Rating: R (I tried to keep it lower, but it just wasn't destined to happen - unlike other things [which are responsible for the rating])
Disclaimer: SG characters are (c) MGM (thankie to Morrigan for that :p). FF8 characters are (c) Squaresoft, original characters are mine – ask nicely and I might let you play with them, s'long's you don't break them...
Warnings: SxS - Yaoi (guyxguy) later - if u don't like, don't read. Character death. Maybe angst (I do like to torture my characters sometimes :p), language (prob nothin u aint heard b4, but still...)
~Chapter Twenty-Two: Dancing with Death~
Martine read the note with increasing disbelief. It was an order from Irvine to go and confront the sorceress. Had Irvine and Selphie known all along that it was a sorceress who was responsible for the screams? Was that why their surveillance had been firmly directed inwards, to prevent an accidental confrontation? Was that why the sorceress had been so unconcerned by the cameras? He crumpled the paper, incinerating it with a fire spell as he had been instructed.
Well, if he wasn't killed in the line of duty, perhaps his actions would still be viewed in a favourable light. Of course, if he was killed by the sorceress he wasn't really going to care how his actions were viewed.
***
Yarege chose her victim quickly, wondering when Martine would pluck up the courage to walk into the training centre. It wasn't difficult, not with her power, to steal the thoughts from his mind even as they occurred to him, although there was a fair distance between them. The fact that the SeeDs in Centra knew about her was not overly worrying, clearly someone had spoken to Edea - the only sorceress in the area. She found it quite amusing that Martine and everyone else who had seen her thought her only to be another of Hyne's daughters. They had no idea how powerful she truly was, what she truly was, and who she would become.
The T-Rexaur didn't last long, but she had been gorging on the death screams of the creatures for almost two weeks, and she was nearing a comfortable state of satiation. She felt Martine hovering at a respectable distance, could taste his revulsion at the state of the T-Rexaur's carcass and the stench of the charred flesh. Yarege grinned to herself. It was almost like a pleasantly light snack just to finish the main meal off.
"Um, excuse me..." Martine was instantly ashamed of the tremor and high pitch to his voice. The sorceress didn't turn around, but she shifted slightly, drawing herself up. Steam seemed to be rising from her arms, just faint enough for him not to know if it was real or his imagination.
"What if I don't want to go?" The question, clearly in response to the unspoken thought, caught Martine off-guard, as it was meant to. Out of his sight, Yarege licked her lips, the sour, biting tang of fear contrasting pleasantly with sweet confusion.
"I, um, well, ah..." Martine stammered. Yarege sighed.
"I will visit Centra when I decide it is time. Until then they will simply have to improvise." She grinned, and turned to face him. Martine found himself grinning back. "Tell them to tell Edea 'the light of lights is not diminished in the light, and all light shines against the dark'."
He nodded foolishly, then turned and walked out of the training centre. Yarege sighed again, the grin falling from her face. Perhaps it was a good thing that Martine had no idea what his words would begin.
AN: what has Martine gotten into? what will happen to SG1 in Centra? Maybe I'll tell u in the next chapter, maybe not...
