Disclaimer : I am pregnant with their child. ALL of them :D
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Chapter 16 : Daddy ?
Seifer paced the room back and forth, in a frantic state of distress mixed with something else, something that he couldn't name, maybe excitement? Or fear? Hell if he was to analyze every single feeling that was having a fight in his head, he'd end up insane, or in jail. Slowly, he trailed a hand in his messed up blonde locks, his gaze once again locked on the bald boy sitting in front of him and staring at him with shock-widened eyes-in which he could easily read his dominant feeling, horror. Of course, did he really thought the child would run up to him calling him daddy? He had made an art of terrorizing the poor thing since they first met, and now his worst nightmare have just turned to the harshest relality.
"I can't have a kid!" He exclaimed for the countless time.
"The DNA test is 99% accurate. We did it ten consecutive times. It gave the exact same result every time. I am sorry dear but you are a father."
"The kid is fourteen year's old! How could I have conceived a son at the very virile age of 5?"
"That's what we'll have to find out." Kadowaki's voice sounded a lot calmer than she actually felt.
"Can't he be like, my little brother or something? He got the Almasy gene, not my specific gene, doesn't he?"
Kadowaki sighed. "Your parents died when you were one-year-old. He would have been born four years after their deaths. You have no uncles, no aunts. Both your parents were only childs. And I doubt your grandparents..."
"Okay leave my grandparents out of this" Seifer snarled, not at all amused with the image.
"Allen," Quistis gently shook the boy out of his trance, "Are you sure your mother is....well, you mother? That you haven't been adopted?"
"How should I know?" He replied in a tiny, almost sobbing voice. "I lost my- "
"Memory, yes that's true. I am sorry."
"Well we will have to stick to the idea that Allen here is our Seifer's offspring."
Kadowaki's declaration didn't warm the atmospere between the now father and son, both still looking at each other in panic. Squall held Zell close, the huge cerulean eyes of the small blonde closed and a contented smile playing over his lips. He was the only one in the room totally unaware of the unbearable tenseness. Squall gently pushed his child-boyfriend and stood up.
"I know you'd both need time to adjust to that new, but we don't have time for it. Garden won't help us, in fact we still need to hide from Cid. We need to know what we'll do, and we need to know it by the end of this day, because tomorrow Zell's going in surgery and as soon as he gets thrown out of the hospital, we're going to dig holes in that bitch's face."
"Damn boy, almost sounds like me." Seifer smirked. "Maybe you did learn after all..."
"Seifer, shut up." Squall snapped, glaring forks and random sharp sticks at his former rival.
"Until then," Dr Kadowaki said, easily cutting through the raising hostility, "Please refrain from hurting each other, and I mean with both words and fists. You aren't meant to be kept so close, for so long, and I know how hard it must be on your nerves. If you want, I can take the boy for tonight, it would-"
"No." Was Seifer's only response, and caused Allen's eyes to widen a few more inches. "He'll stay here. I need to talk. To him." The last few words seemed particularly painful to form.
"Fine then, sweethearts! I'll go shuffle through stuff and get things ready for tomorrow's operation." Kadowaki grabbed her things and quickly left the place, the awkward silence creeping back in the room right behind her.
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That night Quistis didn't snickers when Allen rolled up in bed with her. Knowing Seifer wanted a word with him, he had been going from one hiding place to another all evening, keeping the blonde man from cornering him.
She actually let him snuggle against her chest, his smooth head tucked under her chin and her arms encircling his shoulders while his own arms mimicked the gesture. Probably exhausted by the emotional overload of the day, the boy soon enough started snoring lightly, although he kept the dead- grip on Quistis. As always, the close presence of the bald boy only succeeded in helping sleep to avoid her, and near two in the morning, she was still staring wide-eyed at the white ceiling, where the rays of the moon filtering through the worn lace curtains created abstract patterns.
She had just heard the living room clock's ringing half-past-two when a shuffling noise, followed by approaching footsteps, told her that someone was coming her way. Moment afterwards, the door of the bedroom opened, a silhouette appearing on the lighter background, the large shoulders and chest leaving not doubt on the identity of the newcomer.
Seifer slipped to her side of the bed, then carefully sat on the edge, thinking she was asleep. A warm hand slid from her calf to her knee, the tickling sensation causing a chuckle to escape her lips. Seifer immediatly stood up, caught between the urge to run out and the need to talk to the only person he truly trusted.
"You were faking" his hoarse voice whispered.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I don't feel like arguing with you. And if Allen wakes up with you in front of him, he's gonna freak out."
"I'm not here to argue." He sighed, plopping back on the bed, this time close to her chest. Her hands instantly sought his, she held them tight and closed her eyes, kissing the fingers. Above her she heard him groan softly, then a warm breath upon her face as he gently kissed a trail from her cheek to her nose, then to her lips where his kissing grew rougher, more impatient. Quistis smiled under the heavy mouth, and licked around his lips. Just as Seifer opened his mouth to join her, Allen let out a quiet whimper, and shifted so his body was spooned around Quistis'. Seifer immediatly jerked away, asif the delicate hand that had settled on his girlfriend's arm held a lit match, or a grenade. Quistis sighed.
"You came to talk, didn't you?"
"Mhm. Why do you protect him so much?"
"Can't you see he's just like us? Can't you go back in time, just a little, and recognize yourself in him?"
"What do you mean?"
"Orphan, just like we were, craving for the love of the few people he had left. Directed to commit things he could not understand the meaning of. Doesn't it sounds like us? Directed to SeeD because we haven't anyone to take care of us, trained to be killers because no-one would mourn us..."
"Quistis...I can't believe I hear you saying such things."
"Why? Because I was a SeeD genius? Because I was an instructor? You know when they took away my license I thought nothing could ever get worse, but how egotistical I was..."
"Young. We were all young. Head full of ourselves. And we all got fucked because of it."
"And now I know that I am not going to let this happen anymore. I am not going to let my body used as bait meat because I have no-one to come back to..."
"You have people...you have us."
"Yeah, I have the other bait meats."
"When exactly have you grown that bitter?"
"I'd say time compression...I don't know what you did when you got lost in that spiral of chaos, but I did see what kind of life I was living. Then I got hospitalized...and it just finished the work. You know why I was in that train station when he caught me?"
"Rinoa said you were taking a few days off..."
"Ah yes, ever helpful Rinoa." Quistis sneered. "I was planning to disappear. I wanted to find the right spot-maybe Dollet, or Fisherman's Horizon, damn even a hole under a rock in Centra-where I could make myself forgotten and start over. I already had new identity made up. I could have done it, and no-one would have ever heard of me again."
"Not even...us?"
Quistis sighed. "No."
Seifer had heard enough to bruise his ego. Without adding another word he stood up and walked back to the living room where he slept with Squall and Zell.
For a long time Quistis' eyes stayed glued to the bedroom's door, but eventually sleep got the best of her and she thankfully sank into nothingness.
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The morning started early, when Kadowaki came knocking at the door at roughly 5 o'clock. Of course, if they wanted their little affair to stay a secret, they had to do it at the less orthodox times. Zell and Quistis got ready while the others were told to stay in the place. Squall didn't seem happy about it at all, but he finally gave up arguing with the plump woman and stormed off to the bathroom where he locked himself.
Half an hour afterwards, Quistis was stuck in a white room, her head exposed for everyone to see and dying of shame because of it. In another bed next to hers, Zell was getting the same preparation. She tried to calm the shaking of her hands, but it only got worse when she saw the brunette woman-Dr. Kadowaki's friend-approach with the long needle. She tried to close her eyes tight, but couldn't ignore the burning, soaring pain of the metal meeting her flesh, over the old scar. The needle scratched a bit against the bone until the old hole was found, then plounged inside the brain tissues, painless but weird. The technician asked if she was okay, and she nodded. Then the device was activated.
It was like a thunderbold screeching inside her skull, full of energy bursting through every vein, every cell, sucked up into the device. A very familiar pain, Quistis thought as she bit down into her lower lip hard, to keep herself from screaming. It wasn't the pain, not the physical one, but a rather intense melting of images, thousands of them, moving back and forth in her brain. Images of a similar device reflecting her own bald head while it sucked her life energy, her precious aura. Men and women all in white, between white walls, pure snow white without a hint of other color. The transparents tubes slowly filled with a white-ish liquid, shades of violent red passing through it like thunderbolts. Spasmotically, the liquid passed from her head to Zell's. His head bent forward as the liquid joined his empty self. Out of reflex, his hand flexed above the needle passing through his skull, but Dr. Kadowaki's hands were quicker than his, and pushed the fingers away from his head.
"Calm, boy. It hurts, but it's not gonna be long."
But Zell was already going limp, eyes wide open staring at Quistis and slowly filling with understanding. The childish light that inhabited the glowing orbs minutes ago had disappeared. His hands clenched when the doctor finally unplugged the long tube and slid the needle off his skull. Quistis felt like breathing again. Her head felt dizzy, but relieved at the same time. Zell looked like his normal self. He would remember. He would tell them what happened. He already started bouncing on his chair, while Dr. Kadowaki unplugged the last parts of medical equipment stuck in his skin. For once in her lifetime, she didn't felt like running to him and clamp a hand over his mouth before the neverending hyper rambling erupted from it. In fact, she knew she would forever cherish the first world he would say.
She wasn't disappointed.
"Fuck Quis? You look like shit!"
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"What the hell happened here??" Zell yelled upon entering the flat. Quistis' thoughts echoed his, although she chose to keep them untold. The small kitchen was a wreck. The table and chairs had been thrown across the room, deep impacts imprinted in the walls. The cupboards' door where all open, some of them even ripped off their hinges, and the few dishes left unbroken where standing in dangerous equilibrium on the edge. The rest was scattered over the floor, some sharp pieces even embedded in the walls.
As they were carefully walking amongst the remains of what seemed to be a fight, Squall bolted through the door, sweaty and sporting a nice deep cut on his left cheek. His first move was, as expected, to grab the 'newborn' Zell in a deathgrip. Zell responded immediately by grabbing Squall's head and crushing his lips with his, but the kiss, as intense as it was, had to end quickly, panic raising another level as Quistis realized Squall was all alone in the wrecked apartment.
"Where are Seifer and Allen?" She cried from the living room doorway.
Squall separated his mouth from his lover's and rested his face against his chest, almost falling to his knees in the process.
"Someone betrayed us." Came the reply, muffled by Zell's flesh. "SeeDs came over, a little after you were gone to the hospital. They got Allen first and used him to lure us out of our hiding place. Seifer locked me in a closet I didn't even knew existed. Apparently they didn't either because I heard a fight and then just silence.I have no idea if they got him of if he just followed them.
"SeeDs." Zell whispered, stroking Squall's soft hair. "I never thought one day we would end up in the other side of the fence."
"I knew I would," Quistis smiled bitterly. "But I never thought I'd drag you all with me."
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Seifer woke up to the sound of loud engine, and the smell of the sea invading his nostrils. Instantly he jumped from the tiny, utterly uncomfortable bunk bed he had slept on, and moved to the small window. The boat was irritatingly slow, but he guessed the SeeDs couldn't afford to cause a ruckus in the train with a bald hysteric boy and a well-known blonde giant who already threw at them half of the kitchenware available in the apartment. He had no idea where his (Hyne helps him) son was kept. He had no idea what Cid wanted to do with them. If his guessing was right, the SeeDs had come for Squall, so he had concentrated his energies on hiding him, forgetting-Hyne, how could he?-that Allen was there. Why did they took him? He had no idea. Allen wasn't known to them. Maybe they thought about using the boy as a bait. If that really was their intention, they had hit the wrong nerve.
A shuffling of keys from behind the door, followed by the clicking sound of a bolt unlocked, tore him away from his thoughts. The door slammed open and three men-one blonde and two brunette, all of them seeming fairly uncomfortable, entered the room. Seifer stood from the bed, hovering a good inch and a half over the SeeDs. Juniors, he sneered inside. Barely able to hold themselves up in front of the legendary Sorceress Knight. Had Garden gone this far as to using kiddos for missions? These guys couldn't be older than fifteen.
"So, what's today's schedule?" The blonde growled at the trio, surprised and amused to see them almost backing off to the doorway. Hyne, why were these kids on the battlefield?
"You come with us," The taller of the two brunette finally uttered. "We've got to interrogate you."
"As you wish, master." Seifer smiled his most predatory smile.
They walked down to the open part of the SeeD boat, where Allen sat surrounded by more men in uniforms. He looked like a deer caught in the headlight, reduced to a scared bunch of misery and barely able to stay straight on the chair. For once, he seemed relieved, if not happy, to see him. His eyes lit up. Seifer was pushed on the chair beside the boy's, his wrists quickly tied against the armrests. Allen, however, was free of all restricting material. Definitely a sign of amateurs. Haven't they been taught that interrogating people separately increased the chances of breaking them? Pft.
"First question." The officer talking was apparently a lot calmer now that Seifer was tied. "Where is Squall Leonhart?"
"My, are we blunt!" Seifer sneered. "I don't have the slightliest idea."
"Don't lie to us!" The SeeD shouted. "We know his disappearance is directly linked to yours, and Dincht's. Where are they?"
"We got separated by events. We had no way to contact each others. I was waiting for him to reappear."
"We know you were all seen in Galbadia. What were you doing here?"
"Shopping."
"SHUT UP!" The SeeD yelled, crimson with rage.
"Hey what exactly do you want here?" Seifer taunted. "You want me to talk or to shut up?"
The slap was highly unexpected, but not nearly hard enough to bruise.well, aside from his ego.
"I may start liking it, sweetheart." He finally growled, shooting a suggestive glance to the military boy.
With a disgusted glance, the SeeD finally admitted that he wouldn't gain anything from the blonde, and chose to turn to Allen instead. The boy literally shrunk under the hateful glare. Seifer knew he would have to help that little one to remain calm, and-Hyne help him!-quiet. As long as nobody knew where Squall was, things would still be salvageable.
He didn't have to worry, in fact. Allen was far beyond frightened and couldn't even find the words to answer the SeeDs' questions. All he could do was stare wide-eyed an try to form coherent phrases that most of the time ended in a sob. Seifer cringed the sixth time the youth received a rather painful blow for his lack of cooperation, and once again tested the strength of his restrains. Hopeless. He could only break those faces in dream.
Roughly an hour had passed when they finally decided they had enough of their irresponsive prisoners, and Seifer was brought back to his cell-while Allen stayed on the board with the men. A stab of worry passed through the ex-knight while he watched the bunch of SeeDs surrounding the boy. He had no idea what they were instructed to do. What if Cid was really out of his mind? What if he ordered to do anything to get to Squall? Would they go as far, as low, as to torture, to rape the boy to get what they wanted? Too late. The door clicked shut, followed by the sound of the bolt.
Hyne, he would kill them, all of them, if they laid a single fingertip on the boy. On his boy. Right now he couldn't care less about how he could possibly have given life to Allen. He has his genes, the Almasy genes. His only family left. The possessive, knight streak in himself flared. No matter if he had to tear those fucking walls with his bare hands, strangle two dozen SeeDs and swim a hundred kilometers.
But if he left, would he bring back the attention on Squall? Was his capture going to give him the vitals and precious days he needed to finish the job? Oh Hyne.would he be able to without them?
Seifer had never felt so helpless in his life. He always listened to no-one but himself-to the point where Ultimecia had to pass through his own thoughts to give him orders, otherwise he wouldn't even listen.
Now what to do? What to do?
It couldn't be tears that flowed down his cheeks, down his chin. But he seriously doubted it, anyway.
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Damn it took me forever again :D Life sure is a big thing to handle. So please please please refrain from asking for quicker updates. I said before I was a slow writer, I still am even more now with a job gone full- time, a boyfriend gone very full-time and 4 hyper rats turning my sofa to shreds *_* Stay assured, I WILL finish this fic, and the others. I just concentrated on this one for now as I don't have time to work on all 3 of them. I'm certainly not giving up on Wings of Forgiveness! I'm wayyy too fond of my potty-mouted angels ;)
Ta-ta for now! Thanks as always for the reviews and support!
Oh yeah! My spellcheck was dead so sorry for any mistake that could have sneaked his way in this chappy :/
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Chapter 16 : Daddy ?
Seifer paced the room back and forth, in a frantic state of distress mixed with something else, something that he couldn't name, maybe excitement? Or fear? Hell if he was to analyze every single feeling that was having a fight in his head, he'd end up insane, or in jail. Slowly, he trailed a hand in his messed up blonde locks, his gaze once again locked on the bald boy sitting in front of him and staring at him with shock-widened eyes-in which he could easily read his dominant feeling, horror. Of course, did he really thought the child would run up to him calling him daddy? He had made an art of terrorizing the poor thing since they first met, and now his worst nightmare have just turned to the harshest relality.
"I can't have a kid!" He exclaimed for the countless time.
"The DNA test is 99% accurate. We did it ten consecutive times. It gave the exact same result every time. I am sorry dear but you are a father."
"The kid is fourteen year's old! How could I have conceived a son at the very virile age of 5?"
"That's what we'll have to find out." Kadowaki's voice sounded a lot calmer than she actually felt.
"Can't he be like, my little brother or something? He got the Almasy gene, not my specific gene, doesn't he?"
Kadowaki sighed. "Your parents died when you were one-year-old. He would have been born four years after their deaths. You have no uncles, no aunts. Both your parents were only childs. And I doubt your grandparents..."
"Okay leave my grandparents out of this" Seifer snarled, not at all amused with the image.
"Allen," Quistis gently shook the boy out of his trance, "Are you sure your mother is....well, you mother? That you haven't been adopted?"
"How should I know?" He replied in a tiny, almost sobbing voice. "I lost my- "
"Memory, yes that's true. I am sorry."
"Well we will have to stick to the idea that Allen here is our Seifer's offspring."
Kadowaki's declaration didn't warm the atmospere between the now father and son, both still looking at each other in panic. Squall held Zell close, the huge cerulean eyes of the small blonde closed and a contented smile playing over his lips. He was the only one in the room totally unaware of the unbearable tenseness. Squall gently pushed his child-boyfriend and stood up.
"I know you'd both need time to adjust to that new, but we don't have time for it. Garden won't help us, in fact we still need to hide from Cid. We need to know what we'll do, and we need to know it by the end of this day, because tomorrow Zell's going in surgery and as soon as he gets thrown out of the hospital, we're going to dig holes in that bitch's face."
"Damn boy, almost sounds like me." Seifer smirked. "Maybe you did learn after all..."
"Seifer, shut up." Squall snapped, glaring forks and random sharp sticks at his former rival.
"Until then," Dr Kadowaki said, easily cutting through the raising hostility, "Please refrain from hurting each other, and I mean with both words and fists. You aren't meant to be kept so close, for so long, and I know how hard it must be on your nerves. If you want, I can take the boy for tonight, it would-"
"No." Was Seifer's only response, and caused Allen's eyes to widen a few more inches. "He'll stay here. I need to talk. To him." The last few words seemed particularly painful to form.
"Fine then, sweethearts! I'll go shuffle through stuff and get things ready for tomorrow's operation." Kadowaki grabbed her things and quickly left the place, the awkward silence creeping back in the room right behind her.
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That night Quistis didn't snickers when Allen rolled up in bed with her. Knowing Seifer wanted a word with him, he had been going from one hiding place to another all evening, keeping the blonde man from cornering him.
She actually let him snuggle against her chest, his smooth head tucked under her chin and her arms encircling his shoulders while his own arms mimicked the gesture. Probably exhausted by the emotional overload of the day, the boy soon enough started snoring lightly, although he kept the dead- grip on Quistis. As always, the close presence of the bald boy only succeeded in helping sleep to avoid her, and near two in the morning, she was still staring wide-eyed at the white ceiling, where the rays of the moon filtering through the worn lace curtains created abstract patterns.
She had just heard the living room clock's ringing half-past-two when a shuffling noise, followed by approaching footsteps, told her that someone was coming her way. Moment afterwards, the door of the bedroom opened, a silhouette appearing on the lighter background, the large shoulders and chest leaving not doubt on the identity of the newcomer.
Seifer slipped to her side of the bed, then carefully sat on the edge, thinking she was asleep. A warm hand slid from her calf to her knee, the tickling sensation causing a chuckle to escape her lips. Seifer immediatly stood up, caught between the urge to run out and the need to talk to the only person he truly trusted.
"You were faking" his hoarse voice whispered.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I don't feel like arguing with you. And if Allen wakes up with you in front of him, he's gonna freak out."
"I'm not here to argue." He sighed, plopping back on the bed, this time close to her chest. Her hands instantly sought his, she held them tight and closed her eyes, kissing the fingers. Above her she heard him groan softly, then a warm breath upon her face as he gently kissed a trail from her cheek to her nose, then to her lips where his kissing grew rougher, more impatient. Quistis smiled under the heavy mouth, and licked around his lips. Just as Seifer opened his mouth to join her, Allen let out a quiet whimper, and shifted so his body was spooned around Quistis'. Seifer immediatly jerked away, asif the delicate hand that had settled on his girlfriend's arm held a lit match, or a grenade. Quistis sighed.
"You came to talk, didn't you?"
"Mhm. Why do you protect him so much?"
"Can't you see he's just like us? Can't you go back in time, just a little, and recognize yourself in him?"
"What do you mean?"
"Orphan, just like we were, craving for the love of the few people he had left. Directed to commit things he could not understand the meaning of. Doesn't it sounds like us? Directed to SeeD because we haven't anyone to take care of us, trained to be killers because no-one would mourn us..."
"Quistis...I can't believe I hear you saying such things."
"Why? Because I was a SeeD genius? Because I was an instructor? You know when they took away my license I thought nothing could ever get worse, but how egotistical I was..."
"Young. We were all young. Head full of ourselves. And we all got fucked because of it."
"And now I know that I am not going to let this happen anymore. I am not going to let my body used as bait meat because I have no-one to come back to..."
"You have people...you have us."
"Yeah, I have the other bait meats."
"When exactly have you grown that bitter?"
"I'd say time compression...I don't know what you did when you got lost in that spiral of chaos, but I did see what kind of life I was living. Then I got hospitalized...and it just finished the work. You know why I was in that train station when he caught me?"
"Rinoa said you were taking a few days off..."
"Ah yes, ever helpful Rinoa." Quistis sneered. "I was planning to disappear. I wanted to find the right spot-maybe Dollet, or Fisherman's Horizon, damn even a hole under a rock in Centra-where I could make myself forgotten and start over. I already had new identity made up. I could have done it, and no-one would have ever heard of me again."
"Not even...us?"
Quistis sighed. "No."
Seifer had heard enough to bruise his ego. Without adding another word he stood up and walked back to the living room where he slept with Squall and Zell.
For a long time Quistis' eyes stayed glued to the bedroom's door, but eventually sleep got the best of her and she thankfully sank into nothingness.
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The morning started early, when Kadowaki came knocking at the door at roughly 5 o'clock. Of course, if they wanted their little affair to stay a secret, they had to do it at the less orthodox times. Zell and Quistis got ready while the others were told to stay in the place. Squall didn't seem happy about it at all, but he finally gave up arguing with the plump woman and stormed off to the bathroom where he locked himself.
Half an hour afterwards, Quistis was stuck in a white room, her head exposed for everyone to see and dying of shame because of it. In another bed next to hers, Zell was getting the same preparation. She tried to calm the shaking of her hands, but it only got worse when she saw the brunette woman-Dr. Kadowaki's friend-approach with the long needle. She tried to close her eyes tight, but couldn't ignore the burning, soaring pain of the metal meeting her flesh, over the old scar. The needle scratched a bit against the bone until the old hole was found, then plounged inside the brain tissues, painless but weird. The technician asked if she was okay, and she nodded. Then the device was activated.
It was like a thunderbold screeching inside her skull, full of energy bursting through every vein, every cell, sucked up into the device. A very familiar pain, Quistis thought as she bit down into her lower lip hard, to keep herself from screaming. It wasn't the pain, not the physical one, but a rather intense melting of images, thousands of them, moving back and forth in her brain. Images of a similar device reflecting her own bald head while it sucked her life energy, her precious aura. Men and women all in white, between white walls, pure snow white without a hint of other color. The transparents tubes slowly filled with a white-ish liquid, shades of violent red passing through it like thunderbolts. Spasmotically, the liquid passed from her head to Zell's. His head bent forward as the liquid joined his empty self. Out of reflex, his hand flexed above the needle passing through his skull, but Dr. Kadowaki's hands were quicker than his, and pushed the fingers away from his head.
"Calm, boy. It hurts, but it's not gonna be long."
But Zell was already going limp, eyes wide open staring at Quistis and slowly filling with understanding. The childish light that inhabited the glowing orbs minutes ago had disappeared. His hands clenched when the doctor finally unplugged the long tube and slid the needle off his skull. Quistis felt like breathing again. Her head felt dizzy, but relieved at the same time. Zell looked like his normal self. He would remember. He would tell them what happened. He already started bouncing on his chair, while Dr. Kadowaki unplugged the last parts of medical equipment stuck in his skin. For once in her lifetime, she didn't felt like running to him and clamp a hand over his mouth before the neverending hyper rambling erupted from it. In fact, she knew she would forever cherish the first world he would say.
She wasn't disappointed.
"Fuck Quis? You look like shit!"
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"What the hell happened here??" Zell yelled upon entering the flat. Quistis' thoughts echoed his, although she chose to keep them untold. The small kitchen was a wreck. The table and chairs had been thrown across the room, deep impacts imprinted in the walls. The cupboards' door where all open, some of them even ripped off their hinges, and the few dishes left unbroken where standing in dangerous equilibrium on the edge. The rest was scattered over the floor, some sharp pieces even embedded in the walls.
As they were carefully walking amongst the remains of what seemed to be a fight, Squall bolted through the door, sweaty and sporting a nice deep cut on his left cheek. His first move was, as expected, to grab the 'newborn' Zell in a deathgrip. Zell responded immediately by grabbing Squall's head and crushing his lips with his, but the kiss, as intense as it was, had to end quickly, panic raising another level as Quistis realized Squall was all alone in the wrecked apartment.
"Where are Seifer and Allen?" She cried from the living room doorway.
Squall separated his mouth from his lover's and rested his face against his chest, almost falling to his knees in the process.
"Someone betrayed us." Came the reply, muffled by Zell's flesh. "SeeDs came over, a little after you were gone to the hospital. They got Allen first and used him to lure us out of our hiding place. Seifer locked me in a closet I didn't even knew existed. Apparently they didn't either because I heard a fight and then just silence.I have no idea if they got him of if he just followed them.
"SeeDs." Zell whispered, stroking Squall's soft hair. "I never thought one day we would end up in the other side of the fence."
"I knew I would," Quistis smiled bitterly. "But I never thought I'd drag you all with me."
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Seifer woke up to the sound of loud engine, and the smell of the sea invading his nostrils. Instantly he jumped from the tiny, utterly uncomfortable bunk bed he had slept on, and moved to the small window. The boat was irritatingly slow, but he guessed the SeeDs couldn't afford to cause a ruckus in the train with a bald hysteric boy and a well-known blonde giant who already threw at them half of the kitchenware available in the apartment. He had no idea where his (Hyne helps him) son was kept. He had no idea what Cid wanted to do with them. If his guessing was right, the SeeDs had come for Squall, so he had concentrated his energies on hiding him, forgetting-Hyne, how could he?-that Allen was there. Why did they took him? He had no idea. Allen wasn't known to them. Maybe they thought about using the boy as a bait. If that really was their intention, they had hit the wrong nerve.
A shuffling of keys from behind the door, followed by the clicking sound of a bolt unlocked, tore him away from his thoughts. The door slammed open and three men-one blonde and two brunette, all of them seeming fairly uncomfortable, entered the room. Seifer stood from the bed, hovering a good inch and a half over the SeeDs. Juniors, he sneered inside. Barely able to hold themselves up in front of the legendary Sorceress Knight. Had Garden gone this far as to using kiddos for missions? These guys couldn't be older than fifteen.
"So, what's today's schedule?" The blonde growled at the trio, surprised and amused to see them almost backing off to the doorway. Hyne, why were these kids on the battlefield?
"You come with us," The taller of the two brunette finally uttered. "We've got to interrogate you."
"As you wish, master." Seifer smiled his most predatory smile.
They walked down to the open part of the SeeD boat, where Allen sat surrounded by more men in uniforms. He looked like a deer caught in the headlight, reduced to a scared bunch of misery and barely able to stay straight on the chair. For once, he seemed relieved, if not happy, to see him. His eyes lit up. Seifer was pushed on the chair beside the boy's, his wrists quickly tied against the armrests. Allen, however, was free of all restricting material. Definitely a sign of amateurs. Haven't they been taught that interrogating people separately increased the chances of breaking them? Pft.
"First question." The officer talking was apparently a lot calmer now that Seifer was tied. "Where is Squall Leonhart?"
"My, are we blunt!" Seifer sneered. "I don't have the slightliest idea."
"Don't lie to us!" The SeeD shouted. "We know his disappearance is directly linked to yours, and Dincht's. Where are they?"
"We got separated by events. We had no way to contact each others. I was waiting for him to reappear."
"We know you were all seen in Galbadia. What were you doing here?"
"Shopping."
"SHUT UP!" The SeeD yelled, crimson with rage.
"Hey what exactly do you want here?" Seifer taunted. "You want me to talk or to shut up?"
The slap was highly unexpected, but not nearly hard enough to bruise.well, aside from his ego.
"I may start liking it, sweetheart." He finally growled, shooting a suggestive glance to the military boy.
With a disgusted glance, the SeeD finally admitted that he wouldn't gain anything from the blonde, and chose to turn to Allen instead. The boy literally shrunk under the hateful glare. Seifer knew he would have to help that little one to remain calm, and-Hyne help him!-quiet. As long as nobody knew where Squall was, things would still be salvageable.
He didn't have to worry, in fact. Allen was far beyond frightened and couldn't even find the words to answer the SeeDs' questions. All he could do was stare wide-eyed an try to form coherent phrases that most of the time ended in a sob. Seifer cringed the sixth time the youth received a rather painful blow for his lack of cooperation, and once again tested the strength of his restrains. Hopeless. He could only break those faces in dream.
Roughly an hour had passed when they finally decided they had enough of their irresponsive prisoners, and Seifer was brought back to his cell-while Allen stayed on the board with the men. A stab of worry passed through the ex-knight while he watched the bunch of SeeDs surrounding the boy. He had no idea what they were instructed to do. What if Cid was really out of his mind? What if he ordered to do anything to get to Squall? Would they go as far, as low, as to torture, to rape the boy to get what they wanted? Too late. The door clicked shut, followed by the sound of the bolt.
Hyne, he would kill them, all of them, if they laid a single fingertip on the boy. On his boy. Right now he couldn't care less about how he could possibly have given life to Allen. He has his genes, the Almasy genes. His only family left. The possessive, knight streak in himself flared. No matter if he had to tear those fucking walls with his bare hands, strangle two dozen SeeDs and swim a hundred kilometers.
But if he left, would he bring back the attention on Squall? Was his capture going to give him the vitals and precious days he needed to finish the job? Oh Hyne.would he be able to without them?
Seifer had never felt so helpless in his life. He always listened to no-one but himself-to the point where Ultimecia had to pass through his own thoughts to give him orders, otherwise he wouldn't even listen.
Now what to do? What to do?
It couldn't be tears that flowed down his cheeks, down his chin. But he seriously doubted it, anyway.
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Damn it took me forever again :D Life sure is a big thing to handle. So please please please refrain from asking for quicker updates. I said before I was a slow writer, I still am even more now with a job gone full- time, a boyfriend gone very full-time and 4 hyper rats turning my sofa to shreds *_* Stay assured, I WILL finish this fic, and the others. I just concentrated on this one for now as I don't have time to work on all 3 of them. I'm certainly not giving up on Wings of Forgiveness! I'm wayyy too fond of my potty-mouted angels ;)
Ta-ta for now! Thanks as always for the reviews and support!
Oh yeah! My spellcheck was dead so sorry for any mistake that could have sneaked his way in this chappy :/