Wake up Sunshine 03
--
"...You seem to know awful 'lot of people, Seifer." Quistis came up to the blond man who was looking out of the balcony of the meeting. Debriefing with Headmaster Martin was over and they were only cleaning up the last minute paperwork and waiting for the return call from Balamb Garden.
It had been a surprise for her when they got out of the wood track and arrived in Galbaldia Garden, she was first to talk to the Guards to let them know who they were and hopefully the other Garden would at least let them stay the night before they head back to Balamb. She wasn't prepare when the two Guards that was blocking the entrance to salute to the blond man that was trailing behind the group.
And from the look of it, she wasn't the only one. Seifer merely nodded and wave his hand and tell the Guards to let them through and told them to let Martin know he'll be waiting in the master debrief. The way the two scramble to follow his order, it was almost like he held more authority over the Galbaldia Garden than the Headmaster himself.
"With the right connection, it's very easy to know people." Seifer didn't look at her, he knew what she was hinting but he wasn't in the mood to deal with this. Martin's attitude just not half an hour ago had made things more complicated. The older man was giving him uncertain glances every time the blond instructor gave a critical piece of what happen in Timber. How was he going to cover the fact that he is the second in command of the whole Galbaldia country now? Laguna better get his act together soon or else this 'Sorceress War' will be out of control to a point he couldn't do anything to change the outcome...
"...Who are you?" Quistis asked as she cross her arms over her chest. She had thought she knew her students but it seem she never really knew him.
"I am Seifer Almasy. Nothing more, nothing less." Seifer answered in flat tone. He is who he is, he is Seifer Almasy. The student of Balamb Garden. He is Seifer Almasy, the Second in Command of the Galbaldia Government. He is Seifer Almasy, Soldier First Class Soldier of Shinra. He is Seifer Almasy, the Knight that should have long dead instead of thrown back into a world he could no longer relate to...
Quistis was interrupted by the incoming call from Balamb the whole room fell silent after they heard their newest mission.
"Are they nuts?" Zell asked drily as he nervously pulled on his fighting gloves. Selphie was silent and Quistis had taken her glasses off and rub the bridge of her nose. Squall who had yet to say anything since they got off the train was staring at Seifer. And the say blond himself merely close his eyes and sighed.
To assassinate the Sorceress...what kind of chance would they have to complete such impossible mission?
Looked like there's no escaping this...
"Headmaster Martin, could you lend us a sniper." Seifer open his eyes and turn toward the older looking man. Martin nodded, he wasn't about to disobey the blond's order. He had seen first hand what kind of destruction the other could do...just say that those that had been at the last Parliament General Meeting had the first taste of strength from the Envoy of Esthar.
"Stay for the night, I insist, rest up and restore your strength, I'll get everything ready for your departure tomorrow morning." Seifer gave the man a thank you nod. A rest sound like a dream right now, when was the last time he had a decent night of sleep? Too long he believes...
--
The room was draped with heavy silence since the brunette had step in, Seifer's brows furrowed into a tight knot and he rub his face with gloveless hand.
"Look, Squally, I'm tired, pissed off and I am not in the mood to have a starring contest with you." Seifer spoke as if toward a five year old child. To him, right now at this particular point of time, Squall Leonhart, the Squall Leonhart who was staring at him with sullen eyes was nothing but a child. "How 'bout you walk out of my room and back to yours so we could get a decent rest before we need to go in four hours?"
"...What more have you being keeping to yourself?" Squall finally spoke when the blond was about to physically removing him from his room.
"..." Seifer's eyes narrowed, making his already narrowed eyes into mere slits. Squall didn't ignore the fact that in the dim light, those green eyes had an eerie shone to them. It was one of the many changes Seifer bear after he disappeared before the SeeD exam and appear out of no where to help them at Timber. What more could he be hiding? What else was going to pop up and show him just how much he didn't know about the only one in his life that had always been there?
"I have no idea what you mean? Keeping what?" Squall tightened his hand into a fist making the leather protest at his harsh treatments.
"Don't lie. I know you enough to know you're hiding something." The younger boy growled angrily at how the blond was side stepping his questions. Seifer throw his head back and let out a harsh barked laugh.
"Squally, Squally-boy, you really have no idea what's going on... everything in this whole damn world is a lie...get use to it, for the whole lot of us have no where to go other than being in the center of this deception..." Seifer half drag half carried the brunette until he's out of the door. "Good night, Leonhart, may the 'Lion' be with you." May Griever find you and keep you...May the Dark Lion choose to help you instead of 'her'... OH...how much more could have gone wrong now?
Squall blinked in confusion at the door that had close shut at his face...the parting smirk the blond gave him up settling him more than his words...
What in the world is going on now? He felt as if he had never really known his rival at all the years they were together...
Or have he ever know the real Seifer Almasy at all? Squall frown as he stomp back toward the room that was assign to him. Those dreams he had...why did it unsettle him like this?
...He did not dream the Seifer before him was not the same one that he grew up with-
--
"...Do I have parents?" The pale hair teen asked for the first time in years as he laid on the cold rocky ground miles away from the soldiers' camp as the last and strongest troop deploy from Shinra in it's war against wutai.
The only man who could answer him was silent not because he did not know the answer but he could not and would not tell the teen who could have been his son all the pain he had suffer through till now was by the hand of the man that had sire him.
Nor could he tell the boy his own mother had abandon him to this fate without even looking back when she step through the door of the manor in that back water town two days after he was born.
Sephiroth closed his eyes as he felt the older blond sat next to him, leather gloved hand running through his pale silvery hair in a calming manner, like every time he was resting after Hojo was done with him.
Seifer would not tell him.
--
"Did you know what was going to happen before all this?" Quistis asked the only one in the whole group that was unaffected by the Sorceress' attack. The teen- no, the man merely arched an eyebrow and slung the brunette's frame over his shoulder. Not caring that all the other was wounded either slightly or seriously. The worst out of them was Rinoa, who had been hit by icicles through her shoulder and stomach.
Thinking back Quistis could see all the things Seifer told her to do could have prevented the failed mission but how she was to know? She's the Instructor, the only experienced SeeD out of the group and Seifer didn't even pass the Exam! He's just a Cadet! Why would she listen to him at all!? But she suppressed the tiny hint of regret into the back of her mind.
No, right now it's more important to find out what else is Seifer hiding from them.
"Trepe, I told you to listen to me but did you?" Seifer sneered, he look pass the woman and nodded at Irvine who had rush from his hiding spot to join them. "We're getting out of here I'm not fighting anyone with Leonhart down for the count and with a bunch of brats on the field."
"What about Rinoa?" Quistis asked.
"What about Rinoa?" Seifer said in a tight voice. He really didn't need this right now.
"She need medical attention-" Seifer snapped, teeth bared like a piss off tiger that's about to pounce-
"I do not care about the ones who had foolishly endanger other around them- I told her to leave, go back to her father where she will be the pampered princess she had been acting like. Instead she forced her way to go with us when we're risking our lives to complete this damnable mission for the sake of what? This is no fairy tale, the moment she thought she could play us like fools...she should think before she did what she did. If she doesn't make it, too bad so sad, I'm not wasting any energy and resources on non combatant that shouldn't even be here in the first place." Seifer sneered.
"We're mercenary, live weapons the Garden mode us to be. If you want to play house with Rinoa go ahead, just spare me the energy of running Hyperion through both of you." Cruel cutting words made Quistis' face loose what ever color there was. Seifer's serious, he wasn't buffing. Not with such look in his eyes.
"Do I make myself clear?" Quistis could only stare wide eyed at the man that made her felt like her first years as a Garden Cadet.
"Ye...yes..." What had happen to Seifer? This was not the Seifer Almasy she had in her class! Quistis watch the other lead their group waving in and out of the maze like alleyway-
How in the world did they come to this?
--