------'-----,--- Splintered------'-----,---
It was a broken hearted moment for Quistis as she stood there gazing at the tiny girl. All of it almost seemed unreal, the knife in her head, and the glittering expanse of stars through the windows behind her.
"I'm Baysla Deling" the tiny girl said, smiling softly. Quistis felt her heart lurch to her throat. Seifer was beside her breathing heavily, his green eyes also locked to the small form of the girl.
"This was my daddy, Ricker" she says with a small smile stepping over the body of the dead man. The small girl walked closer eyeing them both. They just stared speechless, Seifer reflexively reaching for the hilt of his Hyperion.
"Specimen 0241 and Specimen 2371, my father talked about you so much. It's a pleasure at last to finally meet you both" Baysla said.
"What about us?" Seifer growled viciously taking a step towards the small girl. She just looked up at him her eyelashes thick leaving long shadows on her face. It didn't seem like she was afraid, her face never changing from the mask of calm.
"You were an experiment. See, my daddy was always interested in controlling the lives of others and sought to learn how to control the greatest emotion of all.... love" Baysla whispered the last word as she looked up at Seifer.
"Love" He responded flatly, and Quistis felt her heart drop.
"It's in our programming to love her, as it is in hers to love you" Baysla said looking to Quistis. The blond woman took a step back, placing her hand against a wall to lean heavily on it.
Suddenly all her feelings were explained. Everything she had been thinking about Seifer, the longing need to touch him. How the sight of him took her breath away.
Was all of it just.... a lie?
"Impossible" Seifer growled making a sharp motion through the air with his hand.
"Believe it, 0241" Baysla said simply shrugging her shoulder.
"He has a name; don't call him that number again" Quistis spoke up surging forward to advance on the small girl. A sorceress of her father's making. She felt like spitting she was so sickened by all of this. Seifer turned to her smirking a bit as she defended him.
"I'm sorry.... Quistis" Baysla responded carefully.
"We are here to put an end to all this nonsense. No more clones, no more wired people, no more programs inserted into people, and no more mind control!" Quistis said on the verge shouting.
"What about me?" the small girl asked looking up at her softly. Quistis paused her lips forming a thin line; she looked desperately over at Seifer. He shook his head and wrapped his hand tighter around the hilt of his Hyperion. Quistis looked at him horrified, how could he even think of killing her?
"He's right you know," Baysla spoke up "Haven't you ever heard the saying absolute power corrupts absolutely? All sorceresses are condemned to go mad, even Miss Heartily will fall to power's call one day" Quistis stared at her as she spoke, unable to do anymore then shake her head. The thought of killing a child, even one that was a sorceress, was horrifying to her.
"I can't do that..." Quistis said slowly.
"I will..." Seifer cut in as his eyes fluttered shut. Quistis knew he was remembering things from his past. The times he spent as a sorceress' knight, the times they fought on opposite sides of the battle field. She flinched remembering the sharp sting of his Hyperion.
"Seifer...." Quistis said letting her voice die away. She looked to him letting her hand drop on his shoulder. Those haunted eyes looked to her and she could see there that this wasn't going to be easy for him.
"It must be done" he said placing his left hand over hers leaving his right firmly on his Hyperion. Baysla looked at them with a pleased expression on her face, a tiny grin playing on her small lips.
"Before you kill me, let me help you" Baysla said softly watching as Quistis slid her hand off Seifer's shoulder.
"What can you do to help us?" Seifer asked sternly cocking one eyebrow. Quistis watched him as he spoke suddenly hating that she could no longer trust her own feelings.
"The clones, there was a trigger in the formula used to grow them. With the simple release of a switch a toxin will be released into their veins and they will all die eventually. It takes a few hours" Baysla said with a smile.
"Why are you being so helpful" Quistis asked Baysla suspiciously.
"I hate my Daddy and all that he did" She responded. Seifer nodded fully understanding the girl's feelings.
"What about us, will this toxin kill us as well?" Seifer asked. Baysla shook her head fiercely.
"No, it won't kill human specimens" she said walking over to a door that led to outside, a long catwalk led out amongst the fields of people in tubes. Seifer shuddered suddenly and watched Quistis as she moved over to the door placing her hand on the glass, looking at all of the people trapped in those tubes. Unconscious and unreal just waiting to be part of a sick man's experiments.
"Don't touch the void..." Seifer growled suddenly grabbing Quistis' arm and dragging her away from the glass door. She looked at him strangely his eyes looking ghostly and distant, his gaze locked on the specimen tubes. Quistis touched his cheek softly, whispering his name.
Seifer's gaze turned snapped back to her and he shook his head taking a step back.
"Sorry" he mumbled forking a hand through his blond hair. Quistis frowned and reached to touch him again but he backed away from her and shook his head. She sighed and nodded turning to look back to Baysla.
"Is there no way to remove this wiring from us?" Quistis asked. Baysla looked to the remains of her Father and was silent for a few moments.
"If there was a way it is lost now" she said quietly, her tiny voice filled with sadness. Quistis bit back her tears, unable to say anything. "Anyway, the door" Baysla said motioning back towards the door to the cat walk, "The consol at the end is where the switch is, all you have to do is release the air lock and press it. Easy enough"
"I'll do it" Quistis said softly.
"I'll stay here and..." Seifer said quietly as he slowly drew his gunblade. She still couldn't believe he would go through with killing the child.
"Seifer.... you're better then this" Quistis said reaching for him again. He turned to her anger burning in his green eyes.
"Don't touch me Quistis, didn't you hear? Everything I feel for you is a lie!" he shouted his posture growing rigidly straight as he glared down at her, shockingly reminding her of the Seifer of old.
"Yes, it might be" Quistis said with a pause, "But you still feel it"
Seifer's face crumbled from a mask of rage to a mask of sadness in moments. It was obvious the sight of the tubes, reminding him of his imprisonment had set something off inside of him. He was fighting emotions that he had never felt before; ones that he didn't even know were real.
"I'll take care of the switch" Quistis said walking back into the first room to drag her spacesuit out and over to the other door. Stepping into it she took in the sight of Seifer standing before the girl his Hyperion glittering in the dull light of the machines.
Unable to look anymore she pulled the suit up around her and sealed herself in before stepping through the door and into space.