Magical Secrets

Chapter 30: Bittersweet

Disclaimer:

I own Evan, Falcon, Raven, Ayana and Crowe! Pretty much most of the evil people. Too bad I don't own the rest of the characters though..............

Warning:

Same as always.

Enjoy!

Alexandra AKA ~*~Fantasy Dragon~*~

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"Can we just go home now?" Irvine asked, a little impatient. As scared as he was that Rinoa would come back yet again, he couldn't see any possible way that she could. "This place really is starting to give me the creeps."

"Yes. We can all go back to Balamb garden now." Squall said, then turned towards Seifer and Evan. Seifer looked as if he was about to oppose the idea. "All of us."

"Fine, I guess I have no choice." Grumbled the blond knight.

"Good. I'm gonna like you at garden." Evan whispered, a smile on his face. "Easy access to your panties."

"Evan, you are such a perv! Some of us prefer not to hear your sexual fantasies." Quistis groaned. Zell chuckled then pulled her closer to him.

"You do know this is going to change a few things around home." Ellone said, Squall nodding in agreement.

"What do you mean?" Irvine questioned as they walked towards the door.

"Quisty, Seifer, Evan. You guys are going to be more aware of Squall's every movement. You will feel like you want to be near him at all times." Ellone smiled, knowing that Seifer was cringing as he walked behind her and Squall. "Plus you'll have to put up with each other more."

"You mean I'll have to put up with the Trepe even more than usual? Dammit." Seifer chuckled, meaning it mostly as a joke.

"Screw off, Seifer." Muttered Quistis.

"Before we all start to get down each others throats, let's get home. It's been a strange week." Sighed Zell. The rest of the group all nodded in agreement, and then they began to walk down the calm corridor.

"Um, is it just me, or is it a little to quite down here." Irvine whispered, as the only sound that could be heard was the sound of 7 pairs of boots walking on the marble floor.

"You're right. If Raven was on her way out here, there would have been some ruckus." Evan whispered.

"Not only that, but we got the most bubbly person on the face of the planet standing guard outside. We'd at least hear her singing to herself if there was nothing going on." Zell replied.

"You left that little messenger girl on duty?" Seifer scoffed with a laugh.

Irvine stopped and turned so that he was nose to nose with the blond knight.

"You ever call her that again, bitch, I'll have your balls delivered to Cid on a solid gold platter, with your blood as a sauce." Irvine growled.

"What, she your little bitch, cowboy?" Seifer returned Irvine's glare.

"Break it up, dudes. Save the fighting 'til we get home." Evan pushed his way between the two taller men.

"Let's go." Squall sighed, not stopping and walking right by the rest of the people. As the group made their way towards the entrance, no one could shake the awful feeling running through their bodies.

"Hey, Nida? Xu? Selphie? Are you guys in hiding?" Zell called out, once they came close to where they left the three watches. When no answer came, the group all began to get a little confused.

"This is not sounding good." Quistis said, then the group of seven got to the doors, stopping dead in their tracks, the sight sitting out in front of them. The bodies of both Nida and Xu's were slouched up against the wall, a gaping hole through their chests. The blood was covering the floor in a thick crimson blanket, each of the people who had rushed up to the scene standing in the blood of their one time friend or acquaintance.

Quistis finally found her voice and let out an ear-piercing scream. Xu had been one of her best friend since she became garden faculty and this just didn't seem right. Too many people were dying, loosing the ones they loved. Bonds being torn apart. Breaking away from Zell, the blue mage ran over to her one time roommate.

"Xu? Can you hear me?" She whispered, knowing she had little to no hope that the brunette would answer her.

"Quist?" A slight whisper came from the girls mouth, causing everyone to look up and over to the two girls.

"Shit. White Wind!" Quistis screamed with all her might and saw the spell surround Xu. The gigantic wound was able to heal it's self a little, but not near enough to stop the massive amounts of blood pouring from Xu's body. It was at that moment that Quistis realized that there was no possibility of saving her, and that Nida was more than likely already dead.

"That…girl…gun…" every word that left Xu's mouth was forced, her breath becoming shorter and shorter with each passing second.

"Raven? But we all saw her empty Crowe's gun of all the bullets when she was shooting Rinoa." Seifer replied, a little confused.

"Wait. Squall, did Irvine ever give you bullets to hang on to?" Evan cringed at the thought he had just pop into his head.

"Always. He always gives some to everyone he travels with because he'll lose them." Squall replied, his voice still louder than normal, making him sound strange to everyone, including himself.

"I bet our cell was bugged!" exclaimed Quistis, holding Xu's near lifeless body in her lap.

"Check you pockets, Squall." Zell said, getting more and more pissed off with every passing second.

Squall then reached his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket, pulling out nothing but his Griever pendent and his gloves.

"What kind of ammo did you have in your pockets?" whispered Quistis, a bleak look on her face.

"Pulse. I'm sorry, Quistis." Squall said, then the room went silent as they watched the last breath leave Xu's mouth, her body falling dead into Quistis' arms.

"It's not your fault." Quistis said as she stood up and wiped a tear from her eye. "It's not your fault at all. We all knew how dangerous this could be when we decided to become SeeD, and this just was more dangerous then anything we've been on."

"Where's Selphie?" Irvine asked, coming back to join the group. No one had noticed he had gone away to search for his girlfriend. "She wasn't where she was assigned to guard."

"You mean, you can't find her?" Ellone asked, gasping a little as she spoke. "Sefie!" She cried out hoping to get a reply from the spunky brunette.

"Selphie!" Irvine echoed, hoping for once that this wasn't one of her jokes.

"Irvy?" A soft voice could be heard, but no one could pinpoint where it was coming from.

"Selphie, where are you!" Irvine panicked, worried beyond all belief about his girlfriend.

"Up here!" The voice was now a little louder as the group swore they could hear a strange noise over head.

"Where? This is starting to freak me out!" Evan looked like a mesmerize caught in headlights as he grabbed Seifer's arm and held on for dear life.

"I think someone is going to need therapy after this is all done." Seifer muttered, rolling his eyes as he looked down at the redhead who seemed to be permanently attached to him. Not that he was complaining about Evan's newfound obsession with him.

"Look out below!" Selphie's voice came once again and then out of an air vent, Selphie jumped down and conveniently into the arms of her beloved cowboy.

"Where were you?" Zell asked, a little confused. It always confused him how Selphie was able sneak around with cat like stealth, yet when she wasn't in hiding, she had more energy than he did.

"There are air vents running from every room up here and after I heard a lot of screaming, I had to go find out what was happening in there. I watched everything happen in there." Selphie said, only a little of her normal excitement showing.

"Told you we should have taken the air vents." Grumbled Irvine.

"Listen, Squall, Elle, you have some explaining to do when we get back into my ship." Selphie giggled. "But we have to figure out what is going to happen with that chick. We can't let her go out free. She has killed 2 of our best SeeD's."

"But we don't know where she's gone to." Zell said.

"No. We are not going to go after her." Squall spoke up, everyone looking over to him.

"What, are you nuts! This girl is running around creating a major path of destruction! She's a complete psycho! Look at who her mother is! We'll all be dead by night fall!" Evan screamed, then ran out the door. Seifer sighed then ran after him.

"As I was saying, we are not going after her. I do not believe that she will kill anyone else other than her mother. And I see that as being a benefit for us. More than likely, these 2, Hyne rest their souls, stood in her way. In a fit of rage, she shot them to get to her mother." Squall explained.

"So we are just going to wait and see if anything happens with her and her mother?" Quistis asked.

"Pretty much." Squall nodded.

"This has been a long adventure. Let's go home." Zell said, then pulled Quistis back into his arms as she quietly sobbed for her two dead comrades and friends.

"Yeah. I wanna go back home too." Selphie nodded, then took Irvine's hat, placing it on her own head.

"Let's all go. A nice long break is in order for all of us." Ellone smiled the contagious smile everyone loved.

"That would be nice." Quistis also smiled, despite her grief and took Zell's hand, walking out of the bases only door. "Definitely will be nice."

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The End

Man! I can't believe this is over. But don't worry, I am going to be starting the sequel soon. Thanks to all my loyal fans, your input was what keeps me going. No one has claimed the 175th review prize yet, but I have 173 reviews now. So the second person to review this chapter will still get the prize. Any pairing, and any rating. So good luck, and sorry it took so long to get this chapter out, I just started college and still have to get used to it. I hope I can get the sequel out fast then this chapter took. Some one emailed me last time and asked who Squall would be put with, and that if it was going to be Ellone. It's not her, and I know he was still alone when this story ended. I was already thinking of the sequel way back when I said that Squall would have someone, so I wasn't going to have him with anyone until then. Anyway. Once again thank you so much for all your support with this story, and I think the tentative name for the sequel is "Sorcery Illusions", so everyone keep your eyes open for that, because if it is anything like this, it will be a long, twisted and awesome ride for all of us!

Love and cookies to everyone!

Alexandra

Aka

~*~Fantasy Dragon~*~