© 2002 Copyright Original Storyline by Gold (e-mail: goldenstarlight@hotmail.com)
Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VIII belongs to Squaresoft.
Warning: A story is never completed until the last word has been written. There are at least two chapters more of angst.
Quistis doesn't realise people care about her, because of her emotional insecurity. She sometimes feels she isn't worth caring about—and that also makes her feel that people don't love her very much. She's wrong—people do care about her—but at the same time, her friends don't realise that vulnerability in her character because she always seems so strong and intelligent.
The Dish: One Angsty Seiftis
Part 7: One Sacrifice
Her mind dizzy with agony, Quistis Trepe's head lolled back weakly against the wall. She hoped that Han had managed to escape. The bonds that bound her were loosening, but she had almost no strength left. She tried to cough and nearly choked on the blood that filled her mouth and trickled slowly over her lips and down her chin, sliding down the line of her neck to stain her clothes. She could barely take slower breaths to ease the frantic anxiety that threatened to overwhelm her. And oh, the pain! She had been there for the past two hours, and had endured lashing blows from the whip as well as certain other tortures at intervals for the past hour, after her interrogator found that neither truth serum nor threats moved Quistis. If she had not been SeeD-trained, she would have been dead by now, but she was both physically and mentally stronger than the ordinary person. The tall, lean woman in the corner eyed her angrily, and cracked her whip threateningly.
"Do you want a taste of this again—" She paused and frowned. "Who's there?" she called sharply. "Is that you, Mop? What took you and the others so long?"
Sudden lights blazed into the place through the glass skylights above, their brilliance nearly blinding the woman, who stumbled back, shielding her eyes from the bright lights. Glass showered down in glittering fragments as uniformed SeeDs shattered the skylights, plunging through on rope harnesses to land firmly in the room, their weapons ready as they secured the area.
They quickly spotted the bloodied woman tied to one of the pillars.
"Stop!" declared a stentorian voice. From behind the blood-drenched body stepped out a woman, the one who had been whipping Quistis, if the SeeDs had but known it. "Who are you?"
"Who are you?" shot back one SeeD, a tall, handsome blond man with deep green eyes that had the bitter, pained look of the mortally wounded in their depths.
The woman eyed him narrowly; then her face changed. "You're SeeD!"
"Don't move," snarled the blond man as he aimed his gunblade at her.
The bloodied body tied to the pillar stirred; the head, matted with blood, tilted towards the light and faced them. It was a beautiful, beloved face, although blood and swollen cuts wrecked its loveliness and the sight of it was both tragic and heart-rending.
"Instructor!"
"Quistis!"
"Instructor Trepe!"
Amidst the collective gasps and cries, the woman seized the chance and looped her whip around Quistis' neck, forcing it back so that her head hit the pillar with a painful thud and the wounds on Quistis' neck began to bleed in earnest again.
"Stand back, or I swear I will kill her," stated the woman coldly. "Instructor Quistis Trepe, eh? One of the heroes who defeated Ultimecia." She shrugged her shoulders. "Come any closer and I will kill her. I want each of you to step back six steps. Big ones. Go on, now! Or else…"
Quistis choked painfully as the woman tightened the noose around her throat and went limp.
"Oh, she's not dead yet," the woman assured them. She glared around. "You SeeDs. You won't talk when tortured, and you talk too much when you're not supposed to—"
The six doors around the huge room exploded, scattering bits of sharp metal, wood, cement, plaster and Hyne knew what else. Following the explosions, a group of men and women, armed to the teeth, stormed into the room and headed straight for the SeeDs. At the same time, there were shouts from above, and another detachment of SeeDs rappelled into the room through the broken skylights.
"Rinoa?!" exclaimed Squall, staring at the leader. Automatically, he swung over to her side and they battled side-by-side.
Rinoa Heartlilly tossed her head and gave him a quick smile as she dispatched of one attacker. "Irvine found Selphie's team and they've gone to save President Laguna. Zell's securing the exit routes now, together with Trabia's Barbadi and Esthar's Terbuchiut—you remember them, don't you? Come on!"
In the confusion, the woman had fallen back, loosing her hold on the noose, and Seifer blazed forward immediately, cutting her down in seconds. He was beside Quistis in a moment, his trusty gunblade set aside as another SeeD guarded his back, and his hands were busy freeing Quistis from her knots. She slid to the ground before he could catch her, and he was horrified to see the bloody marks left on the pillar as she slipped down.
"Quistis!"
He caught her up in his arms. She was bleeding all over his uniform, bleeding still—at least she was alive, although her eyes were closed and she did not move. Seifer lifted his voice brokenly. "I need a healer—"
Selphie seemed to materialise from nowhere, and Seifer watched, tears coursing down his cheeks as Selphie poured healing spell after spell into Quistis, and forced liquids through lips that had to be gently forced open and frequently did not swallow the precious liquids being fed to her. Still the seconds ticked away, and perspiration beaded on Selphie's white forehead; the blood flow was slowing and some of the wounds had ceased to bleed, but Quistis remained unconscious, and she had already lost too much blood for Selphie's comfort. Seifer was still supporting Quistis' body, and had all his attention focused on her, but then he heard a shout of alarm.
"Rinoa, watch out!"
Seifer froze and then jerked, turning his head, and his hold on Quistis slackened as his attention wandered. If he had kept his head, he would have seen that Quistis' eyes were open, and their gaze was fixed quietly on him. Somehow, Squall's warning shout to Rinoa had penetrated Quistis' hearing, and she had forced herself to open her eyes. A split second later, she watched Seifer turn his head, and felt his hold on her weaken, even as Selphie continued to pour healing strength into her.
Quistis' world spun as Seifer stared distractedly in the direction of the shout. The ice bands she had so carefully put around her heart began to weaken and give way. Her heart quivered and then shattered completely for the last time in the wake of one anguished thought, which arrowed like lightning and tore mercilessly through her.
He still loves her.
She convulsed once in her blinding agony, her body arching backwards, a sharp movement of pain that startled Seifer so badly that his arms completely gave way and Quistis tumbled to the floor, hitting it with a horrible cracking sound. At the same time, Selphie cried out in terror as Quistis' wounds burst open forcefully and bled heavily, soaking the bandages in a matter of seconds and undoing all her good work.
"QUISTIS!" Selphie shrieked. "QUISTIS, NO!"
Let me die…I want to die…
Quistis was gasping now, her body jerking sharply in tune with her struggles to breath. A single tear streaked from the corner of her right eye and slid down her face, and another tear slid down her left cheek. Just two tears, and another convulsive shudder, and then Quistis Trepe went completely limp, her face a ghastly shade of grey.
"QUISTIS!"