AN: caution! Implied Lemon alert! mmm...lemons...goes dreamy eyed
Book Two of the Sorcerer Arc Death's Angel Chapter Four Without ConscienceIt was the work of a moment to delete any and all traces of the call to Trabia. Thanks to Ansiko. Of course, the GF was being his usual helpful self...
Oh what a tangled web we weave...
"Cut the crap Ansiko. You keep calling this a game, well remember, the stakes just happen to be my life and the world – in that order. So I'll hang onto the few pieces I have using every trick I know."
You still shouldn't lie to him.
"So I should do what? Tell him that I deliberately sacrificed Irvine and Selphie along with a bunch of SeeDs and cadets whose names I never knew? Even you should know better than that."
You risk driving him further away when he discovers the truth.
"As long as you don't go blabbing he won't discover the truth."
You told him I was impossible. That was the catalyst for his near-breakdown you know.
"No it wasn't. He got caught in a mind trap the sorceress left for me. The catalyst was me telling him he'd only been out of the infirmary for a couple of minutes – obviously the hallucinations blended into reality and made it seem longer. It was the same thing that Ultemecia did to break his mind four years ago. Besides, you are impossible. You're also difficult, awkward, and how about, insufferable."
...
"Exactly. Now why don't you do something useful and go back to searching for that data on the pendant."
As you command.
Squall sighed in relief as he felt the GF's attention turn away from him, felt its presence recede into the depths of the uncharted memory banks of the Garden computer system. Ansiko really was insufferable at times. It was as though the GF had decided to take on the role of his conscience – which was working just fine. He knew his conscience was working fine, because there was a tiny part of his mind kicking the shit out of another part of his mind over the whole Trabia incident. But he was used to that. Those parts of his mind were always fighting over something. Usually it was over whether he could have done something more to prevent something occurring, but of course, that wasn't an issue here. He knew he could have done something more. He could have prevented the whole incident by intervening directly, revealing himself as a sorcerer, and essentially handing victory to Kylari on a plate, with a side garnish of the support of every living sorceress, and most of the world's population. A hero's image would only get you so far.
It would come eventually, he wasn't idiot enough to fool himself into thinking he could act behind the scenes and win this war. But it had to be eventually, when there was no longer a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea. Hopefully by that point he would have forced Kylari into revealing her hand. Then the world's choice would be simple. Band with a sorcerer – who just so happened to have been one of the key forces involved in defeating the last evil sorceress, and also just so happened to be the son of the president of the most powerful country in the world – against a common foe, or admit defeat there and then. Not that he was overly confident of success anyway. Squall had long ago learned to trust his gut instincts, and they were telling him, in no uncertain terms, that this was going to be too close to call.
For now though, he had calls to make.
5 minutes later
"What's Esthar's stand on the situation going to be Kiros?" The dark-skinned man thought for a moment. He was remarkably calm given the information Squall had spent the last minute explaining.
"I'd have to discuss with Laguna, but I'm reasonably certain he will be amenable to following Balamb Garden's lead in this matter." Squall nodded.
"There's a possibility that Kylari, or another sorceress, may come after Ellone. She should be informed of the situation. If she decides to return I need to know." Kiros inclined his head thoughtfully.
"I doubt she will return. If anything it may make her more determined to remain in isolation. But I will pass on your message and inform you of her decisions."
"Thank you Kiros. I'll call if there's any further developments." Squall hit the 'call end' button with a sigh of relief. He hated making calls to Esthar. After all, how were you supposed to address the best friend of your estranged father? Someone whose mind one of your friends had shared, who held a lower rank - if wielding the same political power - than you, and was older by a couple of decades at least? Fortunately Kiros didn't seem to mind what Squall called him – within reason of course.
President Caraway of Galbadia, however, was a much simpler man to address. Either President or General was perfectly acceptable, which suited Squall fine. Actually getting to the point of being able to address the man, on the other hand, was enough to make less patient men, and women, tear their hair out in frustration.
Today, however, was one day when Squall could say for certain that the secretary was not lying when she calmly informed him that 'President General Caraway' was unable to take his call. He also knew that the girl was trustworthy – because, for all the 'ditzy blonde' act, she was a SeeD operative. An added security measure, if you like, who had been given the job of playing secretary, and acting as a bodyguard to the current President. Squall was damned if he was going to make it easy for any revolutionaries – or anyone else with ambition – to remove the one man able to hold Galbadia together without declaring war on another nation.
Still, Squall was grateful that Caraway was 'unable to take the call'. He was able to give the main points to the secretary, avoiding the three minute call becoming a half-hour grilling session. Admittedly the grilling session would only be deferred for as long as it took Caraway to return and get the details from his secretary, but it was breathing time Squall had no intention of wasting. After all, he still had the leaders of Fisherman's Horizon, Winter Island, Dollet and Timber to inform of Kylari's attack and the possibility of yet another sorceress war. Plus he had to bite the proverbial bullet and call Martine, warning the Galbadian Headmaster of the possibility that they would be the sorceress's next target, and that they were going to have to deal with an influx of now-homeless Trabian SeeDs and cadets.
Three hours and five calls later, and Squall had run out of patience for the day. With a weary sigh he thankfully turned off the terminal...
The quiet snick of the lock opening was loud in the silence of the room, and snapped Squall out of his weary contemplation of the blank terminal screen.
"...try. OK?" Seifer slid almost bonelessly through the barely opened door, shutting and leaning against it with a put-upon sigh of exhaustion. The lock clicked shut again as he stood straighter, looking relieved. "I finally finished assigning SeeDs and cadets." The blond waved a handful of papers in Squall's direction, stalking forwards so that he could plonk them unceremoniously on the desk, ignoring any and all of the work already lying there. Squall raised an eyebrow.
"Try what?" Seifer blinked, confused by the seeming non-sequitur. "Oh!" Realisation dawned. "Uh...Dr Kadowaki wants me to get you to reassure everyone...or something..." Squall stifled a laugh. It seemed he wasn't the only one who automatically stopped listening the instant the good doctor opened her mouth. On the other hand, she did have a point. Best to address the Garden sooner rather than later, when rumour and gossip had taken a firm hold. What, exactly, was he supposed to say though? He couldn't very well tell them the truth, and the half-truths he had told were hardly reassuring.
"Stop brooding on it. Just tell them what's happened, and that we're going to a war footing in response... We are going to a war footing, aren't we?" Seifer interrupted his internal monologue. A knight to the rescue... Squall smiled wryly at the thought.
"Yeah. Not that we know where she is, but still... Yeah." Shooting a glare at the blond that clearly said 'distract me in any way and die' – to which Seifer, correctly interpreting the expression, contrived to look innocent – Squall depressed the comm. button. "Attention, this is Commander Leonhart speaking. As most of you know by now, this morning Trabia Garden was destroyed by a sorceress. As a direct response to this new threat I am placing Balamb Garden on a heightened state of alert. A memorial will be held for those lost in the attack once the casualty list has been finalised, sometime in the next few days. That is all." Looking not nearly half as relieved as he felt, Squall switched the Garden-wide communications off. Seifer sighed.
"Typically Squall-ish, but what's new there?" He muttered. Squall glowered at him, then, in a sudden burst of childishness, stuck his tongue out. Seifer blinked, wondering if he was so tired that he'd started to see things. Squall chuckled at the expression on his knight's face.
"I was just thinking how much worse today could have been." He explained. Seifer grinned mischievously. Squall watched his knight warily. "What?"
"Oh," Seifer purred, his voice making it clear what direction his thoughts were drifting in. "Just thinking how much better today still can be..." Squall's eyebrow quirked upwards, matched by one side of his mouth as he smirked suggestively at the blond.
"Just thinking?" Squall mused, sounding almost regretful. "Care to share?" Seifer chuckled huskily.
"Well really, it's the kind of thought that has to be shared..." He followed Squall's movement with his eyes as the brunette slowly stalked around the desk, the question of when the roles had been reversed flitting briefly across his mind just before the sorcerer pounced...
AN: Hehehe, finally, a lemon...well, implied anyway This is why they had to get a lock for Squall's office – I have the kind of muses that would have sent some poor, unsuspecting person walking into the unlocked office whilst Seifer and Squall were...umm...otherwise engaged ;;
Anyway, my reasons/excuses for leaving it as implied:
1. I really wanted this chapter finished before moving on with the other chapters
2. My muses just didn't want to write a full lemon, not least for worrying about complying with the R rating
3. Um...yeah, that's it – gomen :(
REVIEWS FROM VERSION 1
Reviewer: Magical Mage
Date: 02/12/2002
For Chapter: 4
Review: Well, I don't really care about Rinoa. I'm not a hater or a fan of her. So whatever happens to her I don't care.
Author's Response: Oh good - someone won't hate me then ;) Hope you enjoy the rest of the series, thanks for the review!
Reviewer: Ezekiel Klitiras
Date: 02/12/2002
For Chapter: 4
Review: nice....interesting...continue.
Author's Response: will do! Thanks for reviewing!