, waiting for the peace of exhaustion to take him for a while.

As Squall sank in the darkness of his own despair, a dark figure watched his fall and began to smile before drifting into the mingling crowd of SeeDs in Balamb Garden, unnoticed by those around him, those unaware of his true purpose.

There was a rumbling sound as someone tumbled down the stairs and slammed into the table in the middle of the room causing Seifer Almasy to bolt upright in his bed, his head whipping round as he glanced fuzzily at the groaning form that lay slumped at the foot of the table. He blinked sleep from his eyes and the form became one he recognised, that of Raijin, his dark skin marred by livid red wounds that seeped blood that now pooled around his incumbent body, the groans growing soft as his fingers clenched and unclenched one last time in pain, his body shuddering with one final grunt before it lay still. All Seifer could do now was to react to the unseen threat, diving from his bed ad rolling over to grab his Hyperion which was resting at the foot of it. He was barely thinking now, just following his instincts, but he still wondered where Fujin was, whether she was up the stairs that led down to this basement room of theirs, fighting some unknown enemy and needed his help.

Could it be that some vengeful SeeDs had found him at last, even against Squall's orders to leave them be? His questions were soon answered as a figure sailed through the air, down the steps, landing on the table top and shattering it into wooden splinters that showered Seifer, causing him to bring his arm up to cover his eyes. As he lowered his arm he could see the mangled form of Fujin, her eye patch torn from her face so that both of her dull, lifeless eyes looked up at him. Seifer growled in anger, rising from his crouch, propelling himself up the stairs, Hyperion at the ready as he burst into the daylight kicking the door open once more in case there was someone behind it, but he just found himself out in an empty street of Fisherman's Horizon, with no sight of an apparent enemy besides the droplets of blood that littered the ground.

A whisper of air against his ear caused him to spin round, bringing Hyperion up to catch the tip of a spear blade that came at him from above. Looking up he could see a figure dressed in black, but their face was covered by the hood of their jacket so all he could see was darkness looking back at him. They whipped the spear blade at him, lightly slashing his brow cutting him across his scar so that now his forehead was branded with a cross, fresh blood trickling hotly towards his eyes just as it had that time before.

'Failure' the figure hissed and leapt down from the rooftop, landing so that the spear pointed straight at Seifer's chest.

Seifer quickly parried the point away as it lunged at him, trying to blink away the blood that flooded his eyes, making his eyelids sticky. The point came again, hitting off the flat of Hyperion's blade with a metallic ring as Seifer used it to shield himself blindly.

'Still you cling to life you useless wretch? Do you really think you deserve to dream anymore?' the figure asked disdainfully.

'Who are you?' Seifer growled, quickly wiping the blood from his eyes with the back of his left hand as he used his right to make a light hearted swipe at his assailant to keep them at bay.

'What does it matter? You and Garden shall fall just as she desired' the figure said, nimbly sidestepping Seifer's attack and thrust at him once more, the spear tearing his coat as it billowed around him.

'She? Ultimecia?' Seifer retorted, grabbing the shaft of the spear tightly and tugged it towards him, pulling his attacker off balance, firing Hyperion at them as they hurtled towards him, the blast of the handgun round throwing them backwards onto their back on the ground, blood oozing through the hole in their jacket, low on their chest.

Seifer kicked their prone form and threw their spear down on them as a choking sound came from the darkness of the hood.

'That's for Fujin and Raijin' he growled and he turned, walking away quickly. He had no time to bury his friends and he hoped they'd forgive him for leaving them like this but he had to get to Balamb as soon as he could, to warn Squall that Ultimecia was coming back to haunt them.

The figure in black lay on the ground as Seifer rushed away. Only when they were sure he had gone they began to move once more, a hand moving to the wound, fingers probing the ragged, bloody hole as harsh sharp breaths came from the hood with each movement of the fingers as they squelched in ruptured flesh, slipping in gore until they gripped what it was searching for and slowly it eased the bullet from the wound, holding their breath as they pulled it from their flesh with a brief spurt of blood and they dropped the metal fragment to the ground, pressing their bloody hand to the wound once more, a green glow flashing briefly beneath their palm as the wound started to close. Their breaths became normal once more and they sat up, their hood falling back exposing long silvery hair that framed a feminine face, green eyes staring out to the distance where Seifer had already vanished, full red lips twisting into a grimace of anger and annoyance.

She unzipped her jacket reaching inside to a pocket, the contents of which had escaped the gunfire unscathed, and pulled the small black box from within, placing it to the side of her face before she spoke into it. 'I'm afraid the failure was able to escape.'

There was a pause as she listened to the reply. 'Very well' she responded and then removed the communicator from her ear, replacing it once more into her pocket. She rose slowly, using her spear for support, her chest still stinging. She had underestimated the lap dog and now she had to put up with the bitter taste of failure for now. But as he had said to her, it was no matter for they knew where he would be heading and he would be dealt with soon enough so for now she could comfort herself with the corpses of his friends, maybe she could use them to send the miserable reject a message just exactly who he was dealing with. She smiled a grim smile to herself at that thought and started walking to the hovel that had been Seifer's home.