A/N: just to let you guys know, there are two parts to this idea. This chapter is a tragedy, whereas next chapter will be a happy ending type. If you like tragedies, then this one is for you. If not then please be patient until I get that one out. You can read them both too, if you want. I'm not that picky. Just, please review with how you felt about this one. This Chapter and next chapter are based off of Squall's choice in the beginning, and the first paragraph is the exact same for both chapters. Just a warning so I wont have to explain why the next chapter doesn't continue this chapter or whatever. This chapter is finished and wont be worked on anymore unless enough people review that they don't like it and tell me why.
Disclaimer: I'm pretty sure I've already mentioned that I don't own ANYTHING Final Fantasy, just this idea/plot bunny thingy.
Chapter Two: Tragedy
Squall knew he had two choices-let Seifer run off now and risk losing him but maybe get Matron there in time to help, or run after Seifer to stop him himself but risk not being able to stop him alone. Squall didn't know how he really felt for Seifer yet, but he knew that he didn't want to see Seifer hurt. And he would rather face Ultimecia again without backup or Lionhart than stand around and let other's opinions shove Seifer off the edge alone.
Quickly, Squall reviewed his options one more time before making his decision: he was going to go get Matron to help him save Seifer. She might not have magic anymore, but he knew that she would do anything for her children.
Decision made, Squall hightailed it out of the Quad; breath steaming the air and making a trail behind him as he panted with exertion and adrenalin.
A few short minutes later found Squall panting roughly in front of Cid and Edea's door. Once he had caught his breath enough, Squall knocked rapidly, easily gaining the attention of those on the other side of the door.
However, it wasn't Matron or Cid who opened the door, but Irvine.
"Something wrong Squall?" Irvine asked, frowning in concern once he caught the look on his face.
"I need to talk to Matron at once. It's important."
Squall never did talk much to people other than Seifer, Matron, and Rinoa, so Irvine just nodded and let him in.
"Squall, what's the matter?" the worry on Edea's face alerted Squall to the fact that she had heard what he had said.
"It's Seifer, Matron. He didn't say it, but you know I can read Seifer more easily than anyone else. I think Seifer's going to try to commit suicide tonight."
Saying that everyone else in the room was shocked would be a severe understatement, and a horrible one at that. Irvine looked upset, Cid looked troubled, and Edea looked horrified. No one even thought to think that Squall was pulling a prank or wrong. Squall was trained to observe people and their emotional state, and he was the best known as a glacier who never even told jokes.
"Why did you come here instead of trying to stop him?" Irvine demanded, more worried than angry.
"I figured that Matron would have a better time in stopping him than I. I do know where he would go to do it, though." Squall gestured the others to follow him with a nod of his head and took off, fully expecting them to do so.
Squall ran down the hallway from the Dorms area to the main central room with the elevator. He then took a left and ran to the Training Center. He looked back every now and then to make sure that the others were keeping pace, but he never slowed or stopped for them. He would no longer wait.
Without a waver in his conviction that he was right, Squall slammed the Secret Place's door open and froze at what he saw.
The others stopped behind him, having noticed that he wasn't entering the room. Wondering what had stopped him, and figuring the worst, they looked over his shoulders and gasped. Edea slowly fell to the floor, a sob ripped from her throat as she grieved. Cid knelt down beside her and held her as Irvine just pulled his Cowboy hat down in respect and sadness.
Irvine had never hated Seifer, after all.
Squall, in a daze, slowly walked over to Seifer's inert frame. Even after years of seeing death and even creating it, nothing had prepared him to see this.
For, in the middle of the floor was Seifer Almacy: head cut off and staring at nothing, while his blood-covered gun blade Hyperion still rest in his hand.
He had chopped it off himself.
Finally, Squall couldn't contain his anguish anymore and fell to his knees at Seifer's side. A full out wail was piercing and made Matron, Irvine and Cid look up from their own grief to see Squall holding Seifer's hand, head back, tears practically a stream down his face, and shrieking at the top of his lungs.
He had never noticed just how much he cared for Seifer until that moment. Never noticed what he had hidden, even to himself, and it had cost Seifer his life.
Squall Leonhart was in love with Seifer. So much that just seeing him lie there like that hurt more than twenty T-Rexar bites. Hurt more than when Sis had left him, especially since she was still alive.
Edea and Cid, at least, had known that Squall and Seifer had been close before Ultimecia and felt for him. Felt for Squall. Because there would be no going back and saving Seifer. The irony that Ultimecia and her Time Compression could have been used to save Seifer was not lost on them. Nor did the loud cries fall on deaf ears, apparently, as Zell and Selphie came to find out what was going on since they had gone to the Training Center to spar when they heard Squall.
It was a horrible day for Squall.
)(
On Christmas Day, Seifer was buried in a small patch of earth near the Orphanage. Squall stood staring at his gravestone less than an hour after the burial and felt numb. The others, Squall's friends, had stuck around to make sure he would be ok. Or, at least, physically ok. Nothing would make Squall emotionally ok again. He was sure of it.
And, to top off a horribly bad month, Rinoa had had the audacity to mention earlier that day something that had made Squall jump her and try to strangle her. In fact, if Irvine and Zell hadn't yanked him off of her and held him down, Squall would have pulled out one of his knives that he always carried with him to public places when not on a mission, and slit her throat.
Rinoa had said, "See Squall, I told you he would ruin Christmas again this year."
