Author's Note: Hey guys! No, you're not seeing things. This is actually an update. I've been trying to finish this chapter for a very long time, but it seems that whenever I tried I ended up hating and deleting everything I wrote and just rage quitting. I have no excuse. This is disgraceful. For the thousandth time, I'm sorry!

That being said, I'm reasonably satisfied with how it turned out. I still think it's a little rough around the edges, but as writers we're our own worst critics, aren't we? Your opinions are always welcome of course. You're my readers and you do have a voice, after all.

Without further delay, enjoy the chapter! Thanks so much for sticking with me!

Chapter 9

Squall continued to stare back at Laguna, eyes narrowed in confusion. This guy, this…Destin. He was just crazy, right? The President didn't care enough about him to risk his entire country, surely. Why should he?

So then, why was Laguna acting this way? He'd grown completely still, his face was white as a sheet and he was gazing at Squall with sorrow in his eyes that he couldn't even begin to comprehend. He had to be honest. It was more than a little unnerving. Laguna always found some way to keep his cool. To look at any situation in a positive light, but now…he didn't understand. What the hell was he so afraid of?

Clearly however, he wasn't going to be getting answers from the man any time soon. He gave up and turned his eyes back to Destin, who merely stood watching with that same unwavering, vacant expression on his face. Although this time, Squall couldn't help but feel that it looked a little forced. He still didn't know what to make of this guy, whatever his story was, but something wasn't right about him. He wasn't just an ordinary Knight. There was an aura of power emanating from him that Squall had never felt the likes of before.

Not to mention, he was absolutely appalledby the way he was holding his sword. His grip on the weapon was awful. He knew he could easily knock it out of his hand with a well-placed blow or two.

He'd think more about the implications of that once he had the answers he needed. Right now he had to stay focused, and that was no easy task. Squall could feel the rage simmering just beneath the surface, but he pushed it back down. There would be time for that later.

"Me? Why me? If she's trying to use people against him, she'd be better off finding Ellone. I helped save Esthar and the rest of the world, but when it comes right down to it all I am is a hired hand. I mean nothing to him."

Destin shook his head, a few silver locks of hair escaping from where it lay tucked under his robes. "I don't know the reason. Just that she said you were our best chance at forcing him to step down."

"Half the city has been incapacitated. Why would she need him to step down? Why doesn't she just take it by force?"

Laguna's voice was so small, Squall almost missed it, even though all else was dead silent.

"She wants me disgraced."

Squall glanced back at him, but only for a moment, keeping his gaze steady on Destin as he held his weapon ready. Nevertheless, that one glance was enough for him to glean everything he needed to know. The older man was staring straight ahead, gazing into nothing, hands shaking as they hung loosely at his sides.

Shaking. Oh, Hyne. They didn't have time for this now. Please don't break apart now. Squall didn't know if he had it in him to handle Laguna's mental breakdown on top of his own.

Oh, the sentences he never thought he'd have occasion to think up. Squall suppressed a sigh.

"Disgraced? Why? What do you mean?"

"She hates me more than anyone or anything. She would want to make me suffer before she kills me. She'd want it slow. Painful. And I'd be the last to die."

Destin nodded in affirmation. "I…was supposed to kill everyone near the presidential and market districts. With the exception of you two, that is. But I just…I don't know. I put them to sleep instead."

"Let me ask you this, Destin. Why are you on her side? You wouldn't be so torn if you thought what she was doing was right. If you're powerful enough to put an entire sector of Esthar into cold sleep, why would you be afraid of what Adel could do to you? She couldn't even touch something of this magnitude."

Destin cocked his head, confused. "I love her. Isn't that enough?"

Again, the young SeeD found himself speechless. Try as he might, Squall did not understand how a grown man could be this emotionally confused and that was so ironic, it was almost funny. Was he a stoic robot or an unstable five year old? The way he spoke, the way he carried himself…his every action made him seem as if he were naught but a child, struggling to understand the way the world worked. What, did he crawl out from under a rock or something? Did he appear older than he actually was? Had Adel sheltered him so much, he didn't know how to function in the real world? Was it all a façade to throw them off guard?

There was no way to answer any of the questions he had at this point, so why the fuck couldn't he just shut his mind up already?

"You're nothing but a tool to her! That's all anybody is in Adel's world. Open your eyes! She's using you. I don't even need to see you both in the same room to know that."

"So what if she is? I don't care. It's better than nobody wanting me at all." Destin's voice was so pitiful and forlorn when he said this, Squall had to restrain himself from punching the sense out of him. Oh, for Hyne's sake. He'd had about enough of the wounded puppy persona he was putting on. Act or no, it was just getting on his nerves. He thought his life was all doom and gloom? Well, he could just get the fuck in line.

"How could you enable her when she does nothing but murder innocent people? How could you love someone you doubt enough to betray?"

Destin hugged one arm to his chest, face turned to the floor. "I don't know."

"She doesn't love you, you misguided fool! She loves no one!"

"You're wrong. You have to be wrong. If she doesn't love me, I'm nothing. If she doesn't love me…what am I good for?"

A strange sense of kinship welled beneath his breast, though he was quick to squash it. The last thing he needed were sympathy pangs for the enemy. It didn't matter that Squall himself had once thought the exact same words as a child, alone and crying in the rain. Alone, with Rinoa on his back as he trudged to Esthar not so very long ago. Alone, surrounded by her blackened, bloodstained feathers, his screams echoing soundlessly into the night.

Nope. None of that mattered.

None of that mattered at all.

The silence was broken not by Squall or Destin, but by Laguna. He made a move to step past Squall and toward their host.

Squall made a grab for his arm, incredulous. Idiot. What was he thinking?

To his surprise, the older man would not relent. Whatever inner fear had held him in its grip seemed long gone. He shrugged Squall's hand away and took a step or two past him.

The young SeeD leaped to his side, roughly grabbing his shoulder and attempting to pull him backward. "What are you-"

"You really believe that, don't you?" Laguna questioned, eyes dark, yet sad. He ignored Squall and continued to gaze resolutely upon Destin's form and for the first time, Squall allowed himself to take a good long look as well. His eyes were an unearthly green; not quite emerald, but just a shade or two lighter, and they stuck out like sore thumbs in contrast to his pale complexion. Lonely, haunted and perhaps a bit glassy; with tears or madness? He couldn't say, but dark rings stood underneath them as if he barely slept. He had a strong jaw and high cheekbones, but his face was thin and hollow. Jagged white scars descended from the corners of his eyelids down to his chin, carved into his flesh, as if he'd been scratched and the wounds had never healed right.

He had a sword drawn and at his side, though Squall could tell just from the alien way he held it that he was an amateur, if he could wield it at all. Any proper swordsman treated their weapon as an extension of his arm, but Destin looked more like he could have been playing soldier in his father's armor.

There was a buzzing in Squall's ears that indicated the presence of powerful magic. That he'd already taken note of, though he allowed himself to dwell on it now. He couldn't be mistaken. His sorceress may be gone, but he was still a Knight. He knew magic when he felt it and if he hadn't known better, he would have said there was a sorceress with them right this very second, but that couldn't be possible, could it? Everyone currently in this room with him was male, and there had only ever been one sorcerer: the Great Hyne himself.

One thing was for certain. If Destin possessed magic powerful enough to tip off Squall's radar, why the hell did he need a sword that he couldn't even use? It didn't make sense.

Analysis over for the time being, Squall looked back at Laguna, at the pity in his stare, and he couldn't help but wonder if this strange man/child would even want or welcome such a thing. If there was one thing Squall hated, it was to be pitied.

Laguna's face tightened with horror. "You poor thing. You were one of her chosen, weren't you? Oh dear Hyne. I thought I got them all. I thought I saved them. How did she hide you?"

"Chosen? I suppose so, but I don't understand. Being chosen by someone is a good thing. Why do you pity me for it?"

Squall spiraled further into confusion as the president shut his eyes, rubbing his face with his hands almost as if he were attempting to ward off a headache. "That you would even have to ask such a thing saddens me beyond words."

Destin narrowed his eyes inquisitively, Laguna gazing back with a desperate sort of helplessness, and Squall decided he'd finally had his fill of bullshit for one lifetime. He turned toward the president, preparing to demand an explanation for everything he'd said within the past ten minutes, but he never got that far.

Later he would review this moment a thousand times over, and he would still never understand how she'd escaped his notice.

In the blink of an eye she was where she hadn't been a mere second before, standing next to Destin, a hand caressing his arm. Laguna visibly started but Squall was already moving, grabbing him roughly by the arm and shoving him physically behind him. He didn't think about the hows and the whys. Instead, he moved into a defensive position and held his gunblade at the ready, lip curled with contempt. Outside, he was the very image of the warrior who'd defeated her mere months before.

Inside however, he was reeling.

Her appearance, if possible, was more horrifying than he ever could have imagined. She was death itself, and that wasn't just some cheesy metaphor.

A sack of rotting flesh stood before him. A corpse that didn't know how to die.

Her skin was putrid and gray, wet with puss and blood. In some spots it flaked away and in others still, it was absent entirely. He thought he could see a cheek bone peeking through her decaying face. A skeletal finger rubbed at Destin's chin as he watched. Squall was impressed when he managed not to shudder. Much.

Her once glorious red hair hung in clumps around her head, patchy, stringy and tangled over her shoulder. Her eyes were the same eerie black and red, though he could see the stark white rims of her eyes sockets where the flesh had rotted away.

Her robes were filthy and stained with countless substances he dared not name, and she smiled a sickly smile as she beckoned with that same skeletal finger. Hyne, he could smellher from here. What the ever loving fuck was he supposed to make of this? He expected this from B grade zombie movies, not his life.

Zombie Adel. Well wasn't that just great. Zell was going to die laughing when he heard this one.

Focus, Leonhart. You put her down once, you can do it again. He squared his jaw as Laguna stepped up beside him, apparently determined to stay there. When Squall shot a scowl in his direction, the older man matched it with one of his own.

He cursed under his breath, but nevertheless allowed it, though he made sure to shift his stance as to shield Laguna from the psychopathic sorceress if need be. If this…thing was still a sorceress, anyway.

"Well, since we're all acquainted, I'm sure you won't mind if we skip the introductions, will you my dear little Knight?" Adel began, voice scratchy from disuse and about as pleasant to listen to as nails on chalkboard.

"I'd like nothing more. I do have a few questions for you, Lady Adel. How have you been? I'm ever so interested to hear how you managed this…insurrection." Squall's voice was harsh and biting as the sting of a behemoth's blow.

"I'm sure, though I hope you'll forgive me for not indulging. Trust me. We'll have plenty of time to exchange words during your stay here." She stepped a pace forward and Destin automatically moved to shadow her right hand, eyes shining with tears. Abruptly, Adel's face twisted with rage. She turned and backhanded him across the mouth, so forcefully, his head snapped to the side with a crack.

"What did I say about defying me? Are you trying to make me cast you aside?"

"No, my Lady."

"I'll deal with you at a later time. Right now I have guests to see to, you understand. Guests I expressly told you to incapacitate, I might add."

Destin said nothing, merely held his cheek and stared at the floor.

"I do apologize for that interruption. You know how unreliable subordinates can be. He's immensely powerful, but he's in that rebellious stage I'm afraid. I miss my dear Ellone. She was easier to control. Scared so easily. As children are wont to, I suppose."

Laguna cut in, voice shaking with rage. "She was never yours, nor will she be!"

"She was mine. Mine and you took her from me! But worry not. This score can still be settled, I expect. I've a splendid idea, if you'd care to hear it." Adel's wasted lips stretched into a mocking smirk. "A life for a life. A daughter for a son. That sounds fair, wouldn't you agree?"

And just what the hell was that supposed to mean? Son? What son? As far as he knew Laguna had no children.

Squall had a nagging suspicion lurking at back of his mind but he pushed it down, dismissing it in an instant. No. Not possible.

"Laguna, what is she talking about?" He'd never liked being kept in the dark and he detested it even more under these circumstances.

Adel laughed as she met Squall's gaze. "Poor little Knight. No wonder you couldn't save her. You can't even save yourself. "

"Says the walking corpse. I took you down once, Adel. I can do it again. You think you're this big bad enigma, don't you? Hmph. You're not. I understand you perfectly well." Squall could hear his voice quiver just a bit despite himself. One more sentence like that and he was going to rip her apart, with or without the answers he sought.

Adel didn't seem to notice Squall's slipping control and if she did, she chose not to comment. To the contrary, his words even seem to have struck a nerve. "You understand nothing! But you don't need to. Your usefulness will be at an end as soon as our good President gives me what I want."

Laguna, to Squall's surprise, snarled (what the fuck, he could snarl?), voice frigid as a Trabian snow storm. "Threaten him again. I dare you."

"You're in no position to be speaking to me that way, Laguna Loire. You should know that."

That was it. He was done talking. Squall was at his limit. "Enough of this nonsense! I want answers, and I want them now. How are you still in the world of the living? What the hell do you want from us? Why did you go after Rinoa? Did it bother you that much that someone other than you held the same power you did? Don't even try to deny it. Whether it was you or your lackey right there makes no difference to me. She's dead, and I know you're the reason. I know you went after her."

Again, Adel cackled, although she all but ignored him. Instead she continued to lock eyes with Laguna, addressing him as if Squall had never spoken at all. "Oh, I get it. He doesn't know anything, does he?" She didn't wait for a response, instead shifting her attention back to Squall. "The little sorceress was never my target, you stupid boy. She was an added bonus. A means to an end."

"A means to what end? Spit it out, you crazy bitch!"

"Why, Sir Knight. You surprise me. I was under the impression you were supposed to be intelligent for your age. The end of Laguna Loire, of course. It's such a shame you haven't caught on. You are center stage, after all."

The suspicion was back and it was at the forefront of his mind, and no matter how hard he tried to banish it, there was no pushing it down this time.

'Let's talk after this is all done. I have a lot to tell you….'

'I am to threaten you if he does not comply with her wishes…'

'I can't wait to see you, Squall. There's something else I have to talk to you about when you get here…'

Adel lifted a hand directly at Squall and he stiffened, raising his gunblade and muttering 'shell' in defense. She wasn't actually conjuring. It seemed more a symbolic gesture than anything else. Nevertheless, Laguna threw himself between them, raising his rifle to his shoulder.

"I'll be damned if I let you harm a hair on his head."

His mouth fell open. And he got it.

Squall stumbled a half-step forward as Laguna met his eyes. All he could see swimming in their emerald depths, was guilt. Worry, guilt and sorrow increased tenfold. He opened his mouth to speak, but all that came out was a muted gasp.

Still Laguna said nothing, merely stood with that same horrible expression on his face.

It's not true. Tell me it's not true.

He could feel his hands trembling where he gripped his gunblade. He wanted to run from that gaze. Run from those guilt-haunted eyes. Run from this room, from Adel, from everything if it meant he'd never have to face up to this.

He couldn't, of course. He couldn't move. He couldn't breathe. All he could do was stare at Laguna, too shocked to utter a single word, more shaken than he could ever remember feeling. Squall knew his own expression just oozed betrayal, but damn it, he couldn't help himself.

Damn it. Damn it.

Just when he'd begun to think he could trust him.

Laguna shut his eyes and turned away in shame. "This isn't how I wanted to tell you. I'm sorry."

Adel peeled back her lips and grinned.

Squall felt the threads snap.

Bared his teeth.

And lunged.