Wrongfully Accused

Chapter Twenty

Seifer breathed in deeply as he stared up at the cold blue sky. The sun had only just set; the horizon was stained a deep pink. The night air stung his exposed neck as he wrapped the jacket tighter around his rigid body. He pressed his back up against a wall and stared at the city exit. Just a few more feet. He held his breath as two officers walked by, oblivious to his presence just inches from where they stood. Seifer begged in his mind for them to leave. Every second he stayed in Deling was costing him a chance at freedom. He waited in anticipation for what felt like an eternity, but still they did not move.

"Fucking weather. Just my luck this chill comes on when I start shift work again. I swear the gods are out to get me."

"Ha ha, yea, everyone's out to get ya. I reckon ya crazy for giving up that bloody desk job. I mean, the pay may not be any different, but who'd wanna stand out here freezing their arse off when you could be working 9 to 5 like any normal dickhead."

"Just between you and me, I wasn't given much of a choice."

"Been stealin' office supplies again ey Gaz?" The second man said with a cheeky grin.

"You could say that, if by office supplies you mean the bosses wife." The first man laughed. He took hold of his rifle that was strapped to his shoulder and leant it up against the wall, merely a whisper away from Seifer's grasp. A cruel smile formed on his face as he contemplated his next move. He would give the guards two more minutes to leave, hopefully avoiding any messy bloodshed, but if they hadn't moved by then

"Gawd, you didn't did ya? What would ya missus say?"

"Nothin if she doesn't find out. So you keep your mouth shut, or I'll shut it for you. It's her own bloody fault anyway, if she wasn't so busy with the kids I wouldn't have to go elsewhere would I?"

Times up. Seifer grabbed the rifle and swung the butt around, hitting the second man at the base of his skull, snapping his neck. He tripped the first man as he tried to run and threw him up against the wall. Seifer threw the body of the second man over his shoulder and hauled it into the industrial bin that had kept him out of sight from the guards. He calmly walked over to the first man who had just regained consciousness and was trying desperately to get his two way to work. Standing above him he kicked the radio out of his hands, shattering it into a thousand pieces as it hit the pavement.

"Please don't kill me. I have a wife and kids." He pleaded, tears streaming down his face as he tried desperately to get to his feet.

"So I heard." Seifer said with a cruel smirk. He grabbed the man by the throat and pulled him roughly to his feet. "This is for your wife." He said before punching him roughly in the lower stomach, keeping a firm hold on his neck to keep him from screaming out. "And this." Seifer spun the man around and kicked him in the back of the legs, forcing him to his knees. " is for keeping me waiting." With one quick motion he snapped the head around, breaking the neck. Seifer threw the limp body in the bin and dusted himself off. He threw the rifle into a nearby bush and ran towards the exit, carefully avoiding the security cameras. Once outside he headed directly for the beach, knowing he'd have to travel as far away from the city as possible. It would add days to his trip but by traveling directly from the city he risked getting caught by patrolling officers. Seifer frowned at the thought of the recent increase in security. Something was definitely wrong in Deling, he wasn't sure if it was directly related to him, but he had an idea that whatever it was that had the authorities spooked, would soon show itself, whether Seifer wanted to know it or not.

___________________________

"I had no idea you were a SeeD."

"Only recently passed the exam. Not much has changed though."

"Oh?" Tasmin raised her eyebrow, silently asking him to continue.

"The press had me down as a SeeD long before I took the exam, so the only difference was the change of uniform, still went on the same missions with the same people how did you know I wasn't a SeeD from the beginning."

Tasmin laughed softly. "I'm the head of marketing for an international advertising company, we work closely with many of the companies that have hired SeeD in the past. Word gets around, especially with a student as well known as yourself."

"Well, I do what I can." Irvine smiled lazily as he reached past her to pick up a glass of champagne. His third for the night.

"Are you here with anyone special tonight Mr Kinneas?" Tasmin asked with the same casual attitude as Irvine.

Irvine winced inwardly at the comment, but somehow manage to push back the guilt that was building inside his mind. He wanted to run, to give Tasmin some corny excuse he'd given to women so many times before when he wanted to make a quick getaway, but he couldn't, he'd been given an order, he had to complete the task. "No, no one special. You?"

"Just a few business associates. Would you like to join me inside?" Tasmin asked, noticing that the others had started to leave the outside area. "I mean, if the rest of the SeeD's don't mind."

"No, they won't mind." Irvine offered his arm. Tasmin took it gracefully and smiled up at him with perfect white teeth. 'She's beautiful, there's no denying that. But she's not Selphie.' Irvine looked around the room, trying to catch a glimpse of the energetic teen, but she was nowhere in sight.

Tasmin noticed his far away look and an evil grin spread across her face. Her plan was well underway and she could barely contain her excitement.

_________________________

The rest of the night was fairly uneventful, Zell and Leanne found a table in a secluded corner while Irvine continued his advances towards Tasmin, leaning closer and closer with every whispered word the two exchanged. Squall and Rinoa sat on either side of Selphie, trying to keep her from seeing Irvine, and also preparing to restrain her should they fail. The long speeches were followed by the meal, which was followed by even longer speeches. Finally around 3 am many had started to leave and the hall was almost deserted. Zell stretched his arms above his head as he yawned loudly. "Well, that was boring."

"Subtlety isn't your strong point is it?"

"What do you mean?"

Leanne rolled her eyes. "Never mind."

"So who was the contact that got you in here anyway?"

"What?"

"They generally don't allow reporters into these things, how did you get an invite?"

Leanne mentally slapped herself for her absentmindedness. She'd completely forgotten the reason she was here in the first place. It was too late now though, Quistis was nowhere in site, in fact Leanne wasn't sure she'd seen her all night. "Where's Quistis?"

Zell tensed at the question. "Why do you ask?" He said, hoping she would take his sudden change of attitude as a hint to change the subject.

".. I was just hoping I could ask her a few questions about" Leanne stopped talking when she saw the look on Zell's face. His usual friendly grin was replaced by a cold scowl and his eyes showed no emotion at all. Leanne hated to admit it, but she was afraid. "Did I say something wrong?"

"No, you didn't say anything wrong. If you'll excuse me, my friends are leaving, I really should go with them."

"Zell, I"

"I'll speak to you some other time."

"Right, well I'll give you a call then."

Zell nodded politely before walking off. Leanne stared at his back in confusion. 'What just happened here? What did I say? He can't be upset because I asked for Quistis could he?' She decided to find out exactly what had affected him in such a way. She grabbed her purse and ran towards the entrance. She saw Zell heading towards the nearest bus stop and tried to yell out to him. She reached the bus just as it had pulled away from the curb. She wrapped her arms around herself, shivering as the cold wind bit through her thin dress. Not wanting to give up so easily she started on foot towards the buses final destination.

______________________

"How could I have been so STUPID!!" Zell yelled as he slammed his door shut. 'And to think I thought she actually wanted to spend time with me. She's a fucking reporter for Hyne's sake. I should've known there was something else. How could I have not known.'

"Stupid idiot!" Zell flung himself on his bed after roughly pulling off his jacket. He threw the top pillows across the room, not caring were they landed and reached behind the bed to pull out the files he'd found. They'd been delivered to him that morning after he'd made a request from a contact in the newspapers headquarters. He'd not yet had a chance to look at them. 'Or maybe I just didn't want to look at them.' He roughly pulled off his shirt and tie and flung them to the floor, he sat up and crossed his legs as he laid the file out in front of him. He grabbed the packet of chips beside his bed and half-finished bottle of soda and continued to stuff his face as he opened the file. The file contained the usual information, copies of birth certificates, resumes, articles she'd written and high school certificates.

"Leanne Eluva DenverEluva?" Zell would have laughed if he hadn't shoved a handful of chips in his mouth at the same moment. He grabbed for the bottle of soda as he tried to dislodge the food from his throat. "Shit!" He calmed himself down then continued to search through the file. His eyes widened as he came across photos taken by the hotel security cameras. Squall had said he'd seen her in the hotel, so he'd wanted to find out what exactly it was that she was doing. Unfortunately there where no camera's in the rooms, but Zell knew that it was Quistis' door that Leanne was opening, and there was no doubt that Quistis was not in the room at the time.

"That conniving little bitch!!" Zell jumped off his bed and ran out of his room. He slapped his hand on Quistis' door and waited for her to answer. A few moment's later the door opened slowly and a slightly inebriated blond stood before him.

For once in his life, Zell was completely speechless.

"What the hell do you want?" She said, a slight slur in her voice.

" uh, I justHoly crap, what the hell have you been drinking." Zell said as he held his hand up to his nose.

"What's in the mini bar?"

"About 10 different types of alcohol."

"Well, there you go." She began to close the door.

"Quistis, this isn't like you at all."

"Your point?"

"Look, I came here for a reason"

"If you're here to try and cheer me up, forget about it, I'm perfectly happy wallowing in my own self pity."

"No, you remember that reporter?"

"What about her?"

"Well she broke into your room yesterday and."

"She what?" Quistis opened the door further and pulled Zell in. "Where the hell is your shirt?"

"On the floor in my room."

Quistis rolled her eyes. "Figures."

"I asked the security staff here to check through the surveillance cameras and they got photos of her entering your room. Did you know about this?"

"Hell no, did she take anything?" Quistis said, trying hard to control the slur in her voice.

"Not that I know of, that's what I came to ask you?"

Quistis rubbed the back of her neck, oblivious to that fact that she'd picked up the habit from Seifer. Her eyes flew open as she realised what Leanne was after. "Shit!" She ran towards her bed and pushed the mattress off.

"Anything missing?" Zell asked alarmed.

"No, but this is definitely not the order I left them in." Quistis said looking through the files.

"What now?"

"Isn't it obvious. Where the hell is Leanne?" Quistis jumped up quickly, soon regretting her actions as she began to sway.

"I don't know, I left her at the party." Zell said, grabbing hold of Quistis' arm to keep her on her feet.

"Zell, that isn't like you."

""

"What happened."

"She reminded me why I was hanging out with her in the first place."

"You really like her don't you?"

"It doesn't matter!! She's a reporter; all she cares about is her job and getting the story. She was just using me."

"Weren't you using her?"

"Yea but."

"But what; how is what she did to you, any different to what you did to her?"

"It just is all right?"

"Grow up Dincht, she may have deceived you first but."

"I had a fucking mission to complete!!"

"Wrong, you DO have a mission to complete. It's not over yet, we can't let her know what we've discovered, she may know more than we think. You'll have to find a way of retrieving all the information copied."

""

"Zell, I know this has upset you, but just remember she was just doing her job, as you betrayed her in order to do yours."

"It's not her I'm angry at. It's me. I was an idiot to think she was interested in anything more than" Zell blushed, afraid that he had said to much.

"? Oh, I see." Quistis had not realised that his affections for the reporter ran so deep.

"What happens now?" Zell asked, suddenly unsure of himself.

"You call her. First thing tomorrow and *hic*. Scuse me." Zell reached out and grabbed her as she sank to her knees.

"Shit Quistis, what's gotten into you?"

"Oh about 4 tequila shots." Zell eased her onto the floor.

"That's all it took to get you like this?"

"Oh that and whatever else was in the bar."

Zell had to fight back the urge to laugh, as serious as the situation was. Quistis had rarely had more than a couple of heavily watered down drinks at any function, and she was certainly not known to drink on her own. This was definitely not a sight that Zell would forget any time soon. "What where you about to say?" He asked, leaning her up against the wall.

"What. I was saying something?"

"About calling her."

"Oh right, call her up and make up some corny excuse *hic* and ask to make it up to her."

" I suppose your right."

"Of course I'm right, now help me fix up my bed, I'd like to have something soft to pass out on."

That was the last straw for Zell. He tried desperately to breathe between each laughing fit, but every time he looked up at her confused expression he simply laughed louder. In the end it was Quistis who had to help him off the ground.

"I'm glad you find this so amusing." Quistis said with a smirk.

"Sorry, it's just that."

"I know, I know. You don't have to say it."

Zell bent down and fixed her mattress and blankets. "I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Yea, tomorrow." Quistis sighed as he closed the door behind him. "I'm never going to live this down." She said aloud.

"No shit!" Zell yelled from the other side of the door.

Quistis groaned and fell back on her bed. "Why me?"

She lay still on the bed for what felt like an eternity. She tried to think of everything that had happened in the last few days but her mind couldn't grasp anything. The fear gripped her suddenly, causing tears to well up in the corner of her eyes. Quickly she wiped them away, ignoring all thoughts of the future. Seifer's face floated before her in her mind, but it wasn't the Seifer who had fled from Raijin's, it was a younger Seifer, barley 17 years old. He had been so.. innocent was too strong a word, Seifer had never been innocent, but he certainly didn't have the worries he had now. Then Ultimecia's name had never been muttered and Seifer's only goal was to see how many people he could upset in one day, to see how many instructors he could manipulate, to see how far he could push Squall. Or was it? In one way or another Seifer had always been an enigma. You could generally guess what he was going to do, but never why he did it. It had taken her so long to figure out why he'd picked on Squall for so long, and even now she doubted her theory. Even his treatment towards her had been odd. With the other instructors it had always been a direct attack on their person, reputation or teaching methods, but with her it had always been mind games.

She thought back to one particular time, before Ultimecia, when she had only just become an instructor. She'd expected him to try and break her, but what had happened that day had confused and, although she'd never admit it, intrigued her greatly.

Seifer had just come back from one of his nightly escapades at Balamb. Although it wasn't very big, Balamb was not completely deprived of the nightclub scene. Usually he hung around at one of the underground bars and would then sneak in around 3 am. He very rarely got caught, and if he did he somehow managed to sweet talk his way out of it. Not many people knew that side of Seifer, he very rarely turned on the charm unless he needed to get out of trouble, and fighting wasn't an option, or he wanted to get laid. Quistis had managed to squeeze some information out of one of Fujin's friends who Seifer had used as a cover and therefore knew where he was going to sneak in. She'd positioned herself near the cafeteria's back entrance and waited for the familiar sound of the lock being picked and then the security system being overridden. He'd calmly staggered into the kitchen and headed towards the exit. It amazed Quistis that even though he could barely see three feet in front of him he'd managed to get through Gardens security system without getting noticed. But what had confused her more was that she knew that tomorrow she'd find him in her class, perhaps a little paler but otherwise seemingly completely unaffected by the copious amounts of alcohol he had obviously consumed.

"Almasy!" She'd barked.

In contrast to his usually smooth and controlled moves, Seifer had snapped his head around and braced himself up against the counter as he quickly turned around.

"Shit!"

"Exactly! Where have you been."

"Where the hell do you think."

'Incredible!' She'd thought. 'He's not even trying to hide it.' "You are in violation of Garden code."

"Fuck your code. I'm going to my room"

"To pass out or throw up?"

"Well to be perfectly honest I'd planned to do both, though hopefully not in that order."

"You're going to the infirmary."

"What?"

"It is regulation for underage students under the influence of alcohol or narcotics to be placed in the care of Dr Kadowaki."

"What are they gonna do? Pump my stomach." Seifer had laughed in her face and continued to walk off. Quistis then ran forward and grabbed him by the arm, but hadn't counted on him losing his balance so easily. They'd both fallen back on the floor, Seifer on top of Quistis. She'd wasted no time getting out from underneath him.

"I'll make you a deal instructor, if you can carry me all the way to the infirmary, I won't fight you at all. But if you can't"

"I will do no such thing!!"

"Suit yourself."

"Don't walk away from me!!"

"A deal's a deal!"

"I never agreed to anything. If you won't go to the infirmary now I'll get security."

"And tell them what? That you'd failed to report that you knew I was out. Come now instructor; don't think I can't guess what you did. You got that pre pubescent pig to squeal thinking that you'd catch me red handed. But in doing so you broke one of the fist rules in the fucking handbook. Any suspicious activities must be reported to the Garden faculty. Now, you could call them to come and take me away but then you'd be doing yourself in as well. So why don't we just call it a day."

"You blackmailing swine."

"Come on instructor, it's a win win situation."

"I would never compromise my morals so easily."

"No, but if you don't, you'll be compromising your brand new instructors license. What do you think Cid would say to his top SeeD then, I'm thinking something along the lines of 'Pack your bags.'"

It was the only real time Quistis had lost her temper with a student. To be honest she'd believed she'd hurt herself more by hitting him, his face had been like a rock against her soft palm, but it was worth looking at his shocked expressing as his hand flew up to his cheek. But what had happened next puzzled her to this day. He laughed.

"Having fun yet?"

"Bastard!"

"Face it, you're enjoying this!"

She didn't see him for months after that. She'd swallowed her fear and reported him to the faculty. She been given a stern lecture but it had been left at that. Seifer had apparently been expelled, but at the request of an unknown source (which Quistis could now guess was probably matron) he'd instead been suspended and handed over to the Balamb local police. At the time juvenile hall seemed like the perfect solution. Many thought that the couple of months he spent there would have straightened him out. Others closer to him knew better. When he came back he was just as cocky and arrogant as ever, only now he'd picked up a few extra skills from some of the 'friends' he'd met. After that pickpocketing became a large problem in the halls.

Lying there that one phrase kept going over in her head. "Face it, you're enjoying this!". What the hell had he meant by that? There had been many other situations just like that, but none stood out in her mind so clearly. She closed her eyes and tried to will herself to sleep.

'Seifer, you're such a mystery.'

"Seifer, you're such a fucking pain in the arse."

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Ok, here it is. As usual I probably promised to have this out in a few days, but obviously failed to keep that promise. I gave up trying to push myself ages ago, because I just end up rushing and spending twice as long rewriting. Things are getting really hectic because there are only 12 more days of school left before I graduate :D:D:D:D. So things won't be much better for the next couple of weeks :( but I'll try to update as soon as I can.