"When are you gonna be home again daddy?"
"Two weeks."
"Yoo pwomise?"
"I promise."
"Cwoss yoor heart?"
"Cross my heart and I break my promise I'll never go on a mission again."
"Yoo got a deal.........."
"Almasy got your ass out of bed! "
Seifer rolled over as he opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling with the memories that the dream brought back fresh in his mind. He groaned as he stood up from the uncomfortable cot. The blond stretched his arms over his and tried to work the kinks that the cot had caused throughout the night.
"What do I have to do to get some food?" Seifer yelled into the corridor outside the cell door.
"You'll be escorted down to the cafeteria when the staff finished making it," the guard replied from his desk, "Now shut up, or else you won't get anything."
Whatever, Seifer sat down on the cot and studied his new surroundings and reflected on how he arrived to this new hellhole. I was so close to finding Quistis. She probably moved on by now, its been ten years, I just wanted to tell her that I'm sorry.
"Meal time," came the voice of the guard, "Do you think you can be trusted to walk down to the cafeteria without causin' trouble Almasy?"
Seifer stood and slowly sauntered to the open door, "I think I can handle it," he sneered to the guard.
"You're gonna be trouble aren't you Almasy," the guard said.
"You ain't seen nothin' yet," Seifer said as he followed the other inmates to the cafeteria. What a bunch hopeless idiots, Seifer thought as he fell in line behind a especially hopeless looking guy in the line to get whatever this prison tried to pass off as food. Seifer shuffled along through the line with his Styrofoam tray. Some gooey, brownish red stuff was plopped down on his tray accompanied by some hard bread. They actually expect us to eat this crap?
Seifer looked up from the nauseating gook on his tray and noticed that the inmates filled in the tables in the order in which they were in line. The blond sighed as he followed and plopped his tray down next to the other so called men at the table.
"Do any of you know what this is supposed to be?" Seifer asked.
"If you poke your fork through it you'll find bits of meat byproduct and some things that are supposed to be kidney beans, they say its chili," the guy across from Seifer replied. Seifer studied his face, He looks like he was once a handsome man......I hope I'm not here long enough to start looking like that. "Garret Heags," the man said extending his hand to Seifer who looked at it for a few seconds before shaking it, "You look new around here, what did the people call you before you got dragged in here?"
"Almasy, Seifer Almasy," Seifer said thinking of his friends, Do they even remember me?
"So what did you do before you got sent here?" Garret said taking a bite of the chili and made a face as he dumped pepper on it.
"I was a mercenary," Seifer said, "I went around and got paid to do the fighting of those who couldn't."
"How the hell did you end up here then?" a man said who was seated a little ways down the table.
"I don't know," Seifer said taking his chances and quickly stuffed a small bite of chili in his mouth and chewed and swallowed it deciding it was safe seeing it hadn't killed him yet, "The only crime I committed was nineteen years ago, and I was pardoned for it."
"What d'you do?" Garret asked before taking another bite of chili, "You know you soften the bread by dipping it in the chili."
"I attacked the president of Deling while I was under the control of some Sorceress Ultimecia from the future and I started the second sorceress war," Seifer said nonchalantly before stuffing some bread in his mouth.
The table was silent for a few seconds, just staring at the Blond man.
"No really what'd you do?"
"The attacked the Deling president and I started a war," Seifer said slightly enjoying the looks of awe in their faces.
"And they pardoned you!" Garret said with disbelief in his eyes, "Who the hell would pardon someone after they nearly annihilated everyone while taking over the world?!"
"The same people who defeated the Sorceress," Seifer said simply, he was enjoying their disbelief more and more every second.
"SeeD!," Garret exclaimed, "I thought SeeD are supposed to defeat the sorceress?"
"I'm not a sorceress though, I was just her knight," Seifer said ready to give them an explanation,
"Most sorceresses are fairly weak so a stronger sorceress from a different time period will take control of her and an able bodied man who will become the Sorceress's Knight. The knight loses all control of his decisions and is basically a puppet under the control of some power hungry sorceress. The sorceress manipulates the knight and he aids the Sorceress in reaching her goal."
"So why did they pardon you?" the guy next to him asked, "If you were battling against the SeeD, prolly killing many in the process, why would they want to allow you to not be punished?"
Why didn't they throw my ass in jail? They didn't punish Edea either, they probably knew we wouldn't have done it on our own accord.
"I don't know," Seifer said as a horn sounded signifying the start of manual labor. Seifer picked up his tray and threw it out as he left the cafeteria and followed the stream of bodies outside.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Keep your head up Almasy!" Squall called to Collin as he was trying to finish the simulation without getting killed, "It may be a hologram but it can still severely maim you."
Collin cast triple sleep on the dragon before taking a step back to prepare himself momentarily for his finishing blow. I'm not gonna be able to survive another hit from that thing, I might as wel cast a scan to see how much damage I have to do to defeat it. Collin lowered his gunblade and cast the last scan he had. Down to 3,856 in HP, double ultima and I'll try the Demon Slice.
"Come on Collin," Squall yelled, "Its not going to stay asleep for much longer!"
"Double Ultima!" Collin yelled and turned away to shield himself from the magic as it did its work.
"Good work, but you'll attack it physically to get the most EXP!"
Collin took a step back going through the motions of Demon Slice in his head. He stood in attack stance before swinging Hyperion in a circle and advancing on the dragon. Collin just barely hit the dragon with the limit break before it woke and had a chance to evade the attack. KO, and I leveled up three times. Damn I'm good. Collin grinned as the dragon fell and the background disappeared.
"You were lucky this time Almasy," Squall said.
"Hey I killed it right?" Collin said coming over towards Squall, "So uh, ya got any good advice for your student before he take his field exam tomorrow?"
"Don't be so cocky," Squall said writing some info down on his clipboard before looking up, "That's how your father took the SeeD test so many times?"
"Well good thing I'm the son of Quistis," Collin said smirking, "Didn't she make SeeD when she was 15?"
"Yea lucky for you," Squall said chuckling. He glanced at his watch, "Its getting late, go get something to eat and get to bed. You'll need your energy tomorrow."
"Yes sir," Collin said saluting. Collin smirked again before turning and taking the stairs two at a time.
'Just like Seifer' Squall thought to himself as he followed the youth up the stairs at a slower pace.
I wonder if the gangs in the cafeteria. Its not too late we can probably hang out in the quad.
Collin entered the cafeteria and got in line for a hot dog behind Zell. "Hey instructor! Ya think you can leave me some hot dogs?"
Zell turned around and chuckled, "If there's some left when I get up there I might consider leaving some for you."
"Thats all I ask instructor," Collin said grinning. Out of all his mothers friends he like the Zell the most, he could pass as an adult most of the time but he still was a kid at heart.
"You ready for the field exam tomorrow?" Zell asked.
"As ready as I'll ever be," Collin said, "Maybe you'll be the instructor heading my squad."
"Maybe," Zell said as he stepped up the window to order his plateful of hot dogs, " I think I left you a few hot dogs Collin." The instructor said as he joined Squall and the others who were sitting at a table near by.
"I'll take three hot dogs ands a coke please," Collin said to the good natured cafeteria worker, "Thank you." Collin turned and scanned the room for his friends and he spotted them at the table near the window. Shaylyn waved and called out to him "Collin! Over here!"
Collin made his way through the crowd to the table and set his food down on it. He sat down before he noticed the brunette sitting at the other end of the table.
"Collin, have you met Kiana?" Crean asked as Collin sat down, "She just transferred here."
"We've met," Collin said trying to keep his annoyed look suppressed. I thought I got rid of her for a while.
"Yea Collin showed me around Balamb yesterday." Kiana said cheerfully.
"Collin, you got yourself girl finally!" Cal whispered to Collin giving him a punch in the arm.
Collin just grunted as he took a bite of his hot dog then opened his coke.
"So are you guys ready for the test tomorrow," Shaylyn asked. She had made SeeD the year before now she was preparing to take her test to get her teaching license.
"I'm all nerves," Kiana said, "I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight."
"Don't worry about it," Cal said, "If your instructor thought you wouldn't have a chance at passing the exam you would be at a training session right now."
Collin finished his food and he got up to leave, " I'm gonna get to bed, I'm beat." Collin tossed his garbage in the trash near the door.
"Collin wait up," came Selphie's voice.
"Yes instructor," Collin said turning around.
"Do you know where Quistis is?" Selphie asked, "We haven't seen her all day."
"She's probably in town," Collin said remembering to this morning, " She had lunch with Ellone today. they could still be talking somewhere."
"Ok, thanks Collin," Selphie replied, "Get some rest before tomorrow."
"I will instructor," Collin answered as he turned to leave, his mind wandering slightly, he nearly ran into some guy walking into the cafeteria.
"Hey! Watch where your goin'?"
"Who are you?" Collin said taking step back.
The youth looked Collin up and down and sneered, "When the time comes for you to know, you will know." The teen pushed past Collin and got into the line for food.
Whatever.....did that guy just threaten me? Collin just shook his head and made his way slowly towards his dorm.
Kiana watched the scene silently from the table, I better go and see what happened. Kiana excused herself and made her way through the maze of tables and artificial plants to the food line and grabbed a boy by the arm and dragged him the cafeteria doors.
"What the hell Kiana?" the furious teen nearly yelled, "Don't tell me I can't eat while I'm here!"
"What did you do to that boy you ran into to at the door?" Kiana hissed.
"I was able to get into his thoughts," the boy said grinning triumphantly, "Something which you have failed to do with all time you've spent with him."
"Yea, well I haven't been able to get him to trust me yet," Kiana whispered harshly, "So what helped you to enter his thoughts."
"Well," the teen said trying to make Kiana impatient, "It was easy, just make physical contact with him, that's when I was finally able to read his thoughts clearly. I guess his mind was wondering before I ran into him so I was able to make myself a foothold in that so-called mind barrier."
"I can't just keep running into him!" Kiana whined, "he has already started to avoid me as much as possible...."
"Then put yourself in the situation where it is possible for you to make physical contact," the teen said growing impatient himself. He could see where it was heading he would have to spell everything out for her, "You've made friends with his friends with his friends right?"
"Yea I guess they like me," Kiana said very confused, "what exactly are you trying to get at?"
"Let me get that far," said the boy even more impatiently, "One of those girls has to be the kind of girl who likes to meddle with people's personal lives. Let on slightly that you like the blond idiot and one of them might try and hook you up with him."
"But he hates me!" Kiana whined.
"So," the boy said, "They'll still make him at least go on a date with you.....trust me I know these things."
"Fine," Kiana said turning to go to her dorm. She walked across the bridge that connected the cafeteria with the outer circle of the center of garden, she barely noticed when she ran into a blond women hurrying past the cafeteria.
"Kiana!" the blond called to Kiana.
Kiana turned and tried to smile for the blond women. "Mrs. Almasy," Kiana said smiling, "How are you tonight?"
"Very late," Quistis said breathlessly, " I need to find the Commander and the others, have you seen them by any chance?"
"I think they were all in the cafeteria," Kiana said remembering seeing the group in the corner.
"Thank you," Quistis said smiling gratefully to the youth, "I don't know what has come over me, I'm usually never so irresponsible!"
"Happens to the best of us," Kiana said chuckling to herself, "Well I better get going, I'll need my rest for tomorrow."
"Yes you will," Quistis said going into instructor mode, "You'll need all the energy you can get for tomorrow."