AN: woohoo, here's the latest chapter of one of my more popular fics scratches head not that I know why it's so popular – or was at least...
Book Two of the Sorcerer Arc Death's Angel Chapter Five Gone...But Not QuiteThe first thing that Squall saw when he switched on his terminal the next morning were two urgent messages. One from Esthar and the other from Galbadia, both countries where he hadn't managed to speak directly to the people in power the previous night. That was confusing, although not totally unexpected. If Laguna and Caraway had checked in with their respective 'secretaries' overnight, then there would undoubtedly be questions – questions that they would class urgent. But he couldn't see either Kiros or Caraway's SeeD panicking to this extent.
With a heavy sense of foreboding he opened the message from Esthar...
Life in the Garden went on, no matter what else was happening in the world. Seifer had the proof of that in front of him. An inbox stacked dangerously high with requisition forms and entry requests vied with the mission request portfolios for attention – although currently all his attention was on the exam papers Quistis had, somehow, before leaving on her current mission, managed to con him into marking for her. What wasn't helping was the strange argument between Selphie and Irvine that he was doing his best to ignore.
Well I'm going to try – someone needs to snap him out of it. Seifer rolled his eyes and wondered who they were talking about. Seifer... He didn't let her get any further, he'd made that mistake too often in the past.
"Selph, go away. I'm trying to... Holy fuck!" Seifer literally vaulted the desk – an impressive enough feat from a standing start, never mind a sitting one – and shot across the room, stopping with his back to the wall and Hyperion drawn.
There was no one there.
Trembling slightly, he sheathed Hyperion and pressed the back of his hand to his forehead. Apart from the light fear-sweat there was nothing to indicate that he was running a fever, or coming down with another sort of sickness.
"Hyne, I'm going mad." He muttered to himself. Maybe becoming Squall's knight had merely slowed the descent into insanity. But he knew that wasn't true. With Squall's help he'd managed to rebuild more of his mind than he'd thought possible, although they both knew he would never truly be whole again. "Irvine and Selphie are both dead."
Yes, yes we are.
"They both say...so..."
Seifer, if you faint, I will lose any and all respect I previously had for you. Irvine's cool drawl cut through the fog surrounding Seifer's thoughts.
"I'm either going mad, or I'm dreaming." He pinched himself on the arm. "Ow. Nope, not dreaming. Great, I've gone insane."
Seifer, you were Ultemecia's knight, you know what fringe benefits that gave you. The same's happening now. Irvine's comment stopped him cold. Sure he knew about the fringe 'benefits' – but how did the cowboy? I'm dead. You get a unique perspective from here. Such as knowing what you're thinking. Seifer glared at the office door, despite the fact that he didn't know if the cowboy was even there.
"So, you're telling me that a fringe 'benefit' of being Squall's knight, is being able to hear the dead. You'll forgive me if I don't think that's much of a benefit – I mean, there have to be more dead people than living ones."
Irvy, there's no point rolling your eyes, he can't see you. Yet.
"Yet?! What do you mean, 'yet'?!" Seifer lost it enough to nearly shriek, his eyes widening. "Bad enough if I have to listen to the dead, I don't want to see them." He suddenly remembered who he was talking to. "Uh, no offence to either of you or anything. S'just I ain't exactly got the cleanest record." There was a heavy sigh, strong enough to push at a few of the loose papers on the top of his desk.
Listen Seifer. Irvine said, speaking with the exaggerated patience of those explaining things to idiots. When you're dead you understand everything. No one blames you for what you've done in the past, and no one blames Squall. We understand why he did what he did, and more than that, we know that he really did have no other choice. Right now though, something's wrong. I don't know why you can't feel it, unless he closes himself off to you frequently...
Well, Selphie commented, watching papers scatter madly in Seifer's wake, I think the answer to that was no.
"Squall? Squall?! What is it? Squall!" Seifer's words sounded thick and distorted, as though they were coming from the far end of a long tunnel full of cotton-wool. A fact that, strangely enough, didn't seem relevant compared to the words on the screen. Black and white, Squall thought dazedly. Black and white didn't lie. Couldn't lie. Which meant that what he was reading was the horrible truth. A horrible, stark, black-on-white truth.
"The Blue Widows..." His voice sounded strange to his own ears.
"Squall!" There were hands on either side of his face, forcefully turning him away from the screen. Green eyes - worried green eyes. "Squall?" Seifer frowned at the unresponsive brunette. Whatever had shocked him this much could be dealt with later. The most important thing was to un-shock the stunned sorcerer. "Ah shit..." Seifer muttered, then slapped Squall hard enough to jerk the brunette's head around.
Pain... Squall focussed on the pain. Slowly reality returned. Seifer was staring at him in concern, whilst clutching one hand tightly under his other arm. Ah, that explained the pain. The blond had just slapped him. He could feel the sting in his cheek now, could feel the heat from the red mark that his knight's palm had created.
"Sorry." Squall muttered, reaching out with a fragment of his power and soothing the hurt away from them both.
"Damn right you should be sorry." Seifer grumbled, making only a half-hearted attempt to hide his relief. "If you're going to force me to hit you like that, you shouldn't have such a bloody hard head." Squall blinked, then chuckled slightly. Trust Seifer to have such a unique perspective. Anyone else would've been cursing him for going near catatonic in the first place. "Now, just what was it that caused...that?" The blond continued, peering at the open message.
"At least one of the Blue Widows has been sighted in Esthar, heading towards the city." Seifer was silent. There wasn't a swearword in existence that was strong enough for the situation. How many people lived in Esthar? Half a million? A million? Probably more. And not one of them stood a chance...
His knight's silence spoke volumes to Squall. There wasn't much that could rob the blond of words, but something like this...this would rob anyone of words. With a horrible flash of insight, Squall opened the second urgent message. The one from Galbadia. Its contents confirmed his fears, and even Seifer sucked in a shocked breath of air.
"Galbadia too..." Squall simply nodded. There was nothing they could do. So far they had no way of even slowing the X-ATV61UEs, never mind destroying them. Their last attempt had been successful in the short-term, but disastrous in the long-term, resulting in there being two of the things rather than one. All they could hope was that the inevitable deaths were quick.
Squall's mind was racing as he tried to find any sort of logic, no matter how twisted, behind Kylari's attacks. If she hadn't known he was the sorcerer before the attack on Trabia, she did now, so why not send the two Blue Widows after him in Balamb? Unless she was attempting to turn Esthar and Galbadia against each other. That made sense. In the chaos of another war between the two nations, or the tangled diplomacy of a cold war between the two, she would be much harder to hunt down. Not that she was easy to trace under what passed for normal circumstances. But relations between Galbadia and Esthar were more open now. Their respective leaders were both men who had – if not directly in Caraway's case – saved their countries from sorceresses. So...
"She's after Laguna and Caraway." It was only when Seifer looked sharply at him that Squall realised he'd spoken his conclusion out loud.
"Why? If she's after you, it doesn't benefit her in any way."
"She gets chaos to cover her tracks. Plus it's possible that if she can goad Galbadia and Esthar into all-out war, they may become so engrossed in it that they never notice the real enemy until it's too late."
"The way Ultemecia sent Galbadia against Dollet and Timber so they didn't realise she was the real danger." Seifer agreed, nodding. "So we need to get to Laguna and Caraway before the Blue Widows do." Squall grinned.
"We don't have to worry about those two – but we have to make it look as though we do. I don't want to antagonise her too much by rubbing her failure in her face." Seifer was staring at him blankly. "Laguna and Caraway are holding talks on the possibilities of trade between Esthar and Galbadia. But it had to be held somewhere neutral, so they're both in Galbadia Garden. If either of the X-ATV61UEs is sighted in the vicinity, Martine's under instructions to get the Garden airborne and get out to sea."
"So why not piss her off? An angry opponent is one step away from a fatal mistake." The blond quoted the words so familiar from their early cadet years.
"Considering her power, and the two Blue Widows, who would the mistake be fatal for?" There was no reply to the question. It was rhetorical, as there was no way to answer it with certainty, just the uncertain, 'maybe her, but more likely us'.
"So, what do we do? Nothing?" Squall shrugged.
"There's nothing we can do to prevent the attacks, but if Laguna and Caraway act quickly, we might be able to save some lives. Either way, we'll want a strong SeeD presence during the clean-up operation. We have to minimise the damage that can be done by playing on our seeming lack of involvement." Seifer nodded a weary agreement. Basically it meant a day – at least – in conference with the leaders of the two nations, coordinating large-scale rescue operations in two continents.
"Right. Well I'll get everything set up in the 'disaster room', then you can cope with the crises of the world, whilst I cope with those of Garden." He dropped a quick kiss on the brunette's forehead, then straightened and walked to the office door. "Oh, and Squall." The blond turned to look at him over his shoulder. "Never close yourself off to me again. Or have I learned to trust a lie?"
He didn't wait for an answer, or a reaction, so he didn't see the guilty expression that flashed behind Squall's eyes.
Seifer's estimate of a day turned out to be quite accurate. Between the time it took for them to battle through the exact details of what was going on, their theories as to the new sorceress's plans and goals, and the reason Squall was recommending evacuation over fighting, several hours had gone by before they even began to put emergency plans into action. As it was, when the wheels had been set turning, there was little the absent leaders could do except hope and pray for their people.
Leaving people he trusted in charge of the disaster room, Squall left with Seifer to grab what little sleep they might be able to find. It was going to be a brutal day tomorrow.
AN: tired...damned demanding muses...need sleeeeeeeeep...yawns