I might be wrong by Mintaka.
Chapter 7-meanwhile…
The air around them was tense. Seifer recognised it as fear, although himself, he felt apprehension instead. He sat cross-legged in the darkest corner of the room, with his fingers laced together supporting his chin, and a firm frown creasing his brow.
Korben was huddled against a wall with his head in his knees, and his eyes focused on a very interesting part of the opposite wall. Shawn was standing in the centre of the cabin trying to get a message through to Balamb Garden. From where Seifer was sitting it looked hopeless enough.
"Jeez what's taking them so long? Hey Seifer why aren't they here?" Said Shawn looking down on Seifer.
"Do I look like the fucking oracle to you?" He said. "Just calm down will you, they'll be here." Seifer said firmly. Shawn simply shrugged and turned away.
Suddenly, the train jolted and it seemed as though the train had stopped. From where the symbol of the Alundae had appeared earlier, a trail of flames led round into a rectangle, forming what looked like a doorway. The makeshift door rippled away into nothing, and three figures dressed entirely in black emerged.
They walked in silently and stood before the young men. "These are the SeeDs?" One said, it's voice raspy. "And this one," It said pointing to Seifer, "is the thing that betrayed our Queen?" It walked toward him menacingly, its finger still out pointed.
The other two SeeDs backed away in alarm, alerting the other cloaked beings. They screeched and advanced on the men, one grabbing Shawn by his throat and the other dragged Korben painfully by his leg out of the room.
This left Seifer and the last being alone. "Where are they taking them?" Seifer asked. "It doesn't matter, you won't be seeing them alive again." The thing hissed, its face getting ever closer to Seifer's. "Sssseifer Almasssy…" Its hand closed in on Seifer's face, releasing some kind of vapour from pores in its hands, making it increasingly difficult for him to breathe. "What…the hell...is this?…" He managed out, through the coughing and spluttering. Eventually he felt himself defocus, and all he could see were shades of purple…
~*~*~*~
"There! Over there! That's where the co-ordinates match!" Quistis yelled.
Zell followed Quistis' eyes looking confused. "But all we see is forest."
"…" She hesitated. "Lower down, we might see something." The Ragnorock dived down toward the clump of trees. "Circle round, there, go over there. It looks different from the rest, some sort of parting in the trees." It headed for the area, and sure enough there was a gap in the trees…it was a train tunnel.
~*~*~*~
When Seifer awoke, he firstly noticed the heat. He found himself lying on his back, and saw nothing but pitch black. He outstretched his arms, feeling a barrier just above his face. He tried to raise his head, but was prevented going any further than an inch or so. He elbowed the sides but also found there were walls either side…He was boxed in.
Seifer was scared and began to panic. He had been claustrophobic since that time when Zell and Squall had locked him in the place they used to call the 'creepy closet.' He had been there for nearly the whole night screaming until Quistis and Ellone had found him. He remembered literally jumping into Quistis' arms shaking and crying in hysterics. He hated Zell and Squall for that ever since.
He felt his whole body tremble, and his breathing was shallow. His body temperature increased and he felt himself burn up entirely. "Oh Hyne this isn't happening, this isn't happening, please oh Hyne help me…" He said pleadingly. "Oh but I believe it is." Came a voice, loud and clear, from somewhere. Seifer tried frantically to find it, tracing it to a small hole in the upper left-hand side corner of the box. He reached up to find it and noticed it was not a hole but a pipe of some sort. "What the hell is this?" He yelled. The person laughed. A loud and throaty laughed that seemed to shake his senses…he knew that laugh, and that voice from somewhere…but where?
"We thought you'd be safer confined in a box underground. You'll be far too busy thinking about your fear than how to find a logical way to escape. You see, you Mr Almasy have far too much power to be left tied to a chair with one of our guards standing over you. So we wracked your memories to find an answer…and this is what we found! A fear of confinement, and not being able to escape. Now aren't we clever?"
"What the hell do you want with me? If it's revenge, why don't you just kill me already?" Seifer called up to the voice.
"We want your power Mr Almasy. After we have it, we won't have any need for you and then we'll kill you. Revenge comes last when power is concerned." The man haughtily replied.
"What fucking power!" Seifer was getting increasingly exasperated and you could tell he was getting more and more panicky.
"An acquired power some may say." Was all he said before Seifer could hear his retreating footsteps.
*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*
"Now what?" Huffed Zell. They had walked a good half-hour and still saw nothing.
"Well according to the Garden tracker system, the train is stationary somewhere in this tunnel." Said Squall looking at the small contraption beeping in his hand.
Quistis, who was up ahead, stopped suddenly, turning to her friends. "Hey you guys, the track stops here. If the train is supposed to be in the tunnel, where can it go if there isn't a track?" Zell and Squall hurried to catch up with her. "Yeah that is strange. There has to be something wrong with the damn computer. Squall man, contact Garden, see what's going on."
"Zell I doubt there's anything wrong with it. We got the co-ordinates straight from Garden, it's controlled by satellite." Zell stomped over to Squall and snatched the computer from him. "Look, there has to be something up with it, cos it's impossible for a train to just disappear from the track and there still be a record of it being here. Think bloody logical will you!" Shouted Zell. Quistis meanwhile had thought of something. "HEY! Zell, come here." Zell looked round to her and obeyed. She could sound pretty scary at times.
"When you walked over there," she said pointing over to a spot by the track, "there was a different sound. As if you were walking on a plank of something..." She herself, walked over to the spot, and stamped her foot against it. It made an almost hollow sound. She demonstrated the difference on a spot just a little way beside it. "It sounds like Quisty's onto something..." Chanted Zell. Quistis bent over the spot and wiped her hand over it, pushing the dust and dirt away from it. "Look, there's a line between it. As if it's been covered over...covered another track...Squall, do you think you could pry it open?" Squall stepped forward, and took out his gunblade. Placing the point of the blade at the crack, Squall prised it open, leaving enough space for something to be seen. "A track. That means the train veered off to this side. I'm thinking that this wall," said Quistis, pointing to the wall ahead of the concealed track, "is a hidden entrance to where the train went. Maybe even the hideout."
"So what do we do?" Questioned Zell.
"Simple really. We blow it up. Everyone stand back...AURA!" Said Quistis. Zell and Squall took refuge behind a rather convenient boulder. "MICRO MISSILES!" From around her came several small explosives. One after the other, they collided with the wall, making the air full of smoke and dust.
When it was over, and the dust settled, the three SeeDs had come for what they were looking for, and a lot more besides...
*.*.*.*.*.*.*
Seifer was having a panic attack. He was making it worse by struggling frantically to get out, screaming and shouting, decreasing the oxygen even faster, making his throat tight. He was coughing and gasping for air, and the sweat poured off his face in drops. "Let me the hell out! I can't breathe down here! Let me the fuck out you bastards!" He hollered his throat dry.
After a while, he heard the sound of footsteps, several by the sound of it. "Yes Mr Almasy, we can hear you. Unfortunately, we have to let you out. You're in enough shock so I don't think you'll be a bother to us for a while. EVERYONE! Extract the box!"
From above, there were several of the black cloaked beings that were seen aboard the train. They were headed for a large wheel, in which they all stood at and began to turn it with increasing speed. This operated a set of cogs, which opened up a space in the floor. The pipe that Seifer had to breathe, was left standing upright, while the box containing Seifer was finally exposed, released from its vice. Once this was fully opened, the beings stood motionless at the wheel, and a large crane-like device descended down to the box. The four arms outstretched, and gripped the box, raising it out of the gap, then dropping it to the floor in front of the only man whose face was seen through his cloak.
In his hand were two keys. Taking both, he inserted them into twin slots on the box. With a small beep, it opened, revealing a shocked Seifer. "Take our guest to the temple.
*.*.*.*.*.*
"FULL-LIFE!" The impact from the Ultima spell from the last enemy knocked Zell out straight. He stumbled to his feet, and landed a hefty punch to the side of the remaining enemy, making it fall to the floor in a heap. "Is everyone okay? We took quite a beating there." Breathed Squall.
"Yeah man that was tough. Got knocked out by a single spell, they're pretty tough. Hope Seifer and his team's okay." By the sound of his name, Quistis looked up. That fight was hard on all three of them and they were of the best-trained in Garden. Thinking about how Seifer and two rookie SeeDs would do in that situation scared her. Especially as Seifer was their primary object. She didn't want to know. She just wanted him out of there in one piece. "Hey Quistis!" Zell interrupted her thoughts. "Come on, Squall found a way into the base."
*.*.*.*.*.*
"Cuff him to the manacles. No there you idiot, inside the pentacle. And take off that shirt, we need the mark exposed." Seifer's black shirt was ripped from his back and he was slung into the centre of a large circular symbol painted onto the floor, of what looked to be blood. In a futile attempt to escape, Seifer leaped out of the circle. He was immediently surrounded by what appeared to be skinless humans, each wielding hammers and maces, some daggers and one, who was behind him, had a chain. The same thing raised its arm and flicked the chain downward toward Seifer. He could just see the glint of the sharp end before he felt it tearing the flesh on his back.
"STOP! Leave him, we need the man alive and kicking until the end of the ceremony understood?" The things groaned in acknowledgement, and herded him back to the pentacle. One rebelled, and punched Seifer straight in the mouth, its jagged knuckles piercing his skin, making blood spray from his mouth. "ENOUGH!" The things cowered away from the man, tripping over the rebel in the process. "You dare to disobey me priest? Do you think yourself of higher rank, of higher power? I think not. For that, I will deny you access to justice. You will never see your Queen's failure suffer. Have fun in limbo." The man opened up his palm revealing a white ball of fire. Moving at its own accord, if engulfed the rebel head first until nothing remained, accept its fading screams.
"Mr Almasy so glad to see you finally made it. Do you like the temple? Its all for your benefit you know so I hope you're grateful."
"Why am I here? What the hell is this about?" Seifer said quietly.
"Well, let me tell you a story. When you were born, and sent to the orphanage all those years ago, you believed that you had no family. All of them you thought had died in the sorceress war bravely. Now that is not entirely true. You see before you were even born, your mother Ellen had made a vow. To have you betrothed.
"On the night of your birth, our Queen found out from a very reliable source, that your mother was plotting something. Your father was going to assassinate her daughter Lanea. So she waited. Concealed in her daughter's bedroom waiting for your father. When the killer walked in, he didn't even need to make two steps before he was dead...but it wasn't your father Seifer. Your father was in the delivery room with your mother. He had killed all our Queen's servants and he escaped just as she arrived, and he had something with him...but it wasn't you, because you weren't even born yet, it was your sister, Felicity Almasy." Seifer gasped. "My sister? You're lying."
"No, I'm sorry but I'm not. Now let me finish...your father, Merron, was of special blood. As was your mother. They had immense power, power of which they passed onto you. He was a demon...your mother was an angel, making you something of both, a hybrid of an antithesis, which is why we wanted you, and your sister."
"Why now? Why not when we were born?" Seifer said, aghast
"You were of no use to her until you came of age. You both had the power but it is only at its strongest now. For you, because you never knew about it, it simply lay dormant.
So when Ultimecia found your father and sister, they sent you both to opposite orphanages, to grow up knowing nothing."
"What happened to my father?"
Oh he was taken care of...She made him her knight by possession. And the day he died, was the day you were appointed her new one."
Seifer was completely taken aback. His life had just been told to him at 20 years old, when he should have known...he thought he knew. He hated Ultimecia for what she had done to him, but he despised her even more. His mother...his father. Being her knight was a hereditary status and what he went through was a mirror image of his father's life. Not knowing what he was. He never had an inkling. He felt the anger boil up inside of him and he wanted to scream. He wanted to kill everyone around. For doing this to his family, but it was useless, he was cuffed to rusty manacles, with his strength sapped and fear and shock still consumed him. "Why the hell are you telling me this?!" Shouted Seifer in an outburst.
He laughed mockingly. "Cause its funny! Not to mention ironic, hearing your family history, something kept from you all your life, and then you die! Seriously, it's so funny I can't contain myself!" He laughed again, his voice bellowing throughout the high ceilinged temple.
"Oh really Poldarn, it's not that funny. Let the poor bastard die with at least a small part of his dignity left." A female voice broke the laughter, although you wouldn't think such a gentle voice could. "Princess..." He mumbled, bowing at her feet.
At first glance, she looked at least Seifer's age, maybe older, but she still held that look of girlish beauty. Her raven black hair was tied back in a knot, some parts left loose, hanging down past her face. Up close you could see that her eyes were purple, and her face was painted with make-up which was rather severe. She was dressed in a striking red dress that pooled around her feet as she stood, and wore a belt and twin choker, encrusted with rubies and jade gems. Held in her left hand was a staff, which stood higher than she was.
"Seifer Almasy. Let me say, that it is a pleasure to see you after all these years, although I know that you won't remember. My name is Lanea Himinarti. I am your fiancé, yet it is very sad that we will never be able to such a delightful ceremony that would be our wedding. But I suppose this will compensate my disappointment considerably." The door behind her opened, revealing two of the cloaked guards carrying in what appeared to be a young woman. "Put the girl on the other pentacle." Said Lanea.
The woman was conscious, but barely. She made no struggle, and she lay limp inside another circle next to Seifer. He looked at her curiously. Could this be my sister? He thought. "You, priests, line up around the pentacles. We need to extract their power. Channel it to me, all to me, I want the power!"
The priests obeyed, and without hesitation, they all began to systematically chant, an aura of green light radiating from each of them. Both Seifer and the woman began to feel pain as if their whole body was being torn apart. They felt as though their soul was beginning to surface and leave their bodies...it was a sudden feeling of emptiness.
Out of nowhere, there was a rumble and a crash. The ceiling burst open, and a shadow loomed over the temple. Seifer looked above him, shielding his eyes at the heavy light. He only had one though in his mind...
Quezacotl...
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WHOO HOO!!!! An update! WHOO HOO!!! I'm fairly happy with this chapter...the only problem being that Seifer's life story may be a bit patchy. If you have got confused then say so in your reviews *hint hint* And seriously, I am SO sorry about the time issue. I had GCSEs to do at the time and now college's started, I'm left with NO time... well barely. But I will be updating this, cos I'm using it for a piece of coursework. HA sneaky...I hope they don't know about final fantasy 8...
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Disclaimer: Yeah I know it's not mine, must you rub it in?!?!?!