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Baysla Deling clutched her doll close looking out the window at the ocean, its blue glittering in the afternoon sun. Behind her the hull of the ship spanned on and on, bright sun flowing in through the bright windows.
"Miss Deling?" a voice came from behind her. The ten year old girl turned and looked clutching her doll close to her chest. It was a beautiful doll with long blond hair and a deep green satin dress. The small girl loved it more then life itself, thinking of it as the only companion that had never left her.
A solider stood there, the one who had said her name. He was dressed in a white uniform, his posture very rigid. Baysla smiled up at him, walking a few feet towards him.
"Did you need something, solider?" she asked.
"The bodies on the deck, ma'am. What did you want us to do with them?" The man asked fidgeting with the end of his white uniform. Baysla looked up at him, realizing this was one of the men who had shot at her when she had first boarded the ship.
Surprised at all to find them hostile, Baysla had killed one of them with her sorceress powers without meaning too. After that combined with a little mind control all of the White SeeD had fallen right in line.
"Throw her in the ocean; she will do me no more good. As well as your fallen companion" Baysla answered sadly. The SeeD nodded and started for the stairs up to the deck.
"After that is finished, set a course for Esthar" Baysla said before he could reach the top of the stairs.
"Yes ma'am" the man said as he left the hull area. The small girl turned back to the window looking out at the ocean. She wasn't going to go up and watch them throw away the bodies; it would only make her feel sadder. When her daddy had taken her to Shumi she had thought it would be fun to get to dig in the dirt. Then he had found the body of the sorceress.
Her daddy had seemed excited, saying something about expecting to find only bones. It was that night Baysla's life had changed forever. She awoke to find herself attached to machinery and tubes, the body of the sorceress lying on the table across from her. It was daddy who did it, who gave her the powers of the sorceress.
She hated him for it, and even though she might have been too small to comprehend it, all she knew was that she wanted revenge for what she had done.
"That's right, to Esthar" she said softly to her doll as she petted its blond hair, "And Then we are going to go up into space, to Daddy, to kill Daddy"
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The bed had seemed so soft when she lay down. The huge pillows, the thick comforter, all of it wrapping around her. Unfortunately it all shattered like a dropped mirror when she was awoken by her name being called over the intercom. The familiar voice of Xu drummed in her ears, demanding she come to the president's office immediately.
Quistis groaned out loud and pushed herself out of bed, rubbing her hands over her face. Suddenly aware of someone else's presence in her guest room at the presidential place, she spun around.
Seifer stood there, wearing only a lose pair of black pants. In his hands was a paper bag, and he was staring down into it. A look of bewilderment was on his face, as his green eyes looked up to her.
"What is it?" Quistis asked frowning. Last thing she could remember about last night was walking Seifer up to her room and him falling asleep cold on the couch in the sitting area. He had still been wearing the hospitial-esque gown they had him in while he had been locked up. Silently Seifer put the bag down and pulled out the ever familiar grey trench coat. It hung loosely in his hands the fire crosses blazing down the sleeves.
"It seems strange to have it again" Seifer said softly as he pulled a black T-shirt out of the back and slipped it on over his head. The coat came on next, it flowing around his form.
"It still fits" Quistis said trying to feel the silence. That was one thing she had always hated, uncomfortable silences. It has happened often back in the days when she had trained Seifer, sometimes she thought he had did it on purpose. The old Seifer always did things like that.
"Now all I need is my Hyperion and I'll be ready to create some havoc" he said looking at her a flash of his old grin crossing his face. Quistis paused and turned from him heading over to the closet. With a deep breath she pushed it open finding his Hyperion there, at least the servants in Esthar always did things the same.
Carefully she lifted the Gunblade, remembering the last time she had used it. When Balamb Garden had fallen, when the Lunatic Pandora had been on the move again.
"Where did you.." Seifer asked softly as he took to from her hands. He was shaking as he held it out extended from his body in his normal battle stance. His haunted green eyes stared at the blade, when suddenly he dropped it. The gunblade fell to the floor noisily, and he stepped back from it.
"Seifer" Quistis said softly reaching out and putting her hand on his arm. His gaze turned to her, some kind of memory haunting him. Without words he reached out for her and pulled her close, pressing her small form against his.
"Quistis" he whispered one of his hands stroking softly along her blond locks. A loud knock interrupted the touching moment, the door bursting open almost immediately. Xu strode in a frown plastered across her face, her brown hair bouncing with each step.
"Oh" Xu said as she stopped suddenly, Seifer pulling away from Quistis. Quistis shrugged and turned to look at her.
"I was on my way Xu, have a little patience" Quistis said. Xu opened her moth to protest but Seifer pushing past her and out the door made her stop.
"Ah the power of Mister Almasy, able to make anyone speechless even you Xu" Quistis said with a soft laugh as she followed the blond man out into the hallway. He was heading for the presidents office and she was more then happy to let him lead the way. She could hear Xu following behind him them, so didn't bother to turn and look.
Seifer kicked the door open, and led the way in grinning like a damn fool.
"What a pleasure to see all of you again" he said in an arrogant tone. Standing there tall and proud, Hyperion at his side he was the essence of Seifer. It was all Quistis had come to hate as an Instructor, but now she felt closer to him then ever. They were kindred spirits now, both bound to ties they did not want.
"Miss Trepe, I had expected better from you. Mr. Almasy is unstable, he shouldn't be out amongst civilians" Laguna said. He was the only person in the windowed room, his dark eyes were flashing with anger.
"I think we are finished with you controlling our lives Laguna" Quistis said coolly.
"I should kill you for even being involved, Loire" Seifer growled his hand visibly tightening on the hilt of his Hyperion.
"Seifer" Xu said in a warning tone as she strode into the office. She came to a stop beside Laguna turning to look at them both.
"We don't have time for this!" she snapped, obviously frustrated as events kept spinning more out of control.
"The space station was attacked this morning, by a young girl and a group of white SeeD. She taken a pod and launched with out a problem. On the security cams it is obvious that she is using some kind of mind control. It can only be Ricker's little girl, why she wanted to go into space I can't guess" Laguna said wasting no time in lying the situation out.
"I can" Seifer said lifting a blond eyebrow. Laguna gave him a hated glare waiting for him to explain more.
"The Lunatic Pandora, it has space pods as well you know. Ricker probably shot himself into space" Seifer said with a casual shrug. Laguna blinked his eyes at the obvious answer, and Xu only shook her head.
"You two are going into space, I don't know what the Deling family is doing up there but it's not good. Someone needs to stop it" Xu said with an exasperated sigh. Seifer raised an eyebrow, looking over to her.
"You don't command me anymore, remember I'm not a SeeD" Seifer barked, green eyes glaring at her.
"Seifer" Quistis said softly. He turned and looked at her, his eyes softening as he met her.
"I need you with me" the words fell from her mouth before she realized what she was saying. Seifer only nodded in silent agreement.
"Let's go then" Seifer said quietly.
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The stars were bright and glittering through the space station walls. It hadn't taken long to be launched into space, their destination this place, where Ricker Deling and Dr. Odine had started growing their field of cloned humans. It was here that Seifer had been infused with the wires, were he had spent hours trapped in a tube his body wracked with pain. It was the only logical place Ricker would come, whatever he was planning for his army they couldn't let him succeed. Balamb Garden had all ready fallen; the world was at great risk once again.
And here Quistis was to try and stop it again, but this time Seifer fought beside her instead of against her. He had been nervous at first about being shot out into space in a pod, but had went along with it in the end. It was that or Quistis was going up alone, the chivalrous side of him would never allow that.
Quistis turned from the window to look at him, crossing her arms over her chest. Seifer was still getting out of his space suit a few feet behind her. He was cursing at it, and Quistis couldn't help but giggle softly.
"What's so funny?" he asked looked up at her, still half in the suit. She giggled again and walked over to him, standing just in front of him. Reaching around she pressed a button on the back of the suit, a loud hiss echoed through the room. The suit went limp and fell off of him to the floor with a loud thump. He snickered and stepped out of it, grinning at her. It was then Quistis realized how close they were.
"Thank you Seifer, for coming up here with me" Quistis said shifting uncomfortably. Seifer grinned at her, and touched her hair softly.
"We both have a reason to be up here. We were both wired by the same man, and we can't let him have the chance to do it to anyone else" he said quietly pulling her close into an embrace.
"It's more then that you know, Seifer" she responded softly placing her cheek against his chest.
"It always is Quistis" he said in a whisper as he pulled away from her. She sighed as he walked away from her, pushing a button on the control panel to let them into the main part of the station.
She followed him into the control room, but they both came to a stop suddenly at the sight that waited for them there. A tiny girl stood there tightly clutching a blond doll, her blue eyes lighting up when she saw them.
There was a moment of silence the three of them standing there. As Quistis took in the gruesome sight of her standing there in a pool of blood, her face a perfect mask of innocent. A silver pistol rested in her hand, tiny fingers curled around the pummel. At her feet dead lay the corpse of a man that could only be Ricker Deling, this has to be none other then his daughter.
"Hello, I've been waiting for you both" she said in a soft childlike voice. Slowly she dropped the pistol and it hit the floor of the station with a loud clink.
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Author's Notes:
Well, in my last chapter I said I was going to try and update before I went to England. Well I wasn't able to, unfortunatly. I had a really good time there though and got along great with fellow author Sharpedge, if anyone wants to see some pictures there are some in a thread at the Seiftis Forever board, but FF.net won't let me put the link here so I'll put it in my profile.
Believe it or not I am nearing the end of this fic, hopefully I can get the motivation to write another chapter soon. ;)