AN: A strangely inspired musing... *** encloses memories
Disclaimers: I don't own any ff8 characters, they are © Squaresoft, and I am making no money for this fic :( so don't bother suing me cause you ain't gonna get much...
Rated PG for suggestion
***
The gilded cage is gone. All that remains is for me to tempt some unwary soul to release my chains and I am free. A young 'gentleman' in the crowd is staring at me, and I smell a discordant whiff of concern. The perfect target. They all see me as a 'damsel in distress' a player in a travelling circus of myths and legends. There is, somewhere, a crone, supposed to be me, but these pathetic innocents are unaware that the reality is staring into their minds.
I have been allowing myself to look fainter and fainter, and now I let my head fall to my chest, slumping in the restraints, although they burn with a cold hatred against my pale skin. I hear the youth shout a protest to the management, then scramble onto the platform.
I feel his hand on my chin, tilting my head upwards to see if I have really fainted, or if it is part of the act. I continue to deceive him. The bonds can only be removed through pity, so I cannot directly manipulate him, even though his contact with me means I could. He reaches for the first restraints, the legs, and I feel them open with soft snick, and then crumble to dust. I will reward him, this one who has freed me once more. I will reward him with a quick death.
There is a sudden sound of running boots, and before he can remove the arm restraints, he is knocked aside. I snarl, coming to life suddenly before a startled audience. There is no one who can replace the leg restraints in this era, even if there happens to be someone who remembers me.
My disguise in their minds has gone, crumbled to dust as surely as the restraints which once held my legs. They see me now as I am, the eternal sorceress, suddenly revived before them. They gasp in horror, and, as a group, flee in terror, a wave of panic spreading before them.
Their saviour, a young man, walks back into my sight. I snarl in recognition, calling him the foulest things that he can imagine. He blanches at some of the names, but he knows he is safe. Slowly he walks around me, as if fixing my image in his mind. I must look exotic and exciting to him, especially given what he was once used to and what he must have to exist on now. But he does not pity me, he cannot free me. I can still wreak revenge on him though, I was not given my names for nothing.
"We thought it best if one of us kept close to you. We thought you would try to escape." I sneer at his bravado.
"So where are the others? They'd never trust you to take care of me, alone." I deliberately insult his intelligence and fighting skills. He frowns. Success! I remember him too well for him to escape my manipulations. Already he is hooked, doomed, like a fish on a line, to be landed when I wish.
"I am the only one alive to 'take care of you'." He realises too late that he should never have revealed that information. My spell worked well, it would seem, if the others are all dead.
I throw my head back and laugh, knowing him well enough to anticipate his reaction. He steps forwards, once, twice, a third time. He is well within range now as he leans forwards to snarl whatever angry message he has for me. Too late, too late he realises how close he is. My laughter stops abruptly, my legs taking on a life of their own, wrapping around his waist and drawing him into my body.
"You always wanted me..." I whisper into his ear. No one can see us - I am drawing off his power, using his own magic to hide us from prying eyes. I may have seduced many 'strong' men to my will, but never for an audience, and I'm not about to start now.
He is lost in the world I have captured him in, his mind subservient to mine. There all his fantasies are coming true, and he believes it is real.
***
...I killed him, eventually. The last of the Centra, the last of the eternal ones - except me - gone. Now I knew there would be no one to stop my complete descent through memory once more. Only the people of that time had a different idea...
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AN: Not a nice person then... Who could it be? *scratches head*