Disclaimer: I survived living without owning them so far. But sometimes, oh
just sometimes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~xXXx~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 15:Truths that should never have been told
\
Obel Lake
Alitas' hands were shaky as she finally put the small jewel back in the box, and slid the magically enhanced padlock in the small loop. The whole process was one of the hardest she ever had to do in her life, and in addition, it was a gamble, because she couldn't remember anyone trying it in her years of experience.
The jewel was the only memorabilia she kept from her son's birth, a small, tear-shaped diamond with hollow inside, and containing a single drop of Allen's blood, coming from the sample drawn from him the day they took him out of the feeding liquid. Still, the DNA it contained permitted her to draw her spirit out in the world and to his own, wherever he was.
Well that was theory.
Still, she was absolutely certain the faint response she got, like a uncentered caress in an ocean of conflict feelings, was his. She hoped the slight electric impulse she sent inside him was enough for the trigger to push and start the most useful feature she had implanted in him. Not that she thought that a self-destruction system would ever come in handy with the loving, shy boy, but with the powers given to him, she had to be cautious.
Exhausted beyond the point of collapsing, the sorceress crashed on her bed. She now knew why this procedure was very rarely used-her heart was beating wildly against her ribs, and she was positive that any older, weaker sorceress would have died from the extreme effort-such pressure could make arteries burst, muscles snaps and heart breaks. But her body was strong, and her mind sharp. Within a few days the self-destructive spell would turn her shameful son's brain into useless mud. He would turn from a help to a burden.
Absently, her eyes drifted to the solid steel safe where the syringe laid. The concentrated aura that would soon be injected into her. Without Allen to play the catalyst's part, they have been turning their attention on a teen brought back a few days before Erin's execution. The young girl was nearly fourteen, and had clearly suffered from starvation through most of her life, for her body was lithe and slightly deformed, as well as her mind. One could call her retarded, but Alitas preferred to think of her as 'alterable', and her body was now conditioned with doses of aura. To everyone's surprise, she was already considered strong enough to support the aura transfert. Only a few more days, to ensure she would survive. After all, if anything should fail, she would need to either start the gathering of magic all over again, or she wouldn't have to care about anything at all-as she'd be dead and ready to rot.
Sleep made her eyelids heavier and heavier, but her last logical thought before blackness was how she missed him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~xXXx~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The day came too quickly, as always, and Quistis finally got to separate herself from the still sleeping and now drooling kid beside her. Taking advantage of the very early time, she ran to the bathroom and had a nice bath, knowing that in maybe half an hour, the kid would notice her disappearance and check for her.
Boy, was she good in falling from a mess to a bigger one? Of course she had to know that showing friendly care toward the young lad would draw him toward her-after all she was the only woman in there, and he clearly had been missing a motherly figure. But she wasn't a mother, she hadn't a clue how to be one, and she feared turning him back into a monster-after all, this kid have kidnapped and led people, many people, to their death, and all that only for the love of his mother.
Once she felt clean enough, Quistis peeled herself out of the water, dried and dressed, and left the bathroom. The kitchen felt cold and dark in the light morning sun, so she quickly got a batch of coffee done, knowing the warm smell would bring everyone in.
As expected, five minutes were the quickest for everyone to fight over the bathroom's ownership and lounge into the small piece. Squall arrived with an overchatty Zell clutching him and was immediately voted off the caffeine. Seifer followed, looking absolutely pissed as always but taking the time, as he reached for the sugar, to secretly hold her hand and- obviously not by accident- to pinch her bottom. Allen came last, but did a wide-arc walk to avoid Seifer's proximity and join Quistis's opposed side.
"We'd need to get a move on." Squall finally said, breaking the sleepy morning magic. Faces quickly faded to severe, and everyone sat around the table.
"Why are you so quick with another move on, Leonhart?" Seifer growled from his side. "We have money now. Dr. Kadowaki is on our side. We can work from here."
"Work from here?" Squall growled back at him. "May I remind you the bitch is in Obel Lake and we're on Dollet?"
"And by going back there unprepared, we might as well kill ourselves right now."
"Time is nearly up." Allen said quietly, drawing very unwanted attention on him. " She kept telling me how close she was getting of her dream."
"Her romantic dream, maybe?" Squall taunted, eyeing Seifer, who reddened within seconds.
"And which consist of..?" He muttered.
"I.I don't know." Allen whispered, shame evident on his face.
"Goooood!" Seifer smiled bitterly. "Can someone tell me where we're heading?"
"I think," Allen said quietly, "That the people that were in my mother's facilities are the ones who could defeat her. You were there for a reason. She wanted you powers. She robbed them to you. I think that's the reason why Zell doesn't seem to heal up."
"But Quistis did." Seifer pointed up.
"Yes, she did. And that's why I think she is the key. From what I heard, Quistis' disappearance caused a great distress to my mother."
Seifer laughed. "I remember how you used to burst into a magic overload each time you were annoyed, back at the orphanage. Bossy little Quistis. You scared us to death the day you threw a laser beam at Squall because he ignored you. You almost killed him. Matron put you in the corner for a full week. That was the first time you used your Blue Magic habilities."
Quistis smiled weakly. "Yeah, I remember that. I did it twice that year. The other time, I missed Zell from a centimeter and the old Oak tree in the yard caught fire. I was spanked until I couldn't feel my butt anymore."
"How many Blue Magic abilities do you have now?" Squall asked.
"Thirteen, I think. I still haven't found the proper items for White Wind, Fire breath and Ray Bomb."
"We might." Allen began.
"Do not even think about it, boy," Quistis swiftly cut him. "I can use my limit breaks only if weakened or under the influence of an aura spell."
"Although you certainly weren't in a weak state the day you almost fried me alive." Squall pointed out.
This caused a long, surprised silence, as everyone finally came to the same conclusion.
"You aren't going to tell us you hid it?" Seifer finally said.
"Hid what?" Quistis choked.
"That you could use you limit anytime, without trigger."
"I can't!" She protested, a bright flush creeping on her cheeks.
"Of course you do." Seifer retorted. "Stop playing innocent."
"My limits appear only in the two circumstances I told you! I never hid!"
"Quistis, I remember quite clearly, you were quite fond of your solitude, back in the old Garden days. Were you trying to keep something away from the others? Something like newfound powers?"
"Shut up you retarded bastard!" Quistis yelled, standing up from her chair.
"My, looks like I hit a sweet spot in there!" Seifer spoke through a perfect, jubilant smile.
"You're nothing but a good-for-nothing motherf-" Quistis' hateful sentence was cut short by a glowing greenish smog encircling her body and quickly spreading in Seifer's direction. His eyes widened as he started inhaling the acrid smell, and slowly faded to a sleepy, un-centered gaze, before a milky screen appeared over the pupils. His head slumped against his chest and he started to snore lightly, as his whole body spun around, in circle. His skin was also turning to a very unhealthy greenish color.
"Oh my Goddess." Quistis whispered before both of her hands clamped on her mouth.
"I may be mistaken," Squall snorted, although a hint of awe seeped through, "But you just bad-breathed is arse."
"Which proves a point." Allen whispered, but quickly faded under Quistis' very sharp and bruising glare.
Squall untangled himself from Zell's possessive hug and walked to the spinning man, using his gloved fists to bash some sense back into Seifer. Still bright green but liberated from both the Sleep and Confuse spells, he collapsed on the floor before vomiting his breakfast all over himself. His cataract-afflicted eyes were feverishly searching around.
"What a mess." Squall sighed, but he still helped the blonde back on his shaking legs, poured a vial of antidote down his throat and headed for the bathroom for a little clean-up. Five minutes later, the messy head of dark curls peeked from the door.
"Anyone got a Eye Drop?"
"Uh, no." Quistis replied, still shocked.
"Bugger. Guess he'll have to be led around until I have a trip to the store." Squall's head disappeared again.
"What." Allen tried to speak again, but shut down for the second time, glad that no twin laser beams had burned through him from the over-aggressive irises. Quistis sat in silence, eyes unfocused. Realizing for the first time that she had never cared to explore the hidden power she had always felt somewhere, but not once believed in.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~xXXx~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Everyone thought the day could not get worse than that. Upon a quick trip to the medicine shop, they learned that the store was currently out of Eye drops, and they had to buy a very expensive x-remedy to cure Seifer. Of course, as soon as the whiteness left his eyes, Seifer's first concrete thought have been to kill Quistis, and he had to be kept under supervision for a while, just in case his vengeful ideas got over his common sense. And sadly for them, it was only noon, and the other part of the day held far more surprises.
They were just finishing cleaning the dishes for dinner when they heard a knock at their door. Everyone stiffened, while Squall retrieved Lionhart and cautiously took a peek out of the door window, followed by a sight and the sound of the door being unlocked. The small, replete form of Dr. Kadowaki slid in the room. She was holding what looked like a large oval suitcase, which she settled on the table before crashing on a chair, sighing.
"I'd gladly take a cup of tea before I begin, kids."
Quistis smiled and went to retrieve the kettle. Five minutes later, the infusion was in front of the woman, and several pairs of nervous eyes followed her hands opening the suitcase.
"First, I'll deliver the easiest new. Zell, you're suffering from the loss of a vital part of your brain."
Zell's huge baby blue eyes stared at her in awe, but he obviously couldn't understand a word.
"What can be done?" Squall asked, a hand stroking Zell's limp hair.
"Basically, a transplant. It seems like the part that had been taken is the part where magical abilities are stocked."
"Aura." Allen said from his place on Quistis' lap. "They call it aura. That's what give a person his of her magical powers. The denser the aura concentration is, the better the person can controls magic. My mother was often talking about it."
"And I remember that they used the needle on me, and they drained something."
"But you recovered, sweetie." Kadowaki said. "And he didn't."
"We already talked about it." Seifer grumbled.
"If I recovered, I must have a lot of aura to spare, doesn't I? Do you think if I.gave him some of mine, then he would recover?"
Kadowaki spared a few moment to weight the pros and the cons, but finally had to agreed it could work, given that the loss of aura was the only damage done to Zell's brain. She settled that Quistis and Zell would have to visit Dollet's hospital the following day, where the doctor had several neurologist friends that could perform the rather simple operation.
"Now," Kadowaki gulped down the rest of her cup and took a rather thick pile of papers from the suitcase. "This is the result of the DNA test I performed on our little guy here. You may want to settle down a bit because I know a few ones who won't be happy at all."
Allen cleared his throat "Just shoot it, doctor. After all that happened, I can hardly think of anything worse."
"Well you might have to revise that, kid." Kadowaki spoke darkly. "Seifer, may I present you your son."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~xXXx~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Waaah stupid place to cut off a story! I just felt that if I didn't cut it there it would take another ten pages to get to the end. Don't worry it is getting to the end. I don't think I can make more than 4 more chapters before finishing it. There's hope, you see?
As always thanks for reading, and REVIEWING! *Evil glare*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~xXXx~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 15:Truths that should never have been told
\
Obel Lake
Alitas' hands were shaky as she finally put the small jewel back in the box, and slid the magically enhanced padlock in the small loop. The whole process was one of the hardest she ever had to do in her life, and in addition, it was a gamble, because she couldn't remember anyone trying it in her years of experience.
The jewel was the only memorabilia she kept from her son's birth, a small, tear-shaped diamond with hollow inside, and containing a single drop of Allen's blood, coming from the sample drawn from him the day they took him out of the feeding liquid. Still, the DNA it contained permitted her to draw her spirit out in the world and to his own, wherever he was.
Well that was theory.
Still, she was absolutely certain the faint response she got, like a uncentered caress in an ocean of conflict feelings, was his. She hoped the slight electric impulse she sent inside him was enough for the trigger to push and start the most useful feature she had implanted in him. Not that she thought that a self-destruction system would ever come in handy with the loving, shy boy, but with the powers given to him, she had to be cautious.
Exhausted beyond the point of collapsing, the sorceress crashed on her bed. She now knew why this procedure was very rarely used-her heart was beating wildly against her ribs, and she was positive that any older, weaker sorceress would have died from the extreme effort-such pressure could make arteries burst, muscles snaps and heart breaks. But her body was strong, and her mind sharp. Within a few days the self-destructive spell would turn her shameful son's brain into useless mud. He would turn from a help to a burden.
Absently, her eyes drifted to the solid steel safe where the syringe laid. The concentrated aura that would soon be injected into her. Without Allen to play the catalyst's part, they have been turning their attention on a teen brought back a few days before Erin's execution. The young girl was nearly fourteen, and had clearly suffered from starvation through most of her life, for her body was lithe and slightly deformed, as well as her mind. One could call her retarded, but Alitas preferred to think of her as 'alterable', and her body was now conditioned with doses of aura. To everyone's surprise, she was already considered strong enough to support the aura transfert. Only a few more days, to ensure she would survive. After all, if anything should fail, she would need to either start the gathering of magic all over again, or she wouldn't have to care about anything at all-as she'd be dead and ready to rot.
Sleep made her eyelids heavier and heavier, but her last logical thought before blackness was how she missed him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~xXXx~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The day came too quickly, as always, and Quistis finally got to separate herself from the still sleeping and now drooling kid beside her. Taking advantage of the very early time, she ran to the bathroom and had a nice bath, knowing that in maybe half an hour, the kid would notice her disappearance and check for her.
Boy, was she good in falling from a mess to a bigger one? Of course she had to know that showing friendly care toward the young lad would draw him toward her-after all she was the only woman in there, and he clearly had been missing a motherly figure. But she wasn't a mother, she hadn't a clue how to be one, and she feared turning him back into a monster-after all, this kid have kidnapped and led people, many people, to their death, and all that only for the love of his mother.
Once she felt clean enough, Quistis peeled herself out of the water, dried and dressed, and left the bathroom. The kitchen felt cold and dark in the light morning sun, so she quickly got a batch of coffee done, knowing the warm smell would bring everyone in.
As expected, five minutes were the quickest for everyone to fight over the bathroom's ownership and lounge into the small piece. Squall arrived with an overchatty Zell clutching him and was immediately voted off the caffeine. Seifer followed, looking absolutely pissed as always but taking the time, as he reached for the sugar, to secretly hold her hand and- obviously not by accident- to pinch her bottom. Allen came last, but did a wide-arc walk to avoid Seifer's proximity and join Quistis's opposed side.
"We'd need to get a move on." Squall finally said, breaking the sleepy morning magic. Faces quickly faded to severe, and everyone sat around the table.
"Why are you so quick with another move on, Leonhart?" Seifer growled from his side. "We have money now. Dr. Kadowaki is on our side. We can work from here."
"Work from here?" Squall growled back at him. "May I remind you the bitch is in Obel Lake and we're on Dollet?"
"And by going back there unprepared, we might as well kill ourselves right now."
"Time is nearly up." Allen said quietly, drawing very unwanted attention on him. " She kept telling me how close she was getting of her dream."
"Her romantic dream, maybe?" Squall taunted, eyeing Seifer, who reddened within seconds.
"And which consist of..?" He muttered.
"I.I don't know." Allen whispered, shame evident on his face.
"Goooood!" Seifer smiled bitterly. "Can someone tell me where we're heading?"
"I think," Allen said quietly, "That the people that were in my mother's facilities are the ones who could defeat her. You were there for a reason. She wanted you powers. She robbed them to you. I think that's the reason why Zell doesn't seem to heal up."
"But Quistis did." Seifer pointed up.
"Yes, she did. And that's why I think she is the key. From what I heard, Quistis' disappearance caused a great distress to my mother."
Seifer laughed. "I remember how you used to burst into a magic overload each time you were annoyed, back at the orphanage. Bossy little Quistis. You scared us to death the day you threw a laser beam at Squall because he ignored you. You almost killed him. Matron put you in the corner for a full week. That was the first time you used your Blue Magic habilities."
Quistis smiled weakly. "Yeah, I remember that. I did it twice that year. The other time, I missed Zell from a centimeter and the old Oak tree in the yard caught fire. I was spanked until I couldn't feel my butt anymore."
"How many Blue Magic abilities do you have now?" Squall asked.
"Thirteen, I think. I still haven't found the proper items for White Wind, Fire breath and Ray Bomb."
"We might." Allen began.
"Do not even think about it, boy," Quistis swiftly cut him. "I can use my limit breaks only if weakened or under the influence of an aura spell."
"Although you certainly weren't in a weak state the day you almost fried me alive." Squall pointed out.
This caused a long, surprised silence, as everyone finally came to the same conclusion.
"You aren't going to tell us you hid it?" Seifer finally said.
"Hid what?" Quistis choked.
"That you could use you limit anytime, without trigger."
"I can't!" She protested, a bright flush creeping on her cheeks.
"Of course you do." Seifer retorted. "Stop playing innocent."
"My limits appear only in the two circumstances I told you! I never hid!"
"Quistis, I remember quite clearly, you were quite fond of your solitude, back in the old Garden days. Were you trying to keep something away from the others? Something like newfound powers?"
"Shut up you retarded bastard!" Quistis yelled, standing up from her chair.
"My, looks like I hit a sweet spot in there!" Seifer spoke through a perfect, jubilant smile.
"You're nothing but a good-for-nothing motherf-" Quistis' hateful sentence was cut short by a glowing greenish smog encircling her body and quickly spreading in Seifer's direction. His eyes widened as he started inhaling the acrid smell, and slowly faded to a sleepy, un-centered gaze, before a milky screen appeared over the pupils. His head slumped against his chest and he started to snore lightly, as his whole body spun around, in circle. His skin was also turning to a very unhealthy greenish color.
"Oh my Goddess." Quistis whispered before both of her hands clamped on her mouth.
"I may be mistaken," Squall snorted, although a hint of awe seeped through, "But you just bad-breathed is arse."
"Which proves a point." Allen whispered, but quickly faded under Quistis' very sharp and bruising glare.
Squall untangled himself from Zell's possessive hug and walked to the spinning man, using his gloved fists to bash some sense back into Seifer. Still bright green but liberated from both the Sleep and Confuse spells, he collapsed on the floor before vomiting his breakfast all over himself. His cataract-afflicted eyes were feverishly searching around.
"What a mess." Squall sighed, but he still helped the blonde back on his shaking legs, poured a vial of antidote down his throat and headed for the bathroom for a little clean-up. Five minutes later, the messy head of dark curls peeked from the door.
"Anyone got a Eye Drop?"
"Uh, no." Quistis replied, still shocked.
"Bugger. Guess he'll have to be led around until I have a trip to the store." Squall's head disappeared again.
"What." Allen tried to speak again, but shut down for the second time, glad that no twin laser beams had burned through him from the over-aggressive irises. Quistis sat in silence, eyes unfocused. Realizing for the first time that she had never cared to explore the hidden power she had always felt somewhere, but not once believed in.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~xXXx~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Everyone thought the day could not get worse than that. Upon a quick trip to the medicine shop, they learned that the store was currently out of Eye drops, and they had to buy a very expensive x-remedy to cure Seifer. Of course, as soon as the whiteness left his eyes, Seifer's first concrete thought have been to kill Quistis, and he had to be kept under supervision for a while, just in case his vengeful ideas got over his common sense. And sadly for them, it was only noon, and the other part of the day held far more surprises.
They were just finishing cleaning the dishes for dinner when they heard a knock at their door. Everyone stiffened, while Squall retrieved Lionhart and cautiously took a peek out of the door window, followed by a sight and the sound of the door being unlocked. The small, replete form of Dr. Kadowaki slid in the room. She was holding what looked like a large oval suitcase, which she settled on the table before crashing on a chair, sighing.
"I'd gladly take a cup of tea before I begin, kids."
Quistis smiled and went to retrieve the kettle. Five minutes later, the infusion was in front of the woman, and several pairs of nervous eyes followed her hands opening the suitcase.
"First, I'll deliver the easiest new. Zell, you're suffering from the loss of a vital part of your brain."
Zell's huge baby blue eyes stared at her in awe, but he obviously couldn't understand a word.
"What can be done?" Squall asked, a hand stroking Zell's limp hair.
"Basically, a transplant. It seems like the part that had been taken is the part where magical abilities are stocked."
"Aura." Allen said from his place on Quistis' lap. "They call it aura. That's what give a person his of her magical powers. The denser the aura concentration is, the better the person can controls magic. My mother was often talking about it."
"And I remember that they used the needle on me, and they drained something."
"But you recovered, sweetie." Kadowaki said. "And he didn't."
"We already talked about it." Seifer grumbled.
"If I recovered, I must have a lot of aura to spare, doesn't I? Do you think if I.gave him some of mine, then he would recover?"
Kadowaki spared a few moment to weight the pros and the cons, but finally had to agreed it could work, given that the loss of aura was the only damage done to Zell's brain. She settled that Quistis and Zell would have to visit Dollet's hospital the following day, where the doctor had several neurologist friends that could perform the rather simple operation.
"Now," Kadowaki gulped down the rest of her cup and took a rather thick pile of papers from the suitcase. "This is the result of the DNA test I performed on our little guy here. You may want to settle down a bit because I know a few ones who won't be happy at all."
Allen cleared his throat "Just shoot it, doctor. After all that happened, I can hardly think of anything worse."
"Well you might have to revise that, kid." Kadowaki spoke darkly. "Seifer, may I present you your son."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~xXXx~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Waaah stupid place to cut off a story! I just felt that if I didn't cut it there it would take another ten pages to get to the end. Don't worry it is getting to the end. I don't think I can make more than 4 more chapters before finishing it. There's hope, you see?
As always thanks for reading, and REVIEWING! *Evil glare*