"... Ow..." Saranie opened her eyes lightly, looking around the dark room she
was held captive in. A tall dark shadow stood in front of her.
"... Are you okay?" came the medium pitched, yet sly cat-scratch voice of somebody she knew.
"Seifer... Why? Please... Cennaire is not your daughter! You are destroying your own family! Seifer, your real family is Novato, President of Spiral, and I! And Nanto, and Celbie too!!!"
"... I know this, Saranie..." the figure looked down "Cennaire told me... and I will not even hurt you..."
"Then why did you let Rinoa knock me out all dirty and unsuspecting like that!?"
"Saranie... my destiny is to rule under a sorceress... Rinoa is a sorceress, and so is Cennaire. It may not be yours, but it's mine..."
"But, Seifer... your only destiny is to come home, stay home, and raise your own family!!! You may not want peace... but it is human nature..."
Seifer grunted angrily, the green eyes narrowing "humans are too fragile, they break easily. I am a witch of darkness, and you are a witch of fire. We are not humans and you know it!"
"... But... I want my big brother, just like any other human..." Saranie whimpered, looking down.
"... I cannot be your big brother anymore..."
Tears welled up in Saranie's eyes "WHAT ABOUT SQUALL?! What happened to Nanto?! Will you kill Fuijin and Raijin too?! Ellone is only trying to help!!! And so was Shun, he too was only trying to help!!!"
She felt a cold hand slap her across the face "you need to be quiet! Cennaire is busy planning an attack on Esther..."
"Esther...? That's not on Urone... You mean to tell me Cennaire is trying to attack new planets?"
"Yes. She wants to rule the whole Universe."
"... And you'll help her..."
"Saranie, I love you to pieces. But denying destiny could through you off course... That's why I must do Cennaire's orders... EVERY one of Cennaire's orders..." he leaned over, kissing her on the lips softly, making the fiercest of the Almasy's stomachs both flip.
**
"Yo, boy, wake up. Come on, player, this ain't no time for a nap!" came the snappy voice of the old Aretha into Squall's ear. His eyes opened slowly so that he saw a bright white room around him, and felt the cold leather doctor room like bed beneath him. Standing in front of him was the old black woman, giving him a scowl. Behind her, two soldiers stood with their black guns pressed against her back.
"Aretha... Where are we?"
"Polygon, Cennaire's 'castle in the sky'. It's just a big air ship, but it is pretty big. It's docked in the ocean, so without finding Saranie and her kitten, we're stuck here like grease on French-fries."
"Hmm..." he glanced at the soldiers "I've been caught again, separated from comrades..."
"Damn right, honey. They're moving me, somebody on this ship wants to have a private talk with you... You'll be okay?"
"As okay as I can be against somebody likely to have a weapon and me only with bare fists."
"Uh huh. Well, then- OUCH! Damn you fools can you please wait?!" she turned around snapping at the soldier that had prodded her in the back.
**
About thirty minutes after Aretha was drug away by the guards, just as she had gotten into a very disturbing story about a dream she had about Novato and Shun and her, Squall decided to look for a way out of the cold, empty room.
Nothing. There were two small beds, hard and freezing, on the sides of the walls. The rest of it was padded and bright white, and only one window in the front next to the door, one-way Squall decided as he couldn't see the other side. The door had a strange symbol on it, like some sort of space- ship door, the lines for it made out of a smooth emerald colored stone that reminded Squall of a girl's he had grown to like and a guy's he had to hate before he liked eyes.
"... I have to get out of here... If Cennaire's aboard, then so is Seifer... Maybe I can convince him to let us go."
He sat down against, laying back on the bed that was even harder than the ground. He sighed, shaking his head as the door opened. He sat up quickly, smiling at the person who entered "I didn't think that door could open... didn't know it was the gateway to hell..."
Seifer frowned at him from across the room, shaking his head "it's electronically powered... you need a control to open the lock. No deciphering codes, as Cennaire learned from Matron's mistake..."
"Oh, I see..."
Seifer sighed, walking over and sitting down on the bed, putting his forehead on his hands "... Squall... I'm sick, I really am..."
"? You have the flu? Wait, cancer? I heard nothing doesn't give you cancer these days..."
Seifer smiled slightly "your not the joking one, Squall..." he pulled back his sleeve, revealing claw marks reaching the shoulder.
"...? You look like you were beaten..."
"No, I beat somebody else..." he said, sighing pathetically.
"What!?" Suddenly it snapped back in to Squall that Saranie too was captured. "Seifer... You raped Sara?"
"No. I tried, though..." Seifer looked up.
"... But, you didn't have the heart..."
"I didn't have the heart period. I just had to follow orders... But, Saranie's a lot stronger than I anticipated... Cennaire says we can't conceive naturally. She'll have Quistis scientifically do it..."
"What!? Quistis?!"
"Yeah..." Seifer said slowly.
"Quistis is here!?"
"Yeah... two days ago, we picked them up out at the gas station. Squall, they don't like Saranie too much... don't trust her, really. But, they did trust Rinoa, and Quistis trusted me, so now they are working for Cennaire, too."
"..." Squall looked down "I want to talk to them."
"You're a prisoner, you can't command me!"
"Can I bribe ya?"
"... We already took everything you have..."
"I can think of a few more things..." Squall said slyly.
**
"Ow! Hey that tickles! Stop it, Quistis!" Saranie snapped, flailing at the attacker.
"I need you to go nighty night, Saranie!" Quistis snapped, nearly dropping the syringe
"So you can put my brother in me? I don't think so! I don't want to have to claw your eyes out too, but I will!" Saranie growled, leaping off the wall literally of her now well lighted prison cell, over a shocked Quistis and accidentally into a uniformed Irvine's arms.
"Do it now, Quisty! I doubt we'll get this chance again" Irvine said, closing his arms tightly around Saranie and holding her still.
"Right..." Quistis said, moving towards the struggling blonde in front of her.
Saranie's eyes narrowed. Without those dagger-blades to channel energy through, she was likely to do more than just burn Irvine off of her, much less not kill Quistis with her fire power. But, she wasn't about to have very, very messed up offspring. A flame caught the inside of her green eye as it turned blood red, and Quistis was ignited into flame, as was Irvine. They both fell to the ground, fire on Irvine's arm and Quistis' hair alight. Saranie stood up quickly, diving and snatching up Quistis' keycard, and making a dash for the electronically powered door. After beating out the flame, and a shock from Quistis' now nearly bald and burnt head, Quistis and Irvine stood up to find themselves locked in the room.
"... She's slick..." Quistis said, sighing.
"Well... we can only wait until somebody comes and gets us out of here..." Irvine shrugged.
"...!" Quistis' eyes caught a horror "... I'm the only one, besides Seifer and Cennaire, ever to be allowed in this section of the building...!!!"
**
"Gotta find weapons, money, Squall and Aretha and Rira... Gotta find weapons, money, Squall and Aretha and Rira... Gotta find weapons, money, Squall and Aretha and Rira..." Saranie muttered, running down the long empty passages of the gray cold halls of the Polygon. She was slightly happy that the halls were empty, because then she wouldn't be stopped. But, it'd be a lot easier to seduce a Jaromaru or soldier into telling her where the weapons were and then stealing his clothes. Hell, she should have done that to Irvine. Well, she would have even tried Quistis just to get out of this mess.
She turned, staring down a darker hall to her left. She had heard yelling. Unless there were ghosts here, there was at least a person down there. This seemed to be the 'Prisoners' section, anyways.
"?!" Saranie was barely shocked by the scene seen, actually. Aretha was yelling at an awkward looking young soldier as he leaned back from her, as she snapped at him for the hard bed.
"Excuse me, but I mean we are guests! You fools could have a tad bit more hospitality, you know!" she snapped her fingers in his face.
"Aretha! How did you get out of your cell!!!?" Saranie shouted, running up along side of her.
The soldier frowned "excuse me, miss... But, you both will have to go back into your cells..."
Saranie turned, frowning and standing on her tip toes. If she scratched and slyed her voice a little, maybe she could pull this off "excuse me... But, I'm in charge of this prisoner's whereabouts, and I believe I should know where her money and the other's weapons are kept."
"Mr. Almasy! Sir, umm... Nice change in uniform, and hair..."
Saranie paused. At least her trench coat covered the tight fitting female clothes, maybe she could really pull off to look enough like her brother to this dork "umm... I decided I would wear black, to honor Cennaire... And I got back from a mission, it's a wig."
It had work. Saranie and Aretha were free, learned where the weapons, money, and Rira were, and even got information on where Squall was.
**
"Aretha, Rira, you two look for a way out, I'll go get Squall, okay?" Saranie turned, running off down the straight and narrow hall of the A-Male section. The brunette was said to be somewhere around here, because he was a high class male prisoner. So far, Saranie guessed that the three humans and the cat demon were the only prisoners in a while, as all the cells around her were empty.
"Let's see..." she glanced at all of the windows, all rooms empty. Until she came to the last window...
"My eyes, ack my eyes!!!" she turned around, shielding her eyes from the sight of her brother and Squall together in a way she wished to rather die than be forced to see again.
**
"You're mad at me, huh?" Squall said, finally happy to get jealousy out of Saranie, who rocked back and forth with her back to him on the other side of the door. He slid on his jacket, patting a sleeping Seifer on the bed that he had previously been on.
"No, I'm scared. Very, very, very scared... I just saw you and my brother in the middle of something not very pretty... and they say it's beautiful... Ugh, that's like seeing your damn parents!"
"I'm not your dad, and neither is Seifer. Now, lets hurry up and get out of here, Seifer might wake up..."
"Kay. I left Aretha and Rira to find an opening so we can fly out of here" Saranie said, racing down the hall with Squall following.
"What about Nanto?" Squall asked.
"! He's here!!!?"
"Seifer told me in the middle of climax there... You didn't know? Celbie's a traitor. She herself works for Cennaire, as does Quistis, Zell, Irvine, and Selphie."
"I noticed. Quistis tried a tranquilizer on me... But, my own little sister!? That's sickening... We can't leave."
"I know I kno- WHA?!" Squall snapped, amazed.
"Today, we take down Cennaire, once and for all. She's getting on my nerves, you know..."
**
Squall raced along side of Saranie and Aretha, who was incredibly fast for how fat she was. Nanto and Rira raced behind, holding Seifer, Quistis, Zell, Selphie, and Irvine hostage. They had gotten the information from Seifer that the only people aboard were five guards and Cennaire herself besides them. Cennaire was at the head of the ship in her personal room. That's where they were heading.
"Hold it..." Aretha stopped, looking around quickly. Nanto stopped to, balancing himself.
"What's wrong, Aretha?" Saranie asked, as everybody looked at the woman.
"Do you feel that...?"
"WE'RE MOVING!!!" Nanto yelled.
**
The entire group, except for Squall, Saranie, and Seifer were off on a row boat that was pulled by Rira, off back to land, so they wouldn't get lost, as the ship pulled away from the only land that would be for miles. Saranie didn't want to endanger them, Squall didn't want to endanger Saranie, and Seifer had woken up and realized he had to protect the only person just like him in the universe.
"Okay... We should come up upon the control room after we get up these stairs, round a few corners, and then head north. Then we can get to the bottom of why this damn air ship is moving..." Seifer huffed and puffed, feeling the burn of the rarely used running muscles in his legs as he leapt over step over step, following the brunette and blonde ahead, as Saranie seemed to be the fastest even compared to both taller men.
"Thats... it... if I see any more steps... I'm gonna give up hope and leap off the entire flight!!!" Saranie moaned, stopping to catch her breath.
"How are there so many stairs in a damn ship!? Are we going from the vowels of the bottom to the very tip of the top?!" Squall snapped, sitting down on a step for half a moment.
"Pretty much... The control room, without a doubt, is at the very top. The prisoner's cells are at the very bottom. So... This will take a while... Specially if you fools keep stopping like this!" Seifer snapped, trudging on heavily.
"Ah go hug a rainbow, jolly rancher!!!" Saranie snapped, attracting both Seifer's and Squall's attention, much to her delight.
**
Squall's eyes finally met the top of the stairs, to his relief. Saranie was sprawled across the final landing, and Seifer was literally crawling up the banister behind him.
"We are in no shape to fight Cennaire..." Seifer moaned, falling to his by now flamming knees.
"I had better not even see a five step ladder on this here ship!!!" Saranie snapped angrily.
"If I make out with you will you feel better?" Squall said, hoping for a yes, it'd sure make him feel better anyways.
"In your horny school boy dreams."
"Specially in my dreams!"
"Don't be sick, Squall..."
"Tee hee..."
"Hey, you love birds, or sex gremlins, whatever, the more time we waste the further away we get from land, and more time we give Cennaire!" Seifer snapped at the two.
"Hmm... Well, lead the way, scarface!" Saranie giggled.
"Hey, I'm scarface!" Squall remarked, standing.
"Nuh uh, I am!" Seifer snapped off lines from the movie.
"But, I have a scar, too" Squall pouted.
"Eh... But, without me, you wouldn't have one" Seifer grinned.
"... Okay, Saranie, you call him scarface... what are you gonna call me?" Squall looked towards Saranie, who was already gone and racing down the hall.
"I'll call ya both dead and dead-wood Blues if ya don't hurry your ass up!!!"
The three rounded a sharp turn, finally heading north towards none other than the control room.
"Hey, Saranie, if we make it... how about dinner?" Squall smiled slightly, trying to ease the nervousness.
"... I'll think about it, okay?" Saranie said in a soft tone, yet still sly, giving Squall the biggest surge of hope and relaxation he had yet.
Seifer slid over closer to Squall, still running, and in a whisper, hissed "you break her heart, I break your will."
"I doubt if there's any heartbreaking I'll be the one who breaks that beautiful heart."
"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE, YOU BUMBLING BUFFOONS!!!"
"Aww fuck!"
"Huh? Hey, what?" Squall spun around, and Seifer moaned "I forgot that there was also a certain raven haired bitch aboard..."
Rinoa cackled from her perch atop the tiny mech's shoulder she stood on. The blue robo-guard was only as big as about Squall and Seifer put together, as it was built for one person operation, but it looked so armored that no blade could possibly slice through it "lets see you fools get past this..."
"Squall, Seifer, go on and stop this ship... We can't afford this time. I'll take care of miss sweet..." Saranie smiled slightly. This was personal. Pretty much, in instance, it was more than just two enemies, a girl getting back at another girl for being such an obstacle, it was a fight of love. Rinoa, in a way, still owned every inch of Squall's heart, a space Saranie wanted to claim. Like a wolf fights for dominance, Saranie herself was ready to take down the old alpha female and fight for den that was Squall's love.
"... Are you okay?" came the medium pitched, yet sly cat-scratch voice of somebody she knew.
"Seifer... Why? Please... Cennaire is not your daughter! You are destroying your own family! Seifer, your real family is Novato, President of Spiral, and I! And Nanto, and Celbie too!!!"
"... I know this, Saranie..." the figure looked down "Cennaire told me... and I will not even hurt you..."
"Then why did you let Rinoa knock me out all dirty and unsuspecting like that!?"
"Saranie... my destiny is to rule under a sorceress... Rinoa is a sorceress, and so is Cennaire. It may not be yours, but it's mine..."
"But, Seifer... your only destiny is to come home, stay home, and raise your own family!!! You may not want peace... but it is human nature..."
Seifer grunted angrily, the green eyes narrowing "humans are too fragile, they break easily. I am a witch of darkness, and you are a witch of fire. We are not humans and you know it!"
"... But... I want my big brother, just like any other human..." Saranie whimpered, looking down.
"... I cannot be your big brother anymore..."
Tears welled up in Saranie's eyes "WHAT ABOUT SQUALL?! What happened to Nanto?! Will you kill Fuijin and Raijin too?! Ellone is only trying to help!!! And so was Shun, he too was only trying to help!!!"
She felt a cold hand slap her across the face "you need to be quiet! Cennaire is busy planning an attack on Esther..."
"Esther...? That's not on Urone... You mean to tell me Cennaire is trying to attack new planets?"
"Yes. She wants to rule the whole Universe."
"... And you'll help her..."
"Saranie, I love you to pieces. But denying destiny could through you off course... That's why I must do Cennaire's orders... EVERY one of Cennaire's orders..." he leaned over, kissing her on the lips softly, making the fiercest of the Almasy's stomachs both flip.
**
"Yo, boy, wake up. Come on, player, this ain't no time for a nap!" came the snappy voice of the old Aretha into Squall's ear. His eyes opened slowly so that he saw a bright white room around him, and felt the cold leather doctor room like bed beneath him. Standing in front of him was the old black woman, giving him a scowl. Behind her, two soldiers stood with their black guns pressed against her back.
"Aretha... Where are we?"
"Polygon, Cennaire's 'castle in the sky'. It's just a big air ship, but it is pretty big. It's docked in the ocean, so without finding Saranie and her kitten, we're stuck here like grease on French-fries."
"Hmm..." he glanced at the soldiers "I've been caught again, separated from comrades..."
"Damn right, honey. They're moving me, somebody on this ship wants to have a private talk with you... You'll be okay?"
"As okay as I can be against somebody likely to have a weapon and me only with bare fists."
"Uh huh. Well, then- OUCH! Damn you fools can you please wait?!" she turned around snapping at the soldier that had prodded her in the back.
**
About thirty minutes after Aretha was drug away by the guards, just as she had gotten into a very disturbing story about a dream she had about Novato and Shun and her, Squall decided to look for a way out of the cold, empty room.
Nothing. There were two small beds, hard and freezing, on the sides of the walls. The rest of it was padded and bright white, and only one window in the front next to the door, one-way Squall decided as he couldn't see the other side. The door had a strange symbol on it, like some sort of space- ship door, the lines for it made out of a smooth emerald colored stone that reminded Squall of a girl's he had grown to like and a guy's he had to hate before he liked eyes.
"... I have to get out of here... If Cennaire's aboard, then so is Seifer... Maybe I can convince him to let us go."
He sat down against, laying back on the bed that was even harder than the ground. He sighed, shaking his head as the door opened. He sat up quickly, smiling at the person who entered "I didn't think that door could open... didn't know it was the gateway to hell..."
Seifer frowned at him from across the room, shaking his head "it's electronically powered... you need a control to open the lock. No deciphering codes, as Cennaire learned from Matron's mistake..."
"Oh, I see..."
Seifer sighed, walking over and sitting down on the bed, putting his forehead on his hands "... Squall... I'm sick, I really am..."
"? You have the flu? Wait, cancer? I heard nothing doesn't give you cancer these days..."
Seifer smiled slightly "your not the joking one, Squall..." he pulled back his sleeve, revealing claw marks reaching the shoulder.
"...? You look like you were beaten..."
"No, I beat somebody else..." he said, sighing pathetically.
"What!?" Suddenly it snapped back in to Squall that Saranie too was captured. "Seifer... You raped Sara?"
"No. I tried, though..." Seifer looked up.
"... But, you didn't have the heart..."
"I didn't have the heart period. I just had to follow orders... But, Saranie's a lot stronger than I anticipated... Cennaire says we can't conceive naturally. She'll have Quistis scientifically do it..."
"What!? Quistis?!"
"Yeah..." Seifer said slowly.
"Quistis is here!?"
"Yeah... two days ago, we picked them up out at the gas station. Squall, they don't like Saranie too much... don't trust her, really. But, they did trust Rinoa, and Quistis trusted me, so now they are working for Cennaire, too."
"..." Squall looked down "I want to talk to them."
"You're a prisoner, you can't command me!"
"Can I bribe ya?"
"... We already took everything you have..."
"I can think of a few more things..." Squall said slyly.
**
"Ow! Hey that tickles! Stop it, Quistis!" Saranie snapped, flailing at the attacker.
"I need you to go nighty night, Saranie!" Quistis snapped, nearly dropping the syringe
"So you can put my brother in me? I don't think so! I don't want to have to claw your eyes out too, but I will!" Saranie growled, leaping off the wall literally of her now well lighted prison cell, over a shocked Quistis and accidentally into a uniformed Irvine's arms.
"Do it now, Quisty! I doubt we'll get this chance again" Irvine said, closing his arms tightly around Saranie and holding her still.
"Right..." Quistis said, moving towards the struggling blonde in front of her.
Saranie's eyes narrowed. Without those dagger-blades to channel energy through, she was likely to do more than just burn Irvine off of her, much less not kill Quistis with her fire power. But, she wasn't about to have very, very messed up offspring. A flame caught the inside of her green eye as it turned blood red, and Quistis was ignited into flame, as was Irvine. They both fell to the ground, fire on Irvine's arm and Quistis' hair alight. Saranie stood up quickly, diving and snatching up Quistis' keycard, and making a dash for the electronically powered door. After beating out the flame, and a shock from Quistis' now nearly bald and burnt head, Quistis and Irvine stood up to find themselves locked in the room.
"... She's slick..." Quistis said, sighing.
"Well... we can only wait until somebody comes and gets us out of here..." Irvine shrugged.
"...!" Quistis' eyes caught a horror "... I'm the only one, besides Seifer and Cennaire, ever to be allowed in this section of the building...!!!"
**
"Gotta find weapons, money, Squall and Aretha and Rira... Gotta find weapons, money, Squall and Aretha and Rira... Gotta find weapons, money, Squall and Aretha and Rira..." Saranie muttered, running down the long empty passages of the gray cold halls of the Polygon. She was slightly happy that the halls were empty, because then she wouldn't be stopped. But, it'd be a lot easier to seduce a Jaromaru or soldier into telling her where the weapons were and then stealing his clothes. Hell, she should have done that to Irvine. Well, she would have even tried Quistis just to get out of this mess.
She turned, staring down a darker hall to her left. She had heard yelling. Unless there were ghosts here, there was at least a person down there. This seemed to be the 'Prisoners' section, anyways.
"?!" Saranie was barely shocked by the scene seen, actually. Aretha was yelling at an awkward looking young soldier as he leaned back from her, as she snapped at him for the hard bed.
"Excuse me, but I mean we are guests! You fools could have a tad bit more hospitality, you know!" she snapped her fingers in his face.
"Aretha! How did you get out of your cell!!!?" Saranie shouted, running up along side of her.
The soldier frowned "excuse me, miss... But, you both will have to go back into your cells..."
Saranie turned, frowning and standing on her tip toes. If she scratched and slyed her voice a little, maybe she could pull this off "excuse me... But, I'm in charge of this prisoner's whereabouts, and I believe I should know where her money and the other's weapons are kept."
"Mr. Almasy! Sir, umm... Nice change in uniform, and hair..."
Saranie paused. At least her trench coat covered the tight fitting female clothes, maybe she could really pull off to look enough like her brother to this dork "umm... I decided I would wear black, to honor Cennaire... And I got back from a mission, it's a wig."
It had work. Saranie and Aretha were free, learned where the weapons, money, and Rira were, and even got information on where Squall was.
**
"Aretha, Rira, you two look for a way out, I'll go get Squall, okay?" Saranie turned, running off down the straight and narrow hall of the A-Male section. The brunette was said to be somewhere around here, because he was a high class male prisoner. So far, Saranie guessed that the three humans and the cat demon were the only prisoners in a while, as all the cells around her were empty.
"Let's see..." she glanced at all of the windows, all rooms empty. Until she came to the last window...
"My eyes, ack my eyes!!!" she turned around, shielding her eyes from the sight of her brother and Squall together in a way she wished to rather die than be forced to see again.
**
"You're mad at me, huh?" Squall said, finally happy to get jealousy out of Saranie, who rocked back and forth with her back to him on the other side of the door. He slid on his jacket, patting a sleeping Seifer on the bed that he had previously been on.
"No, I'm scared. Very, very, very scared... I just saw you and my brother in the middle of something not very pretty... and they say it's beautiful... Ugh, that's like seeing your damn parents!"
"I'm not your dad, and neither is Seifer. Now, lets hurry up and get out of here, Seifer might wake up..."
"Kay. I left Aretha and Rira to find an opening so we can fly out of here" Saranie said, racing down the hall with Squall following.
"What about Nanto?" Squall asked.
"! He's here!!!?"
"Seifer told me in the middle of climax there... You didn't know? Celbie's a traitor. She herself works for Cennaire, as does Quistis, Zell, Irvine, and Selphie."
"I noticed. Quistis tried a tranquilizer on me... But, my own little sister!? That's sickening... We can't leave."
"I know I kno- WHA?!" Squall snapped, amazed.
"Today, we take down Cennaire, once and for all. She's getting on my nerves, you know..."
**
Squall raced along side of Saranie and Aretha, who was incredibly fast for how fat she was. Nanto and Rira raced behind, holding Seifer, Quistis, Zell, Selphie, and Irvine hostage. They had gotten the information from Seifer that the only people aboard were five guards and Cennaire herself besides them. Cennaire was at the head of the ship in her personal room. That's where they were heading.
"Hold it..." Aretha stopped, looking around quickly. Nanto stopped to, balancing himself.
"What's wrong, Aretha?" Saranie asked, as everybody looked at the woman.
"Do you feel that...?"
"WE'RE MOVING!!!" Nanto yelled.
**
The entire group, except for Squall, Saranie, and Seifer were off on a row boat that was pulled by Rira, off back to land, so they wouldn't get lost, as the ship pulled away from the only land that would be for miles. Saranie didn't want to endanger them, Squall didn't want to endanger Saranie, and Seifer had woken up and realized he had to protect the only person just like him in the universe.
"Okay... We should come up upon the control room after we get up these stairs, round a few corners, and then head north. Then we can get to the bottom of why this damn air ship is moving..." Seifer huffed and puffed, feeling the burn of the rarely used running muscles in his legs as he leapt over step over step, following the brunette and blonde ahead, as Saranie seemed to be the fastest even compared to both taller men.
"Thats... it... if I see any more steps... I'm gonna give up hope and leap off the entire flight!!!" Saranie moaned, stopping to catch her breath.
"How are there so many stairs in a damn ship!? Are we going from the vowels of the bottom to the very tip of the top?!" Squall snapped, sitting down on a step for half a moment.
"Pretty much... The control room, without a doubt, is at the very top. The prisoner's cells are at the very bottom. So... This will take a while... Specially if you fools keep stopping like this!" Seifer snapped, trudging on heavily.
"Ah go hug a rainbow, jolly rancher!!!" Saranie snapped, attracting both Seifer's and Squall's attention, much to her delight.
**
Squall's eyes finally met the top of the stairs, to his relief. Saranie was sprawled across the final landing, and Seifer was literally crawling up the banister behind him.
"We are in no shape to fight Cennaire..." Seifer moaned, falling to his by now flamming knees.
"I had better not even see a five step ladder on this here ship!!!" Saranie snapped angrily.
"If I make out with you will you feel better?" Squall said, hoping for a yes, it'd sure make him feel better anyways.
"In your horny school boy dreams."
"Specially in my dreams!"
"Don't be sick, Squall..."
"Tee hee..."
"Hey, you love birds, or sex gremlins, whatever, the more time we waste the further away we get from land, and more time we give Cennaire!" Seifer snapped at the two.
"Hmm... Well, lead the way, scarface!" Saranie giggled.
"Hey, I'm scarface!" Squall remarked, standing.
"Nuh uh, I am!" Seifer snapped off lines from the movie.
"But, I have a scar, too" Squall pouted.
"Eh... But, without me, you wouldn't have one" Seifer grinned.
"... Okay, Saranie, you call him scarface... what are you gonna call me?" Squall looked towards Saranie, who was already gone and racing down the hall.
"I'll call ya both dead and dead-wood Blues if ya don't hurry your ass up!!!"
The three rounded a sharp turn, finally heading north towards none other than the control room.
"Hey, Saranie, if we make it... how about dinner?" Squall smiled slightly, trying to ease the nervousness.
"... I'll think about it, okay?" Saranie said in a soft tone, yet still sly, giving Squall the biggest surge of hope and relaxation he had yet.
Seifer slid over closer to Squall, still running, and in a whisper, hissed "you break her heart, I break your will."
"I doubt if there's any heartbreaking I'll be the one who breaks that beautiful heart."
"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE, YOU BUMBLING BUFFOONS!!!"
"Aww fuck!"
"Huh? Hey, what?" Squall spun around, and Seifer moaned "I forgot that there was also a certain raven haired bitch aboard..."
Rinoa cackled from her perch atop the tiny mech's shoulder she stood on. The blue robo-guard was only as big as about Squall and Seifer put together, as it was built for one person operation, but it looked so armored that no blade could possibly slice through it "lets see you fools get past this..."
"Squall, Seifer, go on and stop this ship... We can't afford this time. I'll take care of miss sweet..." Saranie smiled slightly. This was personal. Pretty much, in instance, it was more than just two enemies, a girl getting back at another girl for being such an obstacle, it was a fight of love. Rinoa, in a way, still owned every inch of Squall's heart, a space Saranie wanted to claim. Like a wolf fights for dominance, Saranie herself was ready to take down the old alpha female and fight for den that was Squall's love.