"Squall..." Seifer said, without even a hint of malice in his voice.
"Seifer," Squall replied, angrily.
"I know you must hate me, but-" Seifer's sentence was cut short as Squall charged at him, emitting a primal scream. Seifer barely brought his gunblade up to defend himself. If he hadn't, Squall would have cut him cleanly in two, from his shoulder to his hip.
"I am going to kill you!" Squall shouted. Seifer looked at his former adversary's eyes, and saw that they contained nothing but pure hatred. Seifer had pushed him too far- and he knew it. Squall slashed again, adrenaline pumping through his veins, making him forget his injuries, and this time just caught the tip of Seifer's nose. Seifer yelped, more out surprise than pain, and leapt back. Squall paused for a minute.
"Why did you do it, Seifer?" He asked, still enraged. "Why do you have to hurt me? Why do you have to hurt the people I love?"
"Squall..." Seifer started, desperately trying to find the words, any words that would convey to Squall how much he was sorry. Nothing came, and Squall lost his patience and attacked again. The fight lasted for another five minutes, with Seifer not trying to land even a single attack. Eventually, however, Squall's persistence paid off, and he slashed at Seifer, watching as his blade became firmly lodged in Seifer's right shoulder. Seifer yelled in pain, dropping his weapon and slumping to the floor. Squall pulled the trigger, and Seifer yelled again and the bullet entered him, also forcing the blade clear. Squall stood over his fallen adversary, ready to impale him on the end of his weapon, when he heard a voice- a voice he thought he'd never hear again.
"Do it, Squall," the unexpected voice of Ultimecia came from in front of him. He looked up- there she stood, in all her glory.
"Fight her, Squall," Seifer whispered, barely conscious.
"Pay no attention to him, Squall," Ultimecia continued, "feel the power flowing through your veins. Kill Seifer, Squall. Embrace the power. Let it fill you. Soak it up." Squall lifted his gunblade higher, preparing to deliver the deathblow, but then, another image appeared before him.
"Mother?" Squall asked. Raine appeared before him, smiling.
"Don't blame Seifer- even he'll come round in the end," she said, repeating the words she had said to him while he laid dead on the infirmary operating table. Squall started to smile, but Ultimecia appeared again, and shattered the image of his mother. Squall watched, speechless, as Raine broke into millions of tiny pieces, then looked up, only to see Ultimecia standing there, smiling.
"Now, Squall," she commanded, "fulfil your destiny. Take Seifer's life, and I will fill you with so much power that you will never care for anything ever again. You don't like caring, do you, Squall?" Filled with the intoxicating feeling of Ultimecia's power, Squall shook his head.
"Then kill him." Seifer gulped as Squall thrust his blade downwards, but just as he was about to pierce Seifer's skin, he heard a voice from behind him.
"Squall!" The soft, yet firm, voice of his fiancée shouted from behind him. "Don't do it, Squall!"
"Ignore her!" Ultimecia snapped. "She is just an illusion. Pierce him! Impale him! Take his life!" Squall was torn- on one hand, Rinoa, on the other hand, Ultimecia. If he was of sound mind, there would have been no choice, but Squall's mind was far from sound.
Rinoa watched, as Squall stood over Seifer's fallen frame, ready to impale him with his gunblade. What's happened to him? She thought to herself. Squall had never been vindictive, let alone vengeful. He was angry when he left the hospital, but he would never kill anyone, even Seifer, in cold blood. At the end of the alleyway, however, she saw a figure in the dust- Ultimecia? She thought. No, that's not possible. We killed her in compressed time. However, Rinoa then sadly remembered that Ultimecia was a sorceress, with the power to mess with people's minds. Specifically, the minds of anyone who had been close to a sorceress. A sorceress like me… Rinoa thought. She had only ever had two boyfriends- Squall and Seifer, and they were both at the end of the alley. Squall's mind was infected with Ultimecia's, well, programming, for want of a better word, but Seifer seemed to have beaten it. He was lying on the ground, but his mind was not full of malice, but of penitence. How could that have been? Rinoa had only one thought. Ellone… Seifer had attacked Ellone, and somehow, she'd broken the programming. Rinoa then stepped back for a second. Programming? Ultimecia? Ellone? She was confused. A sorceress she may have been, but she still got headaches like anyone else. However, Squall needed her, and with Ellone in a coma, only she could help him beat Ultimecia's control.
"Squall," she said, starting towards him, "I'm real. Trust me. Believe in me, Squall." She could see Ultimecia clearly now- she was very much there, in her mind, in the minds of the two men. Rinoa knew she had to find some way of disposing of her for good.
"Ignore her, Squall," Ultimecia continued. "Better still, kill her. That way you'll know she's not real." In his crazed state, Squall turned round, and brandished his gunblade, ready to strike Rinoa. Rinoa gulped. It's now or never… She thought. She couldn't defeat someone who was not there- she had to help Squall beat her on his own, Like Seifer had done.
"Squall," she started, as he stood, ready to strike her down, "I love you." Nervously, she stepped forward, and gave Squall a long, easy kiss on the lips. Squall dropped his gunblade over the back of his head, where it clattered on the floor.
"A-Angel?" He asked. "What happened? Where am I?" He was clearing his mind of Ultimecia's influence- when he'd stepped into the alley, he'd only wanted to confront Seifer, but something had taken over- and he knew what it was. He turned around, and saw Ultimecia starting to fade away. She was screaming.
"Squall!" Seifer shouted. "Be strong!" Unfortunately, Ultimecia had one final nasty surprise for the three of them. As she vanished, energy started to well up around Squall and Seifer. The more she disappeared, the more energy there was. Rinoa went to try and break Squall free, only to be thrown back down the alleyway. Ultimecia shattered, producing a ray of light that nearly blinded Rinoa. Shielding her eyes, she saw Squall and Seifer get encompassed in the ray. When it was gone, Ultimecia was no more, but Squall and Seifer were both unconscious in the alley. She scurried over to where Squall had fallen.
"Squall?" She asked, hoping that he could hear her. Tears had started to well up in her eyes. She checked for a pulse- there was one, but it was very faint. She tried using magic on him, plugging curaga after curaga into him, but nothing worked. Eventually, she ran out of magic, and kneeled beside him, clutching his body, as she felt his pulse slowly fade away...
Squall was standing in a room, a room he knew well. His old dorm at the orphanage. He was standing back to back with someone he knew equally as well.
"Seifer," Squall started, penitence in his voice. Seifer cut him off.
"Squall," Seifer started, equally as penitent, "don't. We've both screwed up, me more than you."
"I guess we paid the price for our mistakes, huh," Squall said, laughing a little. Seifer also gave in to a little chuckle.
"Yeah, you can say that again," Seifer replied.
"What happened?" Squall asked. "All I remember is going to confront you, then-"
"I don't know," Seifer replied. "Ultimecia was controlling us."
"How?" Squall asked.
"Maybe, after you killed her, she hitched a ride in our heads. I honestly have no clue. All that matters is that she's gone now."
"So are we," Squall said, before pausing. "Did... you... really hate me?" He asked Seifer. Seifer laughed and shook his head.
"No," he said, chuckling, "not really. Before Ultimecia took over I didn't have a bad thought about you. Jealous at times, yes, but never hateful."
"So you don't mind," Squall started, pausing mid-sentence, "about me and Rinoa?" Seifer smiled again.
"She made her choice. I could see how much she cares for you. What we had doesn't even compare to what the two of you have." Squall felt a tear enter his eye- he remembered he'd never see Rinoa again.
"Had," he corrected, croaking. "I wish things could have been different. I wish we couldn't have been enemies."
"Tell you what," Seifer said, regaining his usual sarcastic drone, "when we get reincarnated, I'll look you up." Squall smiled.
"Yeah, that'd be good."
They were about to turn around and shake hands, when suddenly, the orphanage started to fade, and Squall and Seifer found themselves falling through darkness. They were both gripped by surges of electricity, and everything flashed white.
"Whe-where am I?" Squall said to himself. A white light surrounded him. "Is this heaven?" He asked no one in particular. "Mother?" Squall felt himself gripped by the electrical shock again, and a third time. He eventually blacked out, and felt himself fade into nothingness...
Instantaneously, Squall felt himself awaken in a bed. He was weak- so weak that he couldn't even open his eyes, or breathe for himself, yet he was fully conscious and aware of his surroundings. He was dimly aware of voices around him, but they were unintelligible to him. He relaxed, expecting to fall asleep again, when he heard a voice he recognised well.
"When will he be conscious?" He heard the female voice ask. Squall instantly recognised it. Rinoa… he thought. Immediately, Squall's spirits were lifted. By some miracle, he had survived, and was in the hospital in Esthar. This was confirmed by a voice that even a mere two months ago he wouldn't have been glad to hear, but today, it was music to his ears.
"Come on, Rinoa," he heard the calming voice of his father say, "let's give him some space. They'll let us know when he's awake." Rinoa… Dad… Squall's mind was on those two people only.
"Just let me talk to him," Rinoa managed to persuade the doctors. Squall, even with his eyes closed, knew that Rinoa was leaning over him. He could feel her breath on his forehead, could, well, sense her presence. His heart rate involuntarily increased, although it wasn't by much so no one noticed except Squall.
"Squall," Rinoa began to speak. "I don't know if you can hear me, but if you can, I just want to say this." She paused. "Don't you ever do that to me again!" She laughed, but Squall could tell she was crying. She must be pretty sick of watching me lie in a hospital bed, he thought to himself.
"Seriously, though, Squall, my love," Rinoa continued, with a more morbid tone to her voice, "I thought I'd lost you, again. I hate watching you like this." Squall could feel the pain in her voice, and it hurt him too. "I love you, Squall," she continued, "and I want to marry you as soon as you're up. I don't want to wait any longer, not knowing whether you'll come back from these missions alive or dead." She leaned down, and kissed him on the forehead. Slowly, but surely, Squall regained his strength, and managed to open his eyes. The sight that greeted him was of an ecstatic Rinoa.
"Squall!" She said, happily. "You heard!" Suddenly, Squall found his strength returning more and more. He mustered up enough strength to nod his head, although even that simple action exhausted him. He put his remaining strength into saying just four words.
"I love you Rinoa," he half croaked half whispered, before falling back unconscious. It didn't matter to Rinoa how he said the words, just that he said them at all. Rinoa smiled, and cried tears of joy, before Laguna finally put an arm round her shoulder and persuaded her to leave. Rinoa's thought upon hearing Squall's words was a simple one- Everything's gonna be fine! No matter what was going to come between them, Rinoa knew that she and Squall would always have each other.
"Seifer," Squall replied, angrily.
"I know you must hate me, but-" Seifer's sentence was cut short as Squall charged at him, emitting a primal scream. Seifer barely brought his gunblade up to defend himself. If he hadn't, Squall would have cut him cleanly in two, from his shoulder to his hip.
"I am going to kill you!" Squall shouted. Seifer looked at his former adversary's eyes, and saw that they contained nothing but pure hatred. Seifer had pushed him too far- and he knew it. Squall slashed again, adrenaline pumping through his veins, making him forget his injuries, and this time just caught the tip of Seifer's nose. Seifer yelped, more out surprise than pain, and leapt back. Squall paused for a minute.
"Why did you do it, Seifer?" He asked, still enraged. "Why do you have to hurt me? Why do you have to hurt the people I love?"
"Squall..." Seifer started, desperately trying to find the words, any words that would convey to Squall how much he was sorry. Nothing came, and Squall lost his patience and attacked again. The fight lasted for another five minutes, with Seifer not trying to land even a single attack. Eventually, however, Squall's persistence paid off, and he slashed at Seifer, watching as his blade became firmly lodged in Seifer's right shoulder. Seifer yelled in pain, dropping his weapon and slumping to the floor. Squall pulled the trigger, and Seifer yelled again and the bullet entered him, also forcing the blade clear. Squall stood over his fallen adversary, ready to impale him on the end of his weapon, when he heard a voice- a voice he thought he'd never hear again.
"Do it, Squall," the unexpected voice of Ultimecia came from in front of him. He looked up- there she stood, in all her glory.
"Fight her, Squall," Seifer whispered, barely conscious.
"Pay no attention to him, Squall," Ultimecia continued, "feel the power flowing through your veins. Kill Seifer, Squall. Embrace the power. Let it fill you. Soak it up." Squall lifted his gunblade higher, preparing to deliver the deathblow, but then, another image appeared before him.
"Mother?" Squall asked. Raine appeared before him, smiling.
"Don't blame Seifer- even he'll come round in the end," she said, repeating the words she had said to him while he laid dead on the infirmary operating table. Squall started to smile, but Ultimecia appeared again, and shattered the image of his mother. Squall watched, speechless, as Raine broke into millions of tiny pieces, then looked up, only to see Ultimecia standing there, smiling.
"Now, Squall," she commanded, "fulfil your destiny. Take Seifer's life, and I will fill you with so much power that you will never care for anything ever again. You don't like caring, do you, Squall?" Filled with the intoxicating feeling of Ultimecia's power, Squall shook his head.
"Then kill him." Seifer gulped as Squall thrust his blade downwards, but just as he was about to pierce Seifer's skin, he heard a voice from behind him.
"Squall!" The soft, yet firm, voice of his fiancée shouted from behind him. "Don't do it, Squall!"
"Ignore her!" Ultimecia snapped. "She is just an illusion. Pierce him! Impale him! Take his life!" Squall was torn- on one hand, Rinoa, on the other hand, Ultimecia. If he was of sound mind, there would have been no choice, but Squall's mind was far from sound.
Rinoa watched, as Squall stood over Seifer's fallen frame, ready to impale him with his gunblade. What's happened to him? She thought to herself. Squall had never been vindictive, let alone vengeful. He was angry when he left the hospital, but he would never kill anyone, even Seifer, in cold blood. At the end of the alleyway, however, she saw a figure in the dust- Ultimecia? She thought. No, that's not possible. We killed her in compressed time. However, Rinoa then sadly remembered that Ultimecia was a sorceress, with the power to mess with people's minds. Specifically, the minds of anyone who had been close to a sorceress. A sorceress like me… Rinoa thought. She had only ever had two boyfriends- Squall and Seifer, and they were both at the end of the alley. Squall's mind was infected with Ultimecia's, well, programming, for want of a better word, but Seifer seemed to have beaten it. He was lying on the ground, but his mind was not full of malice, but of penitence. How could that have been? Rinoa had only one thought. Ellone… Seifer had attacked Ellone, and somehow, she'd broken the programming. Rinoa then stepped back for a second. Programming? Ultimecia? Ellone? She was confused. A sorceress she may have been, but she still got headaches like anyone else. However, Squall needed her, and with Ellone in a coma, only she could help him beat Ultimecia's control.
"Squall," she said, starting towards him, "I'm real. Trust me. Believe in me, Squall." She could see Ultimecia clearly now- she was very much there, in her mind, in the minds of the two men. Rinoa knew she had to find some way of disposing of her for good.
"Ignore her, Squall," Ultimecia continued. "Better still, kill her. That way you'll know she's not real." In his crazed state, Squall turned round, and brandished his gunblade, ready to strike Rinoa. Rinoa gulped. It's now or never… She thought. She couldn't defeat someone who was not there- she had to help Squall beat her on his own, Like Seifer had done.
"Squall," she started, as he stood, ready to strike her down, "I love you." Nervously, she stepped forward, and gave Squall a long, easy kiss on the lips. Squall dropped his gunblade over the back of his head, where it clattered on the floor.
"A-Angel?" He asked. "What happened? Where am I?" He was clearing his mind of Ultimecia's influence- when he'd stepped into the alley, he'd only wanted to confront Seifer, but something had taken over- and he knew what it was. He turned around, and saw Ultimecia starting to fade away. She was screaming.
"Squall!" Seifer shouted. "Be strong!" Unfortunately, Ultimecia had one final nasty surprise for the three of them. As she vanished, energy started to well up around Squall and Seifer. The more she disappeared, the more energy there was. Rinoa went to try and break Squall free, only to be thrown back down the alleyway. Ultimecia shattered, producing a ray of light that nearly blinded Rinoa. Shielding her eyes, she saw Squall and Seifer get encompassed in the ray. When it was gone, Ultimecia was no more, but Squall and Seifer were both unconscious in the alley. She scurried over to where Squall had fallen.
"Squall?" She asked, hoping that he could hear her. Tears had started to well up in her eyes. She checked for a pulse- there was one, but it was very faint. She tried using magic on him, plugging curaga after curaga into him, but nothing worked. Eventually, she ran out of magic, and kneeled beside him, clutching his body, as she felt his pulse slowly fade away...
Squall was standing in a room, a room he knew well. His old dorm at the orphanage. He was standing back to back with someone he knew equally as well.
"Seifer," Squall started, penitence in his voice. Seifer cut him off.
"Squall," Seifer started, equally as penitent, "don't. We've both screwed up, me more than you."
"I guess we paid the price for our mistakes, huh," Squall said, laughing a little. Seifer also gave in to a little chuckle.
"Yeah, you can say that again," Seifer replied.
"What happened?" Squall asked. "All I remember is going to confront you, then-"
"I don't know," Seifer replied. "Ultimecia was controlling us."
"How?" Squall asked.
"Maybe, after you killed her, she hitched a ride in our heads. I honestly have no clue. All that matters is that she's gone now."
"So are we," Squall said, before pausing. "Did... you... really hate me?" He asked Seifer. Seifer laughed and shook his head.
"No," he said, chuckling, "not really. Before Ultimecia took over I didn't have a bad thought about you. Jealous at times, yes, but never hateful."
"So you don't mind," Squall started, pausing mid-sentence, "about me and Rinoa?" Seifer smiled again.
"She made her choice. I could see how much she cares for you. What we had doesn't even compare to what the two of you have." Squall felt a tear enter his eye- he remembered he'd never see Rinoa again.
"Had," he corrected, croaking. "I wish things could have been different. I wish we couldn't have been enemies."
"Tell you what," Seifer said, regaining his usual sarcastic drone, "when we get reincarnated, I'll look you up." Squall smiled.
"Yeah, that'd be good."
They were about to turn around and shake hands, when suddenly, the orphanage started to fade, and Squall and Seifer found themselves falling through darkness. They were both gripped by surges of electricity, and everything flashed white.
"Whe-where am I?" Squall said to himself. A white light surrounded him. "Is this heaven?" He asked no one in particular. "Mother?" Squall felt himself gripped by the electrical shock again, and a third time. He eventually blacked out, and felt himself fade into nothingness...
Instantaneously, Squall felt himself awaken in a bed. He was weak- so weak that he couldn't even open his eyes, or breathe for himself, yet he was fully conscious and aware of his surroundings. He was dimly aware of voices around him, but they were unintelligible to him. He relaxed, expecting to fall asleep again, when he heard a voice he recognised well.
"When will he be conscious?" He heard the female voice ask. Squall instantly recognised it. Rinoa… he thought. Immediately, Squall's spirits were lifted. By some miracle, he had survived, and was in the hospital in Esthar. This was confirmed by a voice that even a mere two months ago he wouldn't have been glad to hear, but today, it was music to his ears.
"Come on, Rinoa," he heard the calming voice of his father say, "let's give him some space. They'll let us know when he's awake." Rinoa… Dad… Squall's mind was on those two people only.
"Just let me talk to him," Rinoa managed to persuade the doctors. Squall, even with his eyes closed, knew that Rinoa was leaning over him. He could feel her breath on his forehead, could, well, sense her presence. His heart rate involuntarily increased, although it wasn't by much so no one noticed except Squall.
"Squall," Rinoa began to speak. "I don't know if you can hear me, but if you can, I just want to say this." She paused. "Don't you ever do that to me again!" She laughed, but Squall could tell she was crying. She must be pretty sick of watching me lie in a hospital bed, he thought to himself.
"Seriously, though, Squall, my love," Rinoa continued, with a more morbid tone to her voice, "I thought I'd lost you, again. I hate watching you like this." Squall could feel the pain in her voice, and it hurt him too. "I love you, Squall," she continued, "and I want to marry you as soon as you're up. I don't want to wait any longer, not knowing whether you'll come back from these missions alive or dead." She leaned down, and kissed him on the forehead. Slowly, but surely, Squall regained his strength, and managed to open his eyes. The sight that greeted him was of an ecstatic Rinoa.
"Squall!" She said, happily. "You heard!" Suddenly, Squall found his strength returning more and more. He mustered up enough strength to nod his head, although even that simple action exhausted him. He put his remaining strength into saying just four words.
"I love you Rinoa," he half croaked half whispered, before falling back unconscious. It didn't matter to Rinoa how he said the words, just that he said them at all. Rinoa smiled, and cried tears of joy, before Laguna finally put an arm round her shoulder and persuaded her to leave. Rinoa's thought upon hearing Squall's words was a simple one- Everything's gonna be fine! No matter what was going to come between them, Rinoa knew that she and Squall would always have each other.