Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VIII and all affiliated characters belong to Squaresoft and Squaresoft alone. Me? I just own my magical keyboard and a can of never ending pizza pringles.
Authors Notes – I'm redoing this story… again. I think I have never made it past chapter 2. We will see what happens this time. To those of you who may have read this 'un the last time I posted it on fanfiction.net, I hope you'll note the differences in the prologue, 'cause it's completley different, and probably more confusing. Also, I changed the ages of the SeeD's from 13 to 17, I thought the plot was much more feasible that way, and ironic XD
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the changes I made to the story. Please read and review, I would appreciate it muchly ^.^ Thanks!
Rated R for lots and lots of violence, bloodshed, angst, adult suggested scenes, bad language… all that heavy and good stuff!
Final Fantasy VIII: SeeD's of EvilWritten by: Mystique Musings
Mystique_musings@hotmail.com
Prologue
Awaken yourselves from sleep, my children.
This is not a cradle.
Awaken yourselves from sleep, fated children.
Sleep does not advance.
Rise up.
Seek in the garden of truth.
Burning with the fires of truth
Sear with flame the darkness of the world.
Burning with the fires of truth
Kindle to ash the evil of the spirit.
Be strong, children,
on that fated day
-Liberi Fatali
"Happy birthday, daughter dearest…" muttered Squall bitterly as he watched the minute hand move slowly towards 6:02 p.m. He heard his wife bustling about in the kitchen, chatting gaily with her friends and making arangements for the party. Her chipper voice drifited throughout the halls of the small, one story cottage: colliding annoyingly with Squall's melancholy mood. He rubbed his forehead and turned away from the clock, collapsing into the leather chair with a soft grunt. His hand fumbled into the breast pocket of his shirt, withdrawing a near empty carton of cigarettes. He removed the remaining cigarette from the carton, staring at it blankly for a moment. Squall had never really enjoyed the taste, nor the smell, of cigarettes. If it had not been for those damned nightmares, Squall would have never needed to start the habit. But he had been a desperate man, and had discovered quickly that cigarettes helped calm his nerves.
He withdrew a lighter from a drawer in the coffee table, cursing to himself quietly when the cigarette failed to catch the flame. After a few more attempts, the cigarette lit, and Squall took a deep puff. He knew Rinoa detested it when he smoked in the house, but it had been a hell of a day, and after listening to the wind whip mournfully against the side of the house, he wasn't about to abandon the warm, dry comforts of his living room.
He let himself slide deeper into the chair, enjoying the way each puff of the cigarette intoxicated his nerves and reassured his mind. His eyes wandered around the small room, pausing to glance out the window at the dark clouds that rolled in from the northeast. It was an unusual storm pattern, and Squall knew that tonight would be rough. Northeast storms always came down particularly hard on the coast, and this one would be no acception.
Laughter drifted from the kitchen into the living room, causing Squall to grimance. Rinoa always managed to avoid Squall when he was in these moods. It angered her that he had to be so damn gloomly all the time. He could at least pretend to be cheerful on his daughters' birthday. Rinoa had tried so hard to break him from his shell, and for a time after their marriage, it appeared she had succeeded. But after their daughter was born, and the nightmares began, Squall spiraled back down deeper into depression. It was only for the moments, when Squall opened up to her and became real again, that Rinoa remained at his side.
Squall smoted the remains of the cigarette in the ashtray, easing his head back in to the chair and closing his eyes. It was seventeen years ago his daughter had been born, seventeen years before the nightmares had started. At first, the nightmares had been few and far between, but so terrible that Squall woke up screaming and drenched in sweat. As his daughter matured, the nightmares became more frequent, and at last came to the point where he could expect them once, twice, and even three times a week. He heard the rumours, the way everyone whispered behind his back as he trudged his haggard and sleep deprived body to Garden. He saw the concerned faces of his companions, noticed how softly they spoke when in his presence. Even Seifer had stopped his infinite jeering…for the most part, at least. He hated it; hated the way everyone stared at him, hated the way the room grew quiet as he entered, but mostly, he hated how he let her get to him.
"I need another cigarette," Squall thought to himself as he rose from the chair. The thought of her made him even more restless. He pressed his forehead against the cool windowpane, concentrating on the approaching storm as an attempt to get her out of his mind. "She's dead, damn it." He whispered through clenched teeth, "Dead." The word had such finality to it, but Squall knew it was false. Nothing was eternal, not even death. And for Squall, she still lived. Empty tree branches, shaking in the wind, cry to all who will listen, "Kurse the SeeD's. Kurse the SeeDs!" The moon casts her pale yellow eyes upon the earth, ever hateful, ever glaring. The cold north wind carries her sharp, venomous teeth, biting pale, exposed skin. No. She never died. She never will die.
"Stop." The silent command broke through his thoughts. Squall closed his eyes in an attempt to do so, but the darkness brought no comfort, no relief. Her wicked smile, the one she had surprised Squall with before he had swept her body out of existence, flashed acrossed his mind. Squall's eyes flew open, beads of sweat forming on his forehead as he crumpled to the floor. He was helpless – tonight she taunted him without rest. The moment of her death played before his eyes over and over again: the feeling of his gunblade embedding deep into her flesh, the crimson rain that fell as he withdrew the blade, her yellow, glaring eyes, the twisted, happy smile she gave him as her life escaped from her body. Then he saw little Raine being born, her thick black hair, her pale skin, touched with roses… the opening of her eyes – golden yellow eyes. Yellow eyes he couldn't help but think of her when he looked into them. Raine running towards him, arms outstretched, her smile wide – then curled into a dark corner, arms wrapped around her knees, sobbing quietly to herself…"Daddy doesn't love me". A metallic, shining knife – the tooth of Death, held high into the air, a twisted smile…yellow, yellow eyes. "Kurse the SeeD's". Crimson rain – splatter, splatter, splatter. "She's dead." Deeper, deeper into the flesh – sinking fast. "Daddy doesn't love me" Kurse…daddy…dead…tooth…yellow, yellow eyes…
"STOP!" He felt arms around him, slender arms. He tried to stop the images spinning before him, but they wouldn't yield. Who held him? "She's dead." Cool lips pressed against his clammy skin – wet with sweat and tears. Sobbing now. "Stop it…stop it…" Spinning, spinning…deeper and deeper…"Daddy doesn't love me." A sharp pain in his arm…the tooth of Death. "Kurse the SeeD's" A wicked smile, cruel smile. Darkness coming quickly, all dark…only yellow, yellow eyes…
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I know what you may be thinking. Eh? What the bloody fuck was THAT? Sorry if it was too terribly confusing…I got a tad bit carried away ^.^ But it was oh so much fun to write.
TO EXPLAIN WHAT JUST HAPPENED:
Ok, first to clear this up – This is set twenty years after the whole time compression deal. Squall and Rinoa are married (Sorry Squinoa haters. May it be a joy to you to hear that their marriage is not a happy one) and Raine is their 17 year old daughter. You'll learn a lot about Raine in chapter one ^.^ She IS the main character in the story, after all.
YES, other characters besides the Leonhearts appear in the story. There's Quistis and Seifer, and their child Blade, Selphie and Irvine, and their twins Ajax "Jax" and Arleen "Lene", Zell and Renee (the pig tailed chick) and their son Dereak, Cid and Edea, with their daughter Mortindas, Bigs, Wedge, Zone, Xu, Nida, Laguna, Ellone, General Caraway, and a bunch of other random people, mostly of whom are killed ^.^ BUT, these characters usually only make minor appearances in the story, with the exception of Blade,Jax,Lene, Dereak, and their parents.
If you haven't figured it out by now, "she" is Ultimecia. Thought she was destroyed in the game? Well…too bad, she's back…just in disguise… "The mask of innocence" XD Remember what Squall said, "Nothing is eternal. Not even death," 'cause that's important.
Eh…and as for the changes in SQUALL…I apologize if he is too out of character – but you have to keep in mind, Squall is now a 37 seven old man who has had to deal with TERRIBLE nightmares (of which you will get to read about more in the 1st chapter) almost every night of his life for seventeen years. And to make it even worse, he has a sorceress, who he supposedly killed, haunting his every thought. And his daughter even looks like Ultimecia…kind of (those yellow, yellow eyes XD) So…yup. He smokes, blech…but what can you do? NOTHING…. because I'm the author and the sole owner of this magical keyboard.
OH! And the person shouting stop was Rinoa, at least the second and third time. The first time was Shiva, Squall's GF, 'cause she hates it when he thinks about Ultimecia. Or when Ultimecia forces him to think about her…whatever. And that "sharp pain" in his arm was the needle of a…now what are they called again? Oh yes, a tranquilizer! The prick of the needle going into his arm was that sharp pain…and so therfor the "darkness" he fell into was just him falling asleep XD
Now…as for the last bit of the story, which is full of sentence fragments, mind you…I like sentence frags, me thinks. Anyhoo, it appears Squall has gone crazy. But he hasn't! He is quite sane. He just has occasional episodes of…eh…well, it has nothing to do with his mind, which is quite sound (just a little buffeted, that's all ;)) Basically, Ultimecia brings on these episodes. But HOW? Eh heh heh, well I told you she's not dead…that's all I'll give you. Which is quite enough.
Don't judge the rest of the story on this prologue, 'cause it gets better, I swear! Well, if you like angst...and horror, lots of horror, then you'll probably like this story. If you hate to see anything bad happen to characters in the game, then I suggest you don't read this story...because there's a lot of it in here.
I think this Author's note is longer then the prologue. Whoops. That's sort of pathetic XD But what can I say? I ramble on… and on… and on…
Oh, and please kindly leave a REVIEW. It brings a smile to my face and joy to my soul when people review my fics. SO MAKE ME SMILE. Damnit :P
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Chapter one will be uploaded shortly (as in a few days.) I'm still in the process of writing it. Oh, and I haven't done a thorough edit of this one yet either, I busted in an hour before I have to go to bed…bedtime, tee hee…. so, I'm going to go back and edit this, I only posted it to see what people think of it so far…
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