A Promising Young SeeD
Chapter 15
Black Out Days Remix
By the time they finally made their way back to Seifer's apartment, the sun was setting. Quistis was tired, but knew that sleep was not coming for a long time. There was far too much to discuss. All of the images she had taken of Odine's journals had been electronically transferred to Zell and thusly the Archivist, from the small pen camera Zell had given Quistis. The two of them plus Raijin had likely scoured them and would have their own information to share upon their return.
Her heart felt heavy. She was at such a loss. Quistis had never felt this lost, even when she was demoted as an instructor all those years ago at Garden. Seeing everything that was going on at O-Lab made her feel utterly helpless. Sure, she had taken on a Sorceress, but according to Seifer the only reason they beat Ultimecia was because of Squall and Rinoa. Had she always been this useless?
It certainly didn't help that she was feeling unnecessarily insecure in her growing connection with Seifer. O-Lab left a bitter taste in her mouth regarding their relationship… seeing Seifer metaphorically and physically laid out in a bunch of test tubes, forever connected to Adel, Ultimecia, and Rinoa. Always and ever a Knight.
Even so, there was far more than a growing connection between them. He was her anchor. Would he willingly let her drift off to sea? He claimed to be in love with her. Was that just to get what he wanted? Since he knew their situation was temporary? If he was going to be dead, why the hell not, sleep with Quistis Trepe on the way down to hell.
And drag her down with him.
She couldn't focus on that though, she had to return to the mission.
Zell greeted them at the door, his face extremely red. Quistis didn't think she had ever seen him that flustered. Even when she and Irvine had caught him and the library girl in an extremely compromising position in the restricted book section that one time.
Seifer, arm still slung heavily around her shoulder, seemingly noticed too. "What's with you, Dincht? Find something naughty in Odine's journal or something?"
"Uh…" Zell shook his head silently, before reaching forward and gently pushing the zipper of Quistis' hoodie slightly to the side.
The arm around her tightened as Seifer reacted to Zell touching her. "The fuck? Don't grab my—"
"The microphone…" Zell mumbled.
Sweet Hyne, I forgot we were connected to Zell since the feed cut off in O-Lab… Zell must have heard them in the alley. Or at least part of it.
Quistis was mortified.
Seifer was puffing out his chest, not the least embarrassed.
"Can we just talk about O-Lab?" Quistis requested, tugging her way out of Seifer's embrace and sitting wearily on the couch, hoping desperately to change the subject off what she and Seifer had done.
Zell coughed. "Right. Lots to discuss."
Settling down next to her, Seifer offered her a half-hearted apologetic smile.
"So let's talk about what we know so far. We had time to look through everything you sent, Quistis, though I'm sure you'll have some things to add that you saw in person." Zell was the person to surprisingly take charge of the conversation, which Quistis at the moment was happy to let him do.
There was no clear leader in this rag tag band. And all of them were weirdly okay with that. They were a team—they all had their own roles to play. Though Seifer clearly knew more than any of them, and wasn't completely keen to share all his information. Quistis suspected it was for their own safety more than power. Though with Seifer, motivations were never transparent.
"This whole story starts two years ago. Odine pays money to D-District prison to release Seifer. One of the conditions for Seifer's freedom was that he agree to be a guinea pig for lab experiments that were looking to create a way to extract Guardian Forces from users' brains. The experiments were led by a Dr. Sanford who was secretly working for Odine. No one, Seifer included, knew Dr. Odine was behind the experiments. During that time, pretty much every sample imaginable was taken from Seifer."
"Which are now destroyed," Quistis added quietly, not meeting anyone's eyes.
"Probably for the best," Zell supplied, sounding completely unsurprised nor judgmental by her choice.
"Through these experiments, Odine was able to create the GF-extracting drug that we were infused with at Garden. Dr. Sanford also was there at Garden injecting us. I suspect the higher ups knew Odine was involved, but none of us were aware. Not sure about Squall. I can't imagine Squall would have sanctioned it if he knew Odine was involved. Either way, the end result was that Seifer was freed and the experiments were stopped on him and the posse. As a result, Fujin started using diamonds because she had not been fully released from Pandemona. And as we knew quickly, diamonds mimicked the high as well as the results of the GF-removal drug."
Seifer began to itch at his Odin tattoo unconsciously, his knee shaking nervously.
"Fujin overdosed on diamonds," Zell continued. "Which we now know are the exact same drug we were infused with at Garden, just in pill form. Meaning, Garden and/or Odine is likely involved in the production of the diamonds, if not the sales. We just need to find out who, and we need proof. After Fujin fell into a coma, Seifer and Raijin decided to become the collective 'Siegfried' and they became the most powerful drug dealer in Esthar… which makes them the most powerful drug kingpin in likely the world, as this is the party center."
Zell nodded to Seifer, who gave an immodest half shrug at that description. " But Seifer does not know who his supplier is—as he work only in dead drops, though we strongly suspect that the PM of Esthar is involved, as well as Kiros' Chief-of-Staff, though again, we need proof. Quistis is playing the role of honey-pot at Phantasmagoria, trying to get close enough to one of them to clone their phones. We have the technology. Right now she is posing as Seifer's… plaything, for lack of a better word, and successfully getting noticed. At some point we are assuming one of them will make a play for her to save her from Mr. Evil Siegfried over here."
Seifer rolled his eyes. "It's all an act, Chicken-wuss, you know I'm not treating her like crap."
Zell waved a dismissive hand. "Here's where things get tricky. Doing economic forensics, the Archivist determined that Garden was the one who paid Odine the money to be able to get Seifer out of D-District. Odine is broke as shit. He spends all his money on his crazy experiments and isn't focused on income—hence why he is stupid enough to take money for stupid projects. So, essentially, Garden paid for Seifer's release, and for the GF-drug to be developed."
"What?" Seifer sounded incredulous.
"Looks like it was a deal. Money to develop the GF-removing drug. And the weapon. Garden knew the GFs were bad PR. Odine develops the drug and gives the blueprint for the drug to Garden. Plus, didn't Odine give Garden that super cannon? He needed the GFs to make weapons, by taking their magic," Zell offered.
"The GFs were in Odine's lab. Or at least, what is left of them." Quistis' voice dropped to a whisper as she shared this information. It felt like a shameful secret. "He's experimenting with them or… something."
"It's how he made the weapon," Zell said. "The super weapon that Balamb Garden now has. He combined tissues from Adel and extracted magic from the GFs to make a magical canon powerful enough to destroy an island. It's all in his notes. In order to create a weapon powerful enough to destroy a Sorceress, he needed to have a Sorceress, a Knight, and GFs. That's why he wanted to develop the GF-removing drug, to get the GFs! With them he can create magic without needing to draw." Zell opened his computer excitedly, pointing out some random spreadsheet of money. "But there's a catch—"
"The canon can't hurt Rinoa. But Garden doesn't know that," Seifer supplied.
"Bingo. Adel's samples weaken over time—her magic isn't strong enough to destroy a Sorceress as powerful as Rinoa. Even though she is one herself." Zell sounded proud of himself for figuring this out.
Quistis sighed, rubbing her temples. "Then what's the point of the canon? And where is Garden getting its money?"
"The money is fucking obvious. They are selling diamonds and weapons! Who needs mercenaries for sale, when you have a fucking canon that can destroy a city and can sell drugs and arms? Right? With those weapons Garden is the most powerful military entity in the world, stronger than Esthar. They may as well be their own fucking country. What do the books say, Chicken-wuss?"
"Money is coming in for sure, but we need proof they are doing it illegally. It seems like Garden is a middle man. I think they are involved with the diamonds, but not the high-end drugs. Odine is getting money for the high-end drugs from a company called Tehasa to 'research'. That's the other piece of the puzzle. In addition to the diamonds, which we think Garden is involved in, there are also these 'super-drugs'. The super-drugs share the same chemical mark as magic. In fact, they are literally powder forms of magic-spells. Somehow, Odine has found a way to create spells in a powder form, by extracting them from GFs and Adel. Odine thinks he is working for a medical company and developing cures for diseases. Obviously the company is a front, and someone is supplying them to Seifer to sell on the street for a lot of money. Much more money than the diamonds. We know the money is in Esthar. So next step is for Quistis to make her move. Someone in the Esthari government is behind this, and we need to find out who."
"Do we know what else Odine is doing with the samples? He has Rinoa's blood and he had pretty much everything of Seifer," Quistis asked.
"Trying to breed a Sorceress from the samples of Seifer and Rinoa. So, he can have unlimited samples for extraction. Like… cellular magic." Zell said quietly, looking pointedly away from Seifer.
"Holy shit."
"Actually… I wanted to show you this." Zell opened a few graphs on his laptop, lines of varying colors overlapping each other. In them there was a line that was consistent in each that was highlighted red. "This line is Rinoa's blood. Remember, Seifer got a sample of her blood when she came in here? I put it through my spectroscopy machine. The tag in her blood is in all of the high-end drugs you had me analyze."
Quistis peered down at the graph in dismay. "So Odine is getting high-end drugs out of Rinoa's blood? That's why they are so powerful?"
Zell closed his laptop. "Looks like it. And Odine is finding a way to replicate the drugs without needing more blood from Rinoa. I think that's where Seifer's samples come in. Then they are being given to this fake medical company, and then passed on to Seifer to sell."
"There's one more issue though." Quistis leaned back, closing her eyes, exhaustion washing over her. "Selphie. She also developed problems with the diamonds due to the infusions. Eden had too strong of a hold on her. Almost a year ago now, Selphie was drugged and attacked, and has been incoherent ever since in the Garden psych ward. We have to think she was attacked for a reason. Either she saw something that she wasn't supposed to, or someone was trying to send a message to Garden. I don't think she is safe at Garden, either way. We need to get back there and get her—or send a message to get her. Selphie's attack was the reason Zell and I left Garden and met up with you. We all have the same mission. Take down whoever is supplying the drugs. Even if we have proof, how are we going to do that? How are we going to take down Garden and the Esthari government?!"
"You have to trust me." Seifer stood, offering his hand down to Quistis on the couch. "I'm fucking worn out—can we plan more tomorrow? Or is there anything else we need to recap?"
Everyone seemed to agree with Seifer's thought process. Certainly, none of them felt like pressing him for information they knew he wasn't going to give. Disbanding from the living room, the group went their separate ways, Quistis following Seifer into their bedroom.
Pulling his shirt over his head, Seifer tossed it into the hamper in the corner of the room before unbuttoning his pants and doing the same. He didn't meet Quistis' eyes. "What's with you? You've been weird ever since we got back from O-Lab."
The truth was that she didn't completely want this mission to end. Because it ending meant them ending. It meant the end. She was scared. But not ending it meant not avenging Selphie, not avenging Fujin… not stopping the massive amounts of pain and violence that rich men were causing in the name of power and money.
They were so close.
She was scared. And she was a SeeD. She wasn't meant to be scared.
So instead of answering, she just sighed.
Seifer came behind her, wrapping his arms around her midsection. Placing a chaste kiss on the top of her shoulder, his voice was soft. "Quis, I know I'm an asshole most of the time, but did I do something specific to set you off?"
Quistis shook her head. It was the farthest thing from the truth.
She let herself be turned around in his arms so they were face to face. His face was serious and his tone grim. "Babe, this whole thing isn't gonna work if you don't talk to me."
Quistis wrinkled her brow. "Talk to you? That's rich. You don't tell anyone anything."
She knew she was picking a fight. Because being in a fight felt better than serving up her heart on a platter to one of the most unpredictable and dangerous men she had ever met. What would he do with it? Mock her? Tell her it was all in the name of make-believe? That the only reason they were a thing was because of this crazy situation?
Seifer scoffed. "Nice try. But it ain't gonna get you out of this. Look, you asked me to fuck you in that alley, so don't get all high and mighty on me now, or try and make me feel like I forced you or something…"
"This isn't about sex, Seifer. Not everything is always about sex."
"When have I ever made this about sex? I can't think of what else would have set you off in the last three hours." Seifer's hand retreated from her waist and instead dipped to rest on her hip. It wasn't there in comfort, or in an intimate way, rather there to keep her from running away. Seifer knew her well. He loomed over her, his larger size apparent as he stared down at her. Challenging her. Not-so-subtly showing her he had the upper-hand. Seifer was prepping for battle with her. And battles with Seifer had never been easy. They almost always left both sides left with scars.
She knew him just as well as he knew her. And that was the problem. "What do you want, Seifer?"
He blinked in surprise. "I want you. Isn't that pretty obvious?"
"And you have had me. Many times."
Seifer let out a deep sigh and retreated from her, sinking down on the bed heavily. Quistis knew she was poking a bear. Seifer's mental state was delicate at best. She was playing with fire, but she couldn't help it.
"What do you want with me? With us?"
Seifer's head was between his hands, elbows resting on his knees. "That's what this is? You think I'm just dicking around?"
Quistis looked down at her hands.
"I'm not a fucking monster, Quistis." His tone had an icy edge. "You think I'm the type of guy who would have started something with you of all people if I didn't intend on following through?"
"Do you want this to end?"
Seifer's jaw was clenching and unclenching and she could tell he was trying very hard to keep his temper in check. "This mission? Yeah. Been two years of this shit, pretty ready for it to be over. And we're almost there."
"I don't want it to."
"Fucking Hyne, are you scared?" Seifer scoffed. "You're playing games with me because you're fucking scared?"
"I—" She wanted to scream at him. Strangle him. She was afraid. But not for the reasons he was assuming. She wasn't afraid to die. She was afraid that he was going to smash her heart into millions of pieces.
Seifer's voice was low. "I know I said that we weren't making it out of this, but… you and Chicken-wuss? You'll be fine. You just have to trust me. I have a plan, and I'll do anything to make sure you're safe. I'll die before anything—"
Her fists clenched "I don't want that! It's not worth it if you aren't there with me!"
Expression softening, Seifer looked up at her, like something important had dawned on him. All the fight evaporated from him instantly. "Oh. I get it. You love me."
It wasn't a question, but a statement.
"Wh-what?"
He reached up, grabbing her waist and pulling her down onto his lap, her knees landing on either side of his hips. "You love me. That's why you're so scared… fucking terrible way to tell me though, gotta say."
He placed a soft kiss on the center of her chest, and she could feel his grin against her skin. "Show me," he whispered.
"Show you?"
His lips moved to her neck and then to her ear, his words causing her to shiver. "I love you. When we make it out of this, I'm not going anywhere. It's you and me. So… show me."
Her heart soared. Even if the chance was remote, Seifer was ready to offer up everything to her. Everything she never even realized she wanted. "It's you and me…" she confirmed softly.
Hands at her hips, he rocked his body into hers. "Show me…"
And she did, riding him into oblivion and giving him everything she had. Showing him just how much she had come to need and love him.
And he gave her everything in return.
A/N: Ah, the "recap" episode. I felt it was needed given everything that had happened so far, and hopefully it was helpful. A huge pain to write though. Next chapters shouldn't take so long, I have a clear vision of how this is all ending and have already started writing them. Thanks for reading!
beta: colobonema 3
