To the readers: Okay, chapter eleven is here. This may or may not be the last chapter for about a month. Otakon is the 20th-22nd and I'm leaving the 18th because I have family in the area as well. That also means I'm going to be staying for a couple extra weeks to hang out with them.
I have to thank two people today, one of them being a repeat. I just wanna shout out to Faina and Darkyu because they are the only two people that have consistently reviewed this story. If I ever meet you guys, remind me to give you something super awesome. For now all I can give you are e-hugs.
For the rest of you guys who read this: REVIEW YOU LAZY BUMS!
Kirux
Pieces
Chapter 11: Lies So Sweet I Wanted to Believe Them
As we ran down the street I filled Irvine in on what had happened. He started laying out some pretty strong curse words and apologized for seemingly messing my life up. I told him it actually turned out for the better because I got Seifer out of the whole ordeal. He smiled and said; "You're welcome."
As we approached our destination we slowed our pace to a halt. I looked up at the mansion and shuddered; remembering the last time Irvine and I had infiltrated this place. Hopefully this time the outcome would favour the good guys. My partner started up the stairs and walked up to the door. It seems as though it hadn't been closed all the way because all he had to do was push on it gently and it swung open the rest of the way. I walked up behind him and looked into the darkened hall. Irvine held out his arm as a sign for me to enter first, as though he was a gentleman holding open a door for a lady. I rolled my eyes and walked into the room. He followed suit, both of our shoes' heels clacking on the marble floor.
"Do you think we're too late?" He whispered.
"I'm not sure," I said just as quietly.
A hideous cackle suddenly rang out all around us.
"Well, well, well," a womanly voice said, "It seems the lion cub has brought a cowboy with him. How charming…"
"Ultimecia," the two of us growled in unison.
"No dears," A figured appeared above us and began to slowly float down to our position, "I am not Ultimecia, but the sorceress Rinoa."
Rinoa landed on the floor without making a sound. A strange, yet powerful, aura surrounded her and there was an evil glint in her eyes. She raised her hands from her sides and four flames suddenly appeared in each corner of the room, illuminating it.
"I don't really give a fuck who you may or may not be," I held Lionheart out in front of me, preparing to attack her, "Just give us back our friends and I'll consider letting you live."
"Heeheehee!" She cackled again, "Your friends, are they? Than why do they seem so adamant on destroying you?"
She snapped her fingers and Selphie stepped into the hallway from a room on the left and Seifer from the room on the left. She looked at Irvine expectantly, and frowned when all he did was back up a few steps. I heard him load his shotgun and saw the barrel out of the corner of my eye. It was aimed right at Rinoa.
"So it would seem the cowboy has been freed of my spell," She smiled forcedly at me, "You are to be commended. But are you willing to fight against your true love?"
As soon as her sentence was finished, Seifer yelled and lunged at me. I quickly sidestepped his attack. I stumbled back in shock as he swung his gunblade up in my direction, not hesitating to attack me at all. My lover rushed towards me and I had no choice but to mimic his actions. Lionheart and Hyperion met with a clash and a few sparks sprung from the collision. I looked deep into his emerald green eyes and saw a sparkle of mischief. If he were really under that stupid bitch's control, his eyes would be dull and lifeless. I smirked and he winked at me before jumping back and landing about a foot away. I heard Selphie's nunchucks hit against the metal of Irvine's gun barrel. Seifer came at me again and I quickly jumped to the left, hitting him with Lionheart's handle in right in-between the shoulder blades as he lunged by me. He took the hint and fell to the ground, seemingly unconscious. I heard Rinoa growl and looked over to Irvine. Selphie was a hold of his gun and yanked it out of his hands, throwing it across the room. She had backed him against a wall a mere inches from one of those flames. She was about to attack, when he suddenly ducked and rolled under her, hitting her with a sleep spell from behind. She slumped to the ground and he stood up, dusting off his pants.
"Why you little rodents!" The witch screeched at us, the flames blazing brighter with her anger, "Just because you can beat those weakling pawns, it doesn't mean you can defeat me!"
She twirled and disappeared. Seifer got up and adjusted his trench coat. Irvine quickly retrieved Exeter and pointed it at Seifer. I reached out and forced Irvine to lower his weapon.
"It's okay Irvy," calling him this made both of the other men look at me quizzically. I shrugged it off, "He's not possessed, nor was he this entire time. He was just playing along to get Rinoa to reveal herself. Weren't you Seifer?"
"Damn straight," Seifer bent his head to the left in order to crack it, "I'm Seifer fucking Almasy. I don't fall for those bullshit mind games anymore."
Irvine surveyed Seifer from head to toe and back again. He let out a frustrated sigh and lowered his weapon to his side, "Fine, whatever. That's not the real question here though, now is it?"
"What do you mean?" Seifer walked up to me and put his arm around my waist. I smiled lightly and leaned against him.
"I mean what we need to find out is where Rinoa went, why she's doing this, and who's controlling her," He started up the stairs.
"Where are you going?" I asked following him.
"To the roof," he stated bluntly.
"Why the roof?" Seifer questioned following me.
"Because that's where any self respecting villain hangs out. I mean really, watch more television now and than," He stomped up the stairs and Seifer looked at me confused. I shook my head I shrugged. I had no clue either. I kept close to Irvine though, at least he understood all of this.
The staircase seemed to go on forever. To make matters worse it was one of those swirly staircases, so after a few floors I started to feel queasy from walking in a circle so many times. After a few more minutes I felt even worse.
"What's the matter Squall, out of shape?" Irvine turned and looked back as I gripped the rail and bent over.
"I feel really sick all of a sudden," I panted.
"Doesn't it seem odd that we've had to walk so much just to get to the roof?" Seifer pointed out, "This house is definitely not this tall."
"Now that you mention it, it does seem rather peculiar," Irvine agreed.
"Why is that?" I asked them.
"Because this is naught but a dream." A voice said out of no where.
'What?" I responded standing up.
"What you are experiencing now is only a dream." The voice said again. It wasn't Ultimecia's condescending tone, nor was it Rinoa's smug voice. I couldn't even tell if it was male of female.
"I don't believe you!" I shouted up at the voice.
"Squall, are you okay?" Seifer reached to touch my arm, but it passed right through as though I wasn't really here.
"You must wake up now. You're family is waiting for you."
The faded out and my vision began to blur. I blinked repeated and slowly the staircase started to dissolve from my sight. I could no longer hear Seifer's voice and Irvine was no longer visible. I shut my eyes real tight, hoping that they would refocus. I opened them again and was greeted by the sun shining strongly. I groaned and realized that I was lying down in a bed. I sat up and looked around me.
This room seemed so familiar. It was small, but not too small. There was a desk and a wardrobe to my left and a small end table with a chair next to it on my right. In front of me was a huge window with blue drapes and ragged rug with a couple throw pillows on it. In a corner lay the case to Lionheart. I jumped out of bed and flung it open, only to find a regular revolver inside. I spotted a mirror on the wall and looked into it. I traced a finger across my forehead and down my nose; there was nothing there. Not a scar, scratch, birthmark. Not even a pimple. Everything else seemed about the same. I felt about the same age and I was pretty sure my name was still Squall. I sat down in the chair and pondered. Was it all just a dream? It felt too real to be a dream. How could I dream an entire lifetime in only eight or nine hours?
"Squall?" Someone knocked on my door and it opened. In walked Ellone.
"Sis?" I stood up and blinked a couple times.
"Oh good, you're up!" She beamed at me, "Listen put on some clothes and get down to the kitchen, Dad has a surprise for you!"
"Erm, okay," I said hesitantly.
Dad? Could it be…Laguna? Of course, that's the only dad I have. I walked over to the wardrobe and opened it up. Not a single pair of leather pants in the entire thing. There wasn't any leather at all, to tell the truth. I frowned and grabbed a white T-shirt and a pair of blue jeans. I was struck by a sudden horrible thought and grabbed around my neck. I sighed in relief as I felt both my Lionheart necklace and Griever right where they were suppose to be.
"Squall Leonhart Loire get your slow ass down here right now!" I heard a woman's voice call out.
"Yes mom!" I called out in reflex. I finished button my pants and opened the door, proceeding down the steps. It wasn't until I hit the last step and looked up and saw her did it all hit me.
Raine stood there, hands on her hips, glaring at me. She had on a white apron and held a spatula in one hand. She had been tapping her foot impatiently until she saw me arrive. When I did she marched over to me and grabbed my ear with her spatula free hand and dragged me over to the kitchen table and forced me to sit down in one of the chairs.
Laguna was sitting in the chair across from me reading the newspaper. He laughed lightly and looked up at me. Ellone was sitting to my right and was stuffing a piece of toast in her mouth greedily. I smiled and sighed. That's right, this is my real life. I'm just another ordinary boy in a small country town living with his family. I wasn't a garden student, let alone a top ranking SeeD. I was just…Squall.
"Are you listening to me young man?" Raine hollered as she turned over the omelet she was making.
"No…not really," I admitted.
"I said just because it's your birthday, that doesn't give you the right to sleep all day," she plated the eggs and put it down in front of me.
"Sorry ma," I took a bite of the omelet, "It's just I was having this really crazy dream. It was one of those dreams that seemed so real that I couldn't tell it wasn't. I woke up in a daze, almost unwilling to believe that it had been all fake."
"What kind of dream was it?" Ellone asked intrigued.
"I was a top ranking SeeD officer and had single handedly taken down this evil sorceress and saved the world. Than a few months later she came back and I was trying to take her down again. The weirdest thing was, Dad was the president of Esthar, mom was dead for some reason, and you had disappeared. So I had grown up in an orphanage with these six other kids and we had all grown really close. I was especially close to this one boy named Seifer…"
"It almost sound more like a nightmare," said my mother as she sat down in the last empty chair.
"Oooo Squall fell in love with a fantasy maaan," Ellone mocked in a sing song voice.
"I most certainly did not!" I threw my napkin at her and she giggled, getting up hiding behind Laguna.
"Dad he's throwing things at me!"
"Only because you don't know when to keep quiet!"
"Now, now children. Let's not fight at breakfast," my father said putting down the paper, "Save that until lunch time."
"Laguna!" Raine hit his arm, "Stop encouraging them!"
"It was just a joke, dear," he stood up than bent down to kiss her forehead lovingly, "When you get finished I want you to come over to the tavern, son. I have a present for you."
"Okay dad!" I said through a mouth full of toast.
"Don't talk with your mouth full, Squall! Hyne! You're just as bad as your father!" Raine scolded me.
"It could be worse," I said as I grabbed the last bit of toast and stood up, "I could be a nag like you."
I quickly ran out the door before what I said sunk in. I was at the bar's door when I heard; "SQUALL LEONHART LOIRE! YOU ARE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE FOR THAT!"
I snickered and ate the last bit of toast and walked up to where my dad sat at the counter. He had something out in front of him.
"Whatcha got there, dad?"
"Oh this?" He turned around and held out a small picture frame, "Just a picture of some old friends."
I took it and looked at the picture it housed. Dad stood in the center, posing with his machine gun. Next to him stood a skinny black man rolling his eyes at Laguna. On his other side stood a tall white guy holding a huge anchor across his shoulders while he smiled widely for the camera.
"Who are they? You guys look pretty tight," I handed him his picture back.
"The white guy is Ward and the black guy is Kiros. We were all soldiers in the same squad. We had a lot of fun together and caused the Galbadian army lots of trouble whenever we could. We had all been drafted and hated the stupid war," he got sad all of sudden, "Then one day we were on patrol and I had gotten us lost. We ended up in this secret underground facility occupied by Esthar. We fought as hard as we could, but one of them used some really weird magic. We had no choice but to jump off the cliff they had cornered us on."
"That's how you met mom, right?" I interjected, "She found you and nursed you back to health."
"That's right," he fingered the frame, "Kiros and Ward weren't so lucky. I never heard from them again until I got a letter from their families saying they had found their bodies. It took some time, but I got over it, kinda."
"I'm sorry dad," I put my hand on his shoulder.
"Naw, it's okay. It just sucks because I got that letter the same day you were born. So every year I have these conflicting emotions. I want to be happy for you, but I can't help but mourn my friends," he sighed and turned around to look at me, "The important thing is that that stupid sorceress was taken out before she caused any real damage. I heard all it took was one family to over throw her regime."
"Yeah, she could have caused some majour damage to so many people's lives," I sat down and gazed at all the bottles along the back wall.
"That's not why I wanted you to come here, though," Laguna stood up and walked over to a nearby closet. He opened it up and pulled out a leather bomber jacket with a fur-lined collar. Just like the one I had worn in my dream, "Happy birthday, Squall."
"Oh wow, Dad," I gabbed it and felt the fur. It was so creepy that it would resemble that other jacket so much. I tried it on and it fit perfectly.
"That looks real snazzy on you. It doesn't go with the blue jeans so well, though. Guess next year we're gonna have to get you some leather pants."
"Next year? Try next week sometime!" I yelled.
"Haha, I was just kidding. We'll pick some up the next time we're in Deling," Dad slapped his hand on my back and escorted me out of the pub.
The rest of that day was just like any other birthday I had ever had. Lots of cake, presents, and singing. I went to bed that night blissfully happy from today's events. I had spent a great day with my family. I family that I almost didn't think existed when I woke up this morning. I didn't have a single dream either.
A couple of days passed by and I soon forgot about my dream almost entirely. There was only one thing that I just couldn't shake, and that was that man. I couldn't remember his name now, but I could remember his brilliant emerald eyes and the way they had looked at me. I felt myself getting melancholy and spiteful. Why is it I can only meet the perfect person in a silly dream? I wiped down the bar counter and sighed heavily, resigning to the fact that my love life was as empty as this bar. All of a sudden the bells on the door jingled as a customer entered. I looked up and my mind went blank as I saw the person standing in the doorway.
It was him, the green eyed man from my dream. He stood there staring at me as the door closed behind him.
"M-M-May I help y-you, sir?" I stuttered as he walked forward, his trench coat billowing slightly as strode up to me.
"Yes," he stopped at the counter and glared at me, "You can snap out of this silly dream you're having, Squall."
"Excuse me?" I frowned at him, "How do you know my name? Have we met before?"
"What do you mean have we fucking met before?" He yelled at me seemingly hurt, "It's me, Seifer! You're childhood friend and lover! You can't have forgotten about me!"
"No," I shook my head and took a step back, "You're just that guy from that dream I had a few days ago…"
"That guy from that dream?" He said, seemingly outraged, "Can't you see this is all just an illusion that stupid sorceress has conjured up to distract you?"
"But the sorceress was defeated years ago, before I was born."
"No she wasn't! She wasn't truly beaten until half a year ago, and you're the one who did it! But now she's back and you have to beat her again, this time for good!"
"That's…that's not true!" I closed my eyes and shook my head, "There isn't anymore conflict in the world! I'm not hero! I'm just another country boy that lives with his family out in a rural town!"
"You don't have a family, Squall!"
"I do to have a family! There's sis…"
"Ellone had herself sealed away so no one could use her powers for evil anymore!"
"And my dad…" I started to cry. Why would he say such a thing?
"Laguna abandoned you when he became the president of Esthar, but he's promised to try and work things out and make it up to you. That is, if we ever get rid of that stupid witch."
"And my mother!" I shouted, trying not to listen to his evil lies.
"You're mother is dead, Squall!" He shouted slamming his hand down on the counter.
"Take that back!" I shouted at him.
"No!" He screamed back at me, "I can't take back the truth, Squall!"
I reached back to punch him but he grabbed my hand.
"Let go of me you stupid bastard!" I was still crying, partially because of what he had said and partially out of anger.
"I won't!" He said, pulling me close, "I promised to protect you, and that's what I'm going to do! But I can't help you if you don't listen to me!"
"Why would I listen to you! All you do is lie!" I tried my hardest to pull away from him, starting to cry even harder. He was scaring me.
"Hyne damnit, Squall!" He slapped my cheek with his free hand I stopped crying out of shock. I ceased trying to pull myself away from him and looked up at him, my eyes wide with disbelief. "Are you ready to listen to me now?"
I nodded weakly, "Yes, sir."
"Don't call me sir. My name is Seifer."
"Yes, Seifer."
"Okay, now pay attention. You are a high ranking SeeD that is on a mission to save the world. You're ex girlfriend, Rinoa, is either being possessed by Ultimecia, or is acting on her own free will and using her powers for evil. We are in the presidential palace in Deling City where we encountered her and she fled to the roof. She somehow enchanted the stairs to seemingly never end and than forced you into this dream world. You have been unconscious for at least half an hour. I decided that I would have to somehow get into this dream world of yours to snap you out of it. I had Irvine cast a sleep spell on me, and hoped that whatever spell she had used, would work on me, too. It seems it has. Now what I need you to do is wake up so we can break this stupid illusion and get on with our mission."
"If everything you've said is true," I paused and looked away from him, "than why would I want to go back there? Everything seems so chaotic and I'm all alone. I would much prefer to stay here were I have my family, real or not, to be with.
"You're wrong, you're not alone," He reached his hand up to my chin and turned my face so that I was forced to look at him. He pulled my face close and whispered; "You'll never be alone, no mattered where you are."
"Why's that?" I whispered back at him, feeling suddenly breathless.
"Because I will always be there with you," he answered, moving his face even closer to mine.
"Why would you do such a thing?"
"Because I love you, stupid," He said right before he kissed me.
It was a deep romantic kiss that jarred my brain. The dream I had suddenly came flooding back to me, except this time, I knew it wasn't a dream. I felt tears start to leak from the corner of my eyes as I realized that everything I had just experienced was nothing more than an elaborate lie. A sweet and seducing lie comprised of everything I've always wished I could have. A lie so alluring I readily accepted it. I opened my eyes and I was sitting on the steps of the mansion, proped up against the railing. Irvine was squatting down in front of me, staring at me intently and worriedly. I heard a groan as Seifer, too, woke up.
"Are you two okay?" the cowboy asked.
"Just peachy," Seifer stood up and stretched.
He reached down to help me up but I stood up on my own. I gripped Lionheart's handle so tight I could feel the blood pulsing through my hand. I started to climb the stairs immediately. My eyes focussed ahead of me. I don't care if I have to climb forever; I'm going to get to her.
"Squall are you okay? Why don't you wait until you readjust? You just went something somewhat traumatic," Seifer said, catching up to me quickly.
"I'm going to find her, Seifer," I said through gritted teeth, "I'm going to find her and I'm going to make her pay for what she just did. I don't care if I have to go so far as to killing her."