DISCLAIMER: Look, if I owned FFVIII, I wouldn't be writing in the F-A-N--F-I-C-T-I-O-N section, now would I?
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I swear I'm attempting on action in these two chapters!!! I swear!!!!!! Please, tell me I made it… please… ^_^; Oh, yeah!!!! A very special thanks to all the gang for not letting me go under!!!! (and not throwing at my teacher's neck, for that matter… ) I wouldn't have done it this far if hadn't been you gals!!!! ^_^_^_^_^_^_~
ABOUT THE RATING: Oh! I still dunno if I should raise the rating… You tell me, okay?
PART ONE: WITHIN THE MISTS CHAPTER SEVEN: A DREAM WITH SOULS AWAKE"Fuck!" The blond knight cursed aloud, landing one last time on the dark obsidian floor to position himself on yet another defence stance. He analysed his opponent, diligently scanning her body for any sign of the results his last blow should have inflicted upon her elegant and sensual frame.
His conclusion was just as good had been all of his lasts: he had failed to touch the barest inch of her dress' garments.
"So, Dyre, is this all you can do?" The woman teased, skilfully manoeuvring the twin blades into an attacking position. "Your sister will surely be disappointed when she knows that you made such mediocre performance while trying to protect her. What a lousy knight you turned out to be." She sneered amusingly.
The blonde man glared at her between drawn breaths, his sword held high in front of him – his muscled body tense and worn out, but unwilling to give up on the fight he had chose to take as his.
The woman sighted, shrugging her slender shoulders as if disappointed. "Oh, well…"
"My turn." A cruel delighted smile traced her flaming red lips as she dashed toward his awaiting figure, her blades dancing alongside her body in an eager thirst for blood.
His blood.
The boy's heavy body slowly slipped from her shoulder and she now held him close to her chest – almost in a cradling position – as her legs made the impossible to go further.
Just when she thought that she was going to make it, she felt a sudden pinning on her heel – result of something sharp, and rather hard, that held her back and that caused her to lose her balance and crumble over Seifer's body.
Turning rapidly to her side, she saw the adamatoises hovering above her, their blind grey eyes glinting cruelly against their dark green – almost black – complexion, metal-like beaks ready to strike her.
"Damn 'Haste' spells!" The girl cursed, moving from over the boy to support her weight with her back as she twisted her legs, giving the nearest turtle-head a good succession of kicks, throwing a hand full of sand into its eyes once she was done with it.
Groaning at the stinging sensation, the beast resolutely withdrew from the pair, giving Quistis the opportunity to round Seifer's waist and try to drag him away from them.
But a 'Firaga' spell didn't let her go much further, though, as it flew through the air and hit Quistis' bare back skin and turning it into living flesh, her arms dropping the blonde onto the sand with a soft thud.
"This doesn't look good..." She thought struggling to control the pain, closing her eyes forcedly, reaching for the concealed pocket and for the object she had previously kept in it. "And I guess I have few options left…"
Glancing one last time at wounded boy, the blonde girl grasped the unfamiliar hilt of his knife and she faced the adamatoises, yelling loudly as she ran – so they'd forget Seifer and went after her.
Avoiding the first blow the nearest turtle-like creature conceived, she mimicked the boy's early move and cut its neck with even more deadly accuracy then he had done, moving quickly so the second beast wouldn't have time to concentrate on her for another magic round.
Sliding underneath the last, Quistis took a moment to dig the blade into its quite vulnerable belly, extracting an horrible grunt from the scarred-eye monster, which automatically sank into the sand, not being, however, able to trap the girl below its weight, for she had relatively long ago evaded from there.
Searching to hide from the spell the first creature had been aiming at her behind the other's adamant shell, she managed to get it hit – bull's eye – by its companion (even if not doing it much damage, thanks to the adamatoise's constant 'Shell' protection).
Quistis dashed to the front of the beast with a battle cry, – unknowingly enjoying the trill of the fight; the very pulse of the adrenaline tugging at her heart – thinking still of distracting them from Seifer and of how to perform the next move.
Once sided with the turtle's wrinkled neck – which already held a bleeding bruise (courtesy of Mr. Almasy) – she stabbed the ripped flesh before dodging the adamatoise's defensive blow with ease and shifting to its other side.
Quistis, struck by the glimpsing sight of the other monster advancing slowly toward Seifer's twitching form, insanely launched herself at the gigantic being. Ducking at its swatting movements as she fought to grab its tub-like neck, she tried to prevent it from going further at the cost of her bruised arms and hands, her gown tearing as it brushed occasionally against the rough dark shell, the knife, after some indifferent damage, falling from her grasp and ending up crushed underneath the monsters brutal feet.
Feeling that she could not sustain herself in that ravage for much longer, Quistis gradually lost her grip on the turtle's muscular neck, being picked up and thrown briskly into Seifer's awaiting arms.
"You shouldn't have done that, you know." He censored, his blonde eyebrow arching irritably. "You got my knife broken and almost killed yourself…" But his hands spoke with the gentleness of his worry and care as he gathered her more comfortably on his lap, murmuring something in her ear, watching the adamatoises diligently.
The titanic pair marched patiently in both blondes' direction, their animalistic brain hoping to have a well-deserved breakfast soon.
And what an intriguing couple they made, sitting unmovingly over the bloodied sand that brought to Quistis so many bitter memories; listening to each other's breaths; feeling each other's heartbeats… waiting……
The girl's body shielded his hand from view, her legs moving gingerly over his – cautious not to touch his wound –, his other hand lying firmly over her shoulder protectively. Her ocean blues eyes locked in his stormy ones…… waiting… and waiting…
The adamatoises' were now so near that they could also feel their breaths on their bare bruised skin… but they were still… waiting…
"NOW!" Seifer shouted, giving the girl a slight starting push, her body coming to fall on her unhurt side and unravelling the lava coloured power and sheer heat of a hand-sized fireball. "Fire Cross!!!" The boy summoned. "Dark Glow!"
And immediately dark red fireworks shot from the ball he held burning in his palm and imbedded themselves into the turtles' magical protections, making considerable damage to their shells…
…only that wasn't enough…
Grunting savagely, one of the adamatoises cast another 'Haste' spell on itself and rapidly reached out for Quistis' fallen body. Before Seifer – weakened by the attack he had previously attempted – could even make the gesture of intervention, the monster's beak dug deeply into her already bloodied leg, causing her to release a soft hallow scream between bitten 'till bruise lips.
Dyre sank to his knees, panting huskily, supporting his arm and partially his weight on the broken sword that he held vertically onto the dark inscribed floor, his back barely an inch from the fire haired woman's, whose company he had secretly enjoyed during their years together as travellers of The Path.
Distantly, he recalled the times of his youth: of how – sitting on his father's lap – he had heard of great dids from the lips of beautiful ladies and valorous men, who had come to their palace for a royal audience. He had been a small innocent child then, still listening to his nanny's fairy tales, wishing in his core to become a knight like those of the books: wise, brave, strong and honourable; of those that did not know failure, defeat or humiliation. He had wished to save his ladylove from the claws of a Ruby Dragon and be claimed as the hero of innocent souls – the saviour of countries and men.
Still, that hadn't been all.
For Dyre, somehow, he could care less for honour, victory, wisdom or skill as long as he could have his dream… as long as… as… he could have… it…
…but the dream was dead. It held no meaning, no goal… right?
Righ… Shiri…? Dead. No meaning. No goal. Right…?
Then, why…? Why was he fighting…? Why?
The handsome knight coughed blood, his head speeding in a hazard of thoughts that could have made him blank out if his swoon hadn't been supported by his shattered sword.
He was lost and confused. He had no aim. He had no goal.
His enemy was laughing idly at his poor figure. At his torn feelings.
"Why fight at all…?" She echoed his thoughts in an amused tone. "Why bother, ne… Dyre-san? Your selfish little dream is wildly broken… Why fight at all…?" The raven haired woman's smile deepen and grew wider as she sheathed one of her blades and outstretched her arm perpendicularly to her sinuous body, holding her palm open and facing him (a stance purposely similar to the one he used in one of his Limit Breaks) and he was starting to understand the irony of it all.
"You know what they say back in your home land, Dyre…" She hinted, successive waves of dark magic assembling unceremoniously before her hand's bare skin, producing strange arches of fire in the air between them. And then she spit out the words: "No Mercy."
The sight of her angelic features, cringing forcefully in a silent struggle to fight off the pain, was breaking him inside... and Seifer barely noticed as a lonely tear rolled down his pale cheek, screaming loudly, lunging ferociously at the attacking adamatoise and punching it in its eye.
He may be lost, he may be confused; he could have no aim, no goal; but he did have…
"Shiri." The image he summoned invaded his mind, a rarest smile held secretly in her rosy lips and so much openly – so much honest and giving – in the liquid emerald pools of her eyes. He could now feel as he remembered her sweet and delicate jasmine scent, the butterfly touch of her burning fire coloured hair on his skin…
…the memory of that one single moment in his life, when, beneath the watchful gaze of the stars and moon, all had fallen rightfully into place; when, from her lips, he had drawn a content 'Alleluia', claiming her as his forever…
And even though that had been ages ago – before they crossed the devastated Centra plains; they returned the corpse of his father to the King's Tomb; they faced the hardships of the Illumina Trial; they led an army of beasts to harvest on the souls of innocent people; they murdered L'uin Gora; they visited Chia, the Oracle, to hear from her the divine words; before he had fully accepted to walk The Path alongside her – that sole moment… that brief, tender moment they had shared…
…paid off all that had come forth and all that would still come…
She was the unique being that had ever been able to touch his most intimate dream… She had been the one to bring it as physical into reality as he never thought possible… even if only for a short a while… a little while…
And he was to protect her. Always. Forever. He was her knight.
Ever since the very first day they met at Anaeco's market, he had been destined to be her guardian, her protector – her knight. And as though the idea had pretty much disgusted him at the time, he had learned that he could not have received greater honour.
Even if shattered. Even if broken. He was her knight.
That was what had been written and that was had been meant to be… and was.
With reckless speed, the blonde boy took her into his arms and cuddled her protectively against his chest, allowing both their weights to pull them to the sand, his body completing shielding hers.
"Seifer…" She breathed, blushing slightly at feeling of his strong arms surrounding her. "What are you doing?"
The blonde boy smiled meekly at her from above, his soft blue eyes the only thing she could see clearly in the tight closeness they shared, his form clouding her from light. And then she felt the impact of one of the adamatoises' blow, his body coming to crush gently against hers, his lips coming out of the thin line he had forced upon them to say to her quite simply: "I'm protecting you. That's what knights do."
A moment passed between them until Quistis decided on reacting to his words, her mind bent on swearing he was playing a game on her, if it hadn't been for the determination she saw in his eyes. He was serious. Deathly so.
"Seifer, get off me!" She ordered him in a desperate tone, feeling his body collapse against hers once more as a new wave of brutal force hit him. "Please! Stop it!!!" She cried, struggling to free herself from his hold. "STOP!!! You'll die!!!"
The blonde boy smiled at her again, his husky breath caressing her skin, stormy blue orbs locked in hers, and his mind fighting off the exhaustion that was slowly settling in. "I'd rather die to let them hurt you."
Quistis gasped in fear and shock. "How can you say that? You're not gonna die! I'm not gonna let you die!" She argued, almost incoherently.
The blonde boy's gaze answered her in the same steel willed stubbornness as before, his tone holding a sweetness and distance Quistis wished never to hear again, as it had been the same her mother had used before leaving her. "Run." He told her, his embrace becoming weaker underneath the attacks of the turtles' beaks. "You have a small brother to go back to."
Whatever the girl had wished to say caught itself in her throat as the boy thought lastly, "This may be the last time I see someone. I'm glad it was you.", before passing out.
The dark force onslaught burst free from her and hissed against his barely breathing chest, throwing him backwards against those few inches he had been so preciously guarding distance, tossing him and the fire haired priestess onto very edge of the seal that lay on the floor – in the appearance of an ordinary circular pool of a black silkily liquid.
The priestess' enchantment hovered above them – suspended, unfinished – and her slender body lay mingled in his, her head hanging dangerously from the edge and her hair disappearing in the seal's unmoving surface. She was just about to slip into that scary abysm of darkness herself, if fatigued strong arms hadn't dragged her to safety.
The red-haired woman shook her head at the sudden movement, her once long hair cut irregularly short by the seal's mysterious surface, her lips mumbling some odd incoherence before fully awaking from her from her profaned trance. "Dyre…?" She addressed. "Dyre, where are you…?"
She scrutinised the darkness than enveloped her vision with a word, feeling and seeing his hand reaching out to touch her smooth fire coloured hair with pity and her porcelain face with relief – in what she knew was also an apologising gesture.
"Here, tigress." He answered bitterly, stroking her flustered cheeks. "I'm here."
Dyre loosened his grip on what was left of his weapon, letting it fall onto the floor with a metallic lonesome thud, so he could pull her closer to him. "I'm sorry, Shiri. I brought you back before you could finish it…"
She smiled faintly. Dyre saying he was sorry? It couldn't get any worse than this, now could it?
"It's okay, I can always pick its loosen strin-- Dyre! What have you done to yourself!!!" She demanded, travelling quickly through the length of his muscular body, which was ripped and torn in every way conceivable. "I thought I told to wake me up if you needed help handling Daena!!!"
His grey eyes narrowed dangerously at her. "I'd rather die to ask you help to handle that whore of Elkor's!" He hissed.
"But--!"
The blonde knight silenced her with a kiss – a longed for, lovingly gentle kiss.
Slowly, as they parted, he looked at her with serious grey eyes – an intense blue fire burning in them as he spoke softly, fighting to keep himself in check. "Red, I'm still your knight and I'm gonna fight for you – no matter how poorly –, understood?"
She nodded obediently under his gaze, whispering something in his ear before she rising.
"If you die, whom will be the place I return to?"
Quistis choked a sob, trying desperately to prevent the scarred eye adamatoise to pick up its prize – a bloodied five years old blonde boy – with frantic, but futile, brisk moves of arms. At a lost, the girl saw them turn their back at her, walking slowly with Seifer held between their enormous cruel jaws.
For Quistis it had never been like she couldn't use her magic for a purpose: for as long as she could remember, the presence of auras had always been easily detected by her rebel spirit and freeing the excessive energy she store within her immature body was also a task she had learned to perform.
But that was that for Quistis Trepe.
Any other spell or incantation, she was unable to control as it was demanded by Edea or even herself – if it worked or culminated into disaster… that was something that she had absolutely no hand upon.
When the boy had called upon his Limit Break, her first concern had been if, indeed, he had that low a status. It would be foolish of her to think that every being carried strength and resistance equal to hers, but, fortunately, at her remark, he had just laughed, saying idly that his Limit Break was somewhat unusual. But still, as she saw his magic passing through the protections of their opponents, she had felt envious of the blonde boy. Why couldn't she do that? Why couldn't she protect him also?
Envy had nothing to do with it now. She was mad. Insanely so.
He had dared to sacrifice himself like that and expected her to run? Flee from danger, just like that…? No. Not again, not ever again!!!
Sorceress Shiri, walker of The Path and priestess of Brame glared lethal daggers at her opponent, Daena, taking two deliberately slow steps in her direction, raising her arms to her chest's level.
The raven haired woman held an amused expression as she watched Shiri open her arms in a invocation gesture, cruelly sheathing her remaining blade and reaching out to pick another intriguing weapon from the floor, also whispering an incantation of her own.
Comforted and angry at the thought that he was much worse than her, Quistis rose quietly from her sitting position, ignoring the exasperated cries of pain that her every fibre sent to her every nerve – as if forgotten completely at how badly she had been wounded.
Ravaging white tiger-eyes glinted like keen blades against the morning sky, piercing and ferocious as she watched the retreating forms. "It's not going to happen again!" The girl resolved, determinably. "I promised you, mommy! I won't fail someone ever again!!!"
A ring of amber formed in the sapphire blue depths of her orbs, the waves crashing down with sudden fury against the shore of the once calm beach, sweeping the blood that resulted from their fight.
The sky darkened and purple thick clouds – coming out of nowhere – cloaked the luminous solar disk, filtering all the light, the water crossing in vigorous leaps the distance that existed between Quistis and the ocean. "I have the power! I will do it!"
The air twirled madly in reaction to the intensity of her power, ripping her gown into ribbons that flew wildly on the wind in strangely familiar wave-like motions, picking at her hair and curling it in the same fashion.
The gigantic creatures stooped in their tracks, stretching their long necks to turn and look at her in all her terrific splendour, the violence of the waves advancing on their solid forms.
"Let him go!" The girl demanded, her voice rising above the tempest she had summoned as the clamour of thunder on a particularly devastating storm, the tenderness it usually held replaced by bitter recklessness and an exquisite desire to dominate.
The waves lingered at her shins, begging to her, coaxing her, enveloping her – urging her into a part of them – and Quistis was as much as invited by the liquid, as it was indubitable drawn to her.
The blonde girl watched without passion as the salty masses of water crashed against her foes with a brutality that made them slid along the beach, but that, upon reaching her, made nothing more than erase her wounds, sweeping over and through her.
Quistis snapped her head at the adamatoises' backs, feeling quite comfortable with the amount of pure energy she was wielding as she claimed to the hungry unwise beasts. "He's mine!"
The scarred eye creature, narrowed its eyes with apparent difficulty, tightened its grip on Seifer out of instinctive fear, digging its accurate beak into his flesh and drawing out blood. Quistis could bear it no longer, and flashed them her final imperious menace. "LET HIM GO!"
Womanly shaped beings, made of sheer liquid and metaphysic substance, crowded around her as the sea's rebellious spirit became one with the girl's, a blue spiral-like symbol fading into view just between her blonde eyebrows.
A golden halo dwelt for freedom inside her eyes, her feet leaving the ground to float some centimetres above the sand, the ocean's water twirling around her in intermittent ribbons.
::Do you know what you are asking, child?::
"Yes!!!"
"Blue Magic:" Quistis invoked, "LASER EYES!" the light she held in her stare bursting from her eyes and hissing across the scenario she had conjured, bifurcating as it approached the adamatoises, hitting both of them with striking force.
The ray enveloped the beasts and, in one astonishing half of a second, shattered their every protection mercilessly, tearing their scaled skin as they sank beneath the waves, releasing Seifer from their hold and letting him slump onto the dry hot sand of the silent beach.
Shiri helped Dyre to rise from his sitting position, his arms rounding her waist tenderly as hers embraced his neck and pulled him closer to her, possessively. Fiery gazes locked in one another, both couldn't help themselves but to ask, to the very core of their beings, what the hell were their lives all about…?
The blonde knight sorrowfully gazed at her, drinking in her every detail for one last time while he bringing his fingers to caress her blushed cheeks. "So this is the end is it? There is no return home after all…?"
"Why do you say that?" She inquired searching deeper in his intense grey eyes. "I'm home, now, Dyre. And I'm not going anywhere. Not without you." Shiri coaxed him, resting her head softly on his chest, enjoying the feeling of his characteristic scent once again filling her nostrils. "And no. Daena was wrong. This is just the beginning. But, I was wrong about something, too."
"Oh, yeah? What?"
"You. Your dream." The handsome blonde watched her, intrigued, the shadows of past incidents clouding his already stormy gaze. "Dreams don't die, Dyre. They're like souls. They are reborn forever."
Worlds apart, lives apart, spirits apart, all actions apart, all words apart – why hadn't she ever said it to him? Why hadn't he ever been allowed to forget and why hadn't she also? But only feelings mattered now – in this brief moment – and their hearts had to be worn openly before anything else. Her pride had to be washed away with her sins.
Dyre smiled – despite of himself –, cocking his head to the side to capture her lips in a gentle, but short, kiss. Whispering into her ear, he drew her to him. "May your Song find it's place forever in My Soul." He saluted her with his trademark sexy grin.
Shiri laughed whole-heartily at his remark, probably the last thing she would ever laugh about, and decided to make, also, a little charade with the true meaning of his name.
"May you be forever my Dearest Heart."
And – together – they leaped into the dark awaiting surface of the Moon Seal, allowing it to devour them as Daena's frustrated scream echoed distantly in the back of their minds, which slipped with the greatest ease into eternity.
On top of a nearby cliff, unseen to the children's eyes, stood an elegant blonde woman, who watched the girl with undisguised interest. She wore a long black cotton skirt and a silk shirt of the same colour, her long golden hair pulled up into an exquisite bun, her eyes flaming with honeyed amber.
The woman turned away from the sight, whispering into the wind, as she knew the young girl would unconsciously listen. "Very good, my small sheila. You've just made the game more amusing."
She reached out to tug the gentle wisps of blonde hair behind her ear, crossing her arms over her chest before shrugging in a silent chuckle. Then, straightening herself, she wondered aloud: "Hmm… I'll come to see you in five years." She shook her head, slightly. "You still have so much to learn..."
And smiled.
Quistis tumbled, exhausted and dizzy, at Seifer's side, a content smile spreading through the length of her lips as she acknowledged, with a relieved sight, that they were both safe – unscratched and clean of any blood – just after Matron's purple lined barrier. Tenderly, her hand came to entwine its fingers with Seifer's – to assure him rather than her – her mind wondering, before drifting off to a blissful and well-earned rest: "Was it all a dream?"
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Demo… how was it? Please, please, please tell me what you thought about it! I really want to know what to improve in future chapters!!! Specially the action! How was the action? Was it bad? Good? Medium? Please let me know!
