Disclaimer: FF8 is the property of Squaresoft not mines, so don't sue me.
~*~ Chapter 1 ~*~
Quistis Trepe stood looking at her reflection in the mirror. Her face was graced with fatigue. The sleepless nights only added to her distress. For the past week, she had been distressed over the possible results of her blood tests. Finally the results where here in her hand her fate was sealed, Quistis had feared the worse, but she kept a tiny bit of hope for herself. When she finally got the courage to see the results, that tiny sliver of hope disintegrated.
Now here she was sitting on her bed, with her test results in her right hand and her resignation letter in her left. A tear trailed down her cheek as she read her results again. The painful truth was slowly setting in. She was dying.
The tests confirmed that she was infected with a rare plant poison that slowly destroyed every cell in the body. The knowledge of the plant was little or nearly unknown until recent years of the discovery of the Soul Seeker plant. The plant received it name from its first recorded victim, a famous scientist. His research was in botany. His discovery of this new plant was a blessing and a curse to him. In finding the plant he was poisoned, and no cure could be found. Accepting his fate, he realized his passion for researched caused him to neglect his family and himself. Therefore he decided to retire from research to spend his last months of life mending his relations and searching for himself again. Thus the plant was giving its name of Soul Seeker.
Quistis couldn't remember how or where she may have come in contact with the plant, but it didn't matter now all she wanted was to lie down and hide from the world forever. But she didn't want to be here; she wanted to leave and be far away. She decided that she would go through with her previous plan of leaving.
She wearily pulled herself up to a standing position, and pulled out all her belongings from her closet haphazardly throwing them onto the bed. Sweaters, dresses, jeans, scarves, shirts, blouses, shoes, everything, she was going to pack her whole 24 years into a suitcase.
A couple of hours passed, Quistis stood by the door of her now empty dorm room. It looked stark and tidy as it did the first time she moved into it nearly 10 years ago. She wanted to cry, but she had none left. She mechanically opened the door, picked up her luggage and headed toward the headmaster's office to leave her resignation letter.
She quickly left the letter on the headmasters desks, and decided to walk through the halls of Balamb one last time. With every step she reflected and remembered every moment of her life in garden. She remembered all the parties and festivals Selphie whipped up, and somehow she was always dragged into being part of the festivities. She thought about how she would miss seeing Zell race to the cafeteria only to stuff himself silly with hot dogs. She remembered Squall and Rinoa, and how seeing them together only broken her heart. After their marriage a year ago, she realized she had let go of her feelings for Squall a long time ago. As she turned into the parking lot, she realized that she would miss them all very much. Again lonesome tears started to stream down her smooth porcelain skin.
With a turn of the key in the ignition of the car, she pulled the car out of the parking lot and pulled away from Balamb Garden for the rest of her life. She would never set foot there again.
~~~
For the past month she had gone everywhere. She wanted to see the world and she did. She went to Deiling, Timber, Shumi, Trabia, Winhill, Eshter, Fisherman's Horizon, and every other know place in the world. Now she was here, standing on the sandy shores of Centra. At her right she saw the lighthouse still towering over the edge of the cliff.
She spent the better half of the day exploring the ruins of the abandoned orphanage. She walked around to each dreary abandoned room imagining and remembering the warmth she felt a life time ago. She remembered the laughter, the anger, the tears, the love, and most of all the companionship.
Now she stood on the shore in a light sundress that fluttered with every passing breeze of the wind. With her sandals in one hand and her luggage seated next to her, she sat down on the soft white sand, and dug her toes into the warm sand, like she use to do when she was a child. She wrapped her arms around her knees and just sat there listening to the crashing and receding of the waves. She finally decided this would be where she wanted to spend the last year of her life, by the shore near the orphanage, her first home.
Suddenly a shadow came over her with a gruff voice, "What are you doing here? How many times do I have to tell you people to stay away from here?" the voice growled. Quistis turned to look up at the owner of rough and vaguely familiar voice. The bright sun blinded her causing her only to see the silhouette of the tall man.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't aware that this land belonged to anyone," she said as she shielded her eyes from the sun and stood up to confront the man. "Since for as long as I can remember this place has been unoccupied and belongs to no one." While waiting for the man's retort she started to brush off the sand that clung to her dress and skin. After she finished she finally raised her head and looked up straight into two piercing green eyes. She stared into the green eyes for a moment until she finally uttered one word.
"Seifer."
A/N: I know this has taken me like forever to post this new fic up. Sorry this first chapter is so short, but I felt the need to get something up before the next quarter of school started. I will be attempting to update as much as I can hopefully finish by summer. *knocks on wood* I hope you enjoyed it.