Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with final fantasy 8; it's the property of Squaresoft. However all original characters and storylines are mine. Thanx
Ok so here's the next chapter and I apologise for the way the last chapter ended – I don't like cliff-hangers myself but I didn't think that one was too bad (in relation to ones that I've read before). Anyway, here it is so enjoy.
"That's not... I just..." but Jaylens stuttering soon stopped and he became calm and serious. "He's your son? What right do you have to call him that? You left my cousin – your wife and you expect to still have claim on him?" he spat, his glare focused on Laguna.
"I left to save my daughter – and for your information, I didn't know Raine was pregnant." He countered. "And since when do I have to explain my self to you anyway?"
The man behind the counter actually laughed, further infuriating Squall, his patience was being pushed far further than Seifer had ever attempted and he knew he'd lash out soon. His father on the other hand seemed to be keeping his cool, if only on the outside as he said everything that needed to be said without lunging and causing sever damage to Jaylen.
"Since you married into my family and then abandoned It." he said leaning his fists into the counters service.
"I'm sorry, I don't ever remember being invited into the family – you shunned me and Raine when we married and you did you best to keep my son from me and the family." Laguna's sarcasm seemed to provoke the older man.
"You didn't have the right, I couldn't risk you messing up the boy." Venom flowed from his tongue, Venom that seemed to hit Laguna directly because this time he nearly lost it.
"I didn't have the right? YOU took my rights away, the right to hold my newborn son, to see his first smile, hear his first words and take his fist steps. How would that be messing him up?"
Squall, who stood as a silent witness to the argument unfolding in front of him could actually see the tears forming in Laguna's eyes and the pain that dug a little deeper every time he had to speak about the past. He hadn't really faced it until now and in doing so was uncovering a wound that in twenty years had stayed just that – covered by a life in a sparkling desert city it hadn't had the chance to heal. Until now.
"Because NO child deserves to be raised by the man who killed his mother." Jaylen spat back with rage burning through his glare.
Squall lost his temper in that moment as something within him snapped, so with a swift yet powerful motion he brought his fist into contact with the oldest mans face. A sharp crack followed, but it wasn't the sound of his nose or jaw breaking, instead it appeared to be the chair next to Jaylen falling as he fell backwards at the impact.
Laguna couldn't speak, he looked visibly sick and at a loss over what to do or say. He couldn't run but neither could he defend himself like his son had just done, he wanted to scream and to cry that it wasn't his fault so that the whole world would let him be. Sadly though, he knew that this man in front of him would never let that happen.
"When Raines mother died" the shop keeper continued, regardless of any injury he might have sustained, "her father had already been killed in battle. I was seven years old at the time and I witnessed my aunt's breakdown and eventual demise at the hands of the man she had married. My father, her husband's brother took her in out of guilt and remorse and so I grew up with her. She was as close to me as any sister I could have had." He paused briefly before his spiteful words continued. "I promised my parents that I would look after her, make sure she was happy and that she was saved from the fate of her mother. BUT YOU wouldn't leave well alone! Traveller from another land, I could see what you would do to her even before –"
"I LOVED HER!" Laguna shouted back, tears coming to his eyes as he ran at the counter.
"So? We all did and WE were the ones who picked up the pieces when you left – no matter the reason. Even when you found Ellone you didn't return." Jaylen countered, completely unfazed by the other mans reaction.
"You have no idea." Laguna muttered sadly, turning as if to leave the shop. He'd had enough and seeing that no answer would really be found there he wanted to leave. There was no way, it seemed to make the man see reason – he was consumed by his own staunch belief that he'd done the right thing to see that he hadn't.
Obviously disappointed in the way this confrontation was turning out, Jaylen shouted at the retreating man, ignoring Squall in the process.
"What the hell are you talking about? What could be more important than her?" he yelled.
And when he turned around, Laguna had some of his resolve back in him; his son knew then that he'd finally come to some sort of resolution.
"You wouldn't be here if I'd come back any sooner, you'd have been tortured by the most evil force the world and in fact time has ever seen." The president spoke calmly and clearly, letting the other man have some clue as to what he was doing when he was away for so long.
"And you expect me to believe that?" came the sarcastic, yet slightly baffled taunt.
Father and son both looked at each other and nodded, squall choosing to speak what they were both thinking.
"Whether you like it or not your alive because of what my father did – we all are. That doesn't mean that he didn't love my mother. And just so you know, her condition was hereditary and had he known about it my father would have been able to send medical help that could probably have saved her life." He looked towards Laguna when he said the last part, showing him that he knew how hard he would have tried to save his wife if he'd been given half a chance.
"Yeah like that could happen." Jaylen remarked, however, no longer intimidated by his the two other men laughed and again shared a knowing glance, deciding to set him straight on something – without giving their secret away.
"Oh you wouldn't believe what's out there, or why all the monsters around here have now disappeared – you wouldn't understand why you're still alive." The Estharian president told him.
"You see the trouble is, looks can be deceiving and you don't really know who you screwed around with. You underestimated us." Squall continued for his father, "Or who we have connections with." And he followed Laguna to the door.
But as he reached for the handle to follow his father, something from his mother's letter struck him and he turned to face the now silent and pale shop owner.
"My mother wanted me to forgive you, she said that you were only doing what you thought was right and I actually believe now that in you deluded and obsessive mind that you were, so I forgive your ignorance. But don't think I will ever forgive the lies you sent to my sister or the way you treated us today – she never asked me to do that." He spoke his words with a harshness that he was sure scared the shop owner and he didn't even feel a little sorry, he never wanted to see this guy again – he just wanted to tell him what he though of him before he put him out of his mind forever.
"I also think that you know or did something else all those years ago and I just hope that you can live with yourself." Then he stepped closer, "for your sake, I hope that neither me or my father find out about it." then he turned and moved swiftly through the door, throwing a "Goodbye Jaylen." Behind him as the door slammed shut.
Rinoa met squalls eyes as soon as he walked out the door, he looked far more at ease than he had done when he walked in and his fists were no longer clenched. She stood up and walked straight into his open arms, holding on tightly.
It was only then that she realised he was shaking, probably with nervous relief so she held on until he stopped, even then she looked up at him just to make sure he really was ok.
"I'm fine, my fathers fine, it's all over Rin, this whole mess is over." He told her softly and she reached up to kiss him before snuggling against him once more, realising that she felt just as relieved as she relaxed into his arms.
On a hillside covered by the vines of time, behind a village forgotten in only twenty years, a quiet graveyard resides. It was in this place that Zell and Laurie found themselves, stood hand in hand reading the inscriptions on two stones placed next to each other.
The sight provided no comfort or pain, just the final place they have to visit before they return to their normal lives with the knowledge of how Zells began.
It astounded him how young they were when they had died and how much they'd been denied as a result of that. He didn't really think about himself because he couldn't really imagine his life any other way, almost like he was a separate entity to them or someone who had come across their tragic story. They'd lost their lives and a chance of a proper family in a time that although he belonged to he knew nothing about.
Laurie at his side was strangely shaken by the writings carved into the stone, Zells parents were only three years older than they were now and their lives had ended. The very thought of leaving a baby behind when it was still so vulnerable chilled her to the bone. Infact it scared her so much that if it wasn't for her friends and family her decision to have children would have been very different.
Her husband's silence showed so of his own fears, ones that she only knew to look for in his normally hansom but now tensed and strained features.
"At least for a little while they were happy." She told him, trying to sound respectful and at the same time keep the mood from becoming too solemn.
"Yeah, they were." He sighed looking away. "But they lived in a different time." And he pulled her gently along as he walked away.
"Zell?" she asked, stumbling over the remains of a wall and then pulling him to a halt. "What's wrong?" his behaviour was beginning to really worry her.
"I'm fine, I just don't like graveyards, I know my parents aren't there so I don't exactly see what can be gained from It." he told her quietly.
"That's alright." Laurie reassured, although she knew it wasn't – not yet anyway.
Zell still hadn't moved and wasn't looking at her; he couldn't look behind him again – it was like staring at his own grave. Without even knowing he had walked in his fathers footsteps – at least with regards to his personal life. The photo album that Laurie had found detailed his parent's courtship. They had met, fallen in love and married within eighteen months; he had followed not long after that. His father had died shortly after he had been born, only to loose his mother a year after.
He didn't want that to be him – he didn't want to leave his wife and child behind.
Deciding that she needed to say something Laurie took a not so wild stab in the dark.
"You're scared too aren't you." and she watched his entire body tense when she spoke. "It seems to be ok when you don't know your past or what went before you. But when you do and it seems too close to what you've done in your own life the same end just seems inevitable." Laurie really wasn't one for long speeches, which was why she'd ended up in the library in the first place, but when it was something she believed in she always spoke her mind – despite her own fears.
Especially when someone she cared about needed to hear it.
"Fear is what makes us human and what keeps us alive, without it people would walk up to a Malabora without hesitation and probably end up dead." This Zell actually chuckled at. "But you can't let it control you. You should always look for the positive in every situation – here you discovered a past and a family that brought you into this world and filed a gap that would always have been left. You have the answers now and you can move on, learn from the past and embrace the future." She concluded bravely.
"How do you do that?" he asked her and she just shrugged, then realising that he couldn't see her decided to answer verbally.
"You just live your life knowing what you know but remembering that you are different and can change the ending."
"Laurie Marie Dintch, you are amazing." He told her, gently pulling her hand so that she stood at his side.
"You too." She responded, leaning against him.
He chuckled and released her hand, slipping an arm around her shoulders and walking with her back towards the main village and eventually to where they'd set up camp.
"Let's go home, I think I want to see Ma and everyone at Garden again." And she nodded in response, her head rubbing against his arm.
"I think I'll call Mum and Dad too and check on life in Dollet." Laurie told him, taking in the felling of being in his arms, it was a feeling that never lost it's potency.
"You wanna visit them?" he asked, remembering the time they had left before they were due back in Balamb.
"Yeah, but for now I just want to go home." And understanding her point Zell lead her over two broken walls and past his old house, stopping once to acknowledge the past and then waking with his wife towards their future.
The room was pretty much what she'd expected; only instead of three beds there was two and a sofa.
"Ok so there's only two beds to choose from, I lied." Seifer told her and he could hear her laughter from the bathroom.
"That's ok, you can sleep on the couch." Quistis remarked stepping out of the bathroom and dropping down onto the bed in between another and the sofa.
"What?" Seifer asked her, marching over to the bed and towering above her with his arms folded and icy stare present.
"Well I was thinking of pulling these two beds together later so that way I can have more room and you get the couch." She responded not backing down, if this was some sort of game it wasn't in her nature to loose to him. Plus it doubled as a distraction for the painful memories that he was going to face in a little while.
"Really?" he teased, reaching down and placing his hands on her hips.
Quistis raised her eyebrows, "What do you think you're doing?" she asked in her best instructor voice.
His eyes twinkled. "Trying to see if the infamous Quistis Trepe is ticklish." He replied before his fingers started to roam and set off a fit of giggles in Quistis, who the surprised Seifer by ducking out of his way and sliding off the bed.
"Ooh that's not fair Almasy, now I'll have to sort my hair again before we leave." She told him, now looking down at him and resisting the urge to lean down and kiss his tempting mouth or let him carry on his previous activities.
His mood suddenly changed and he flopped down onto the bed. "Yeah, that."
Deciding that her hair was all right the way it was she came to sit at his side. "Seifer what actually happened and why is it that you suddenly don't want to go? Did you just say that so I would-" the though came to her as she was speaking and she regretting voicing it as soon as the words left her lips.
"Hell No, give me some credit Quistis – I've all ready spent most of the last two days in your room, what makes you think I would bring you all the way here just to try it on?" he complained, sitting up and glaring at her.
"I'm sorry, it just slipped out – I didn't mean it to sound like that." She defended, trying her best to apologise for her verbal and mental slip.
Seifer laughed, "It's ok, I think I deserve it. What with my reputation and everything." His joke provoked a comeback from Quistis.
"I don't remember your reputation having anything to do with hotel rooms – park bench and hood of car yes, hotel rooms no." she informed smiling at the way his cheeks went several shades of red.
"How do you know that?" he asked, more embarrassed that she knew about his past experiences than the actual experiences themselves.
Her smile turned devious and she leaned in closer to him, "The Trepies are everywhere and they know everything." She told him kissing him lightly and then standing up to head for the door.
He stayed put for a couple of seconds as he considered just how they knew – had they been spying on him? Would they continue to do so? Not pleasant thoughts and good reasons not to hurt Quistis in any way – not that he would have, he just had even more incentive to be good, well as good as Seifer Almasy could be.
"I was four years old when it all happened, I was the second youngest in my family with two sisters, one younger and one older. Anyway, we lived on the outskirts of the city – well at least it was at that time, the place doesn't exist anymore as the government demolished it when they de contaminated the area." He started to explain, sitting on the bench across from the memorial in Deiling's cemetery with a bunch of flowers in his hand, the other three on the floor in front of him.
Quistis sat at his side, listening carefully to what he told her, she hadn't really asked him to tell her this time, he had just decided to talk about it.
"I'd gone off with my grandfather to do some fishing in Balamb – it was a special treat for my birthday two weeks before. My grandfather insisted it was a guy thing and my sisters weren't too fond of fishing so they stayed at home with my parents, well Lissie was too small to know what it was – she just agreed with her sister." He continued and it seemed to Quistis that he was reliving the past as he spoke about it. She felt at a loss about what to do so she rested her hand on his leg.
Seifer looked at her briefly and smiled before he continued, "The Galbadian government were testing a weapon that they thought would destroy Esthar and the threat from the sorceress, only as most things they tried it didn't quite go to plan and the f – it went off. But this wasn't your usual type of weapon, this thing was invisible and undetectable, it damaged no buildings or wiped out any power source – they didn't even know they'd been affected." Anger started to burn in his eyes and she could feel him tense up, she didn't back down though and her hand stayed put.
"The government didn't say anything- didn't let on that their weapon had been set off in their own country, they just made up some lie about a pollutant in the water when people started to die. I had to watch my family die one by one when I came home and it wasn't quick or painless – they died slowly. First Lissie, then Teá, then my parents but not me – I was fine and I hated myself for It." he was fighting within him self not to scream or lash out like he wanted to.
"It wasn't your fault Seifer." Quistis told him a she edged closer to him on the bench.
"I know but it doesn't change what happened to them or me. I can remember them clearing the area, demolishing it and bringing in contamination controllers, my grandfather died soon after he was forced to move away from his home so I had no where to go – it's how I ended up at the orphanage." He sighed, "I was bitter and hurting and I missed my family, but with time I learned how to get by and I actually think I was happy at the orphanage with you and everybody else – when I wasn't picking on chicken wuss or puberty boy. But when I saw Garden it seemed the perfect way to exact revenge, that's why I was so hot headed on the Dollet mission – I still blamed them for what they had taken away from me."
Sitting there watching him, something struck the instructor that she wanted to ask him about, something that had never really been explained.
"Then why did you join forces with Ultimicia? She was working with the Galbadians, not against them – at least at first and I know that she possessed you but that wasn't until later on." She asked tentatively and a little afraid of the answer he would give her.
He considered the question, knowing that if it hadn't come up then it would be later on and that it needed an answer, one that at least someone would understand.
"Because she promised me revenge on Galbadia and the memories of my family that time and GF's had stolen from me. I wanted so much to see them again and to remember being part of their family, Ultimicia took advantage of that." He told her quietly.
And after a few seconds of silence he stood, taking her hand and giving her the silent permission to do the same. Then he released her hand, picked up the other bunches of flowers and walked to the monument in front of them. He placed them down amongst the others that lay at the base and stood to do what he'd done several years before, trace the names of his family.
Keeping a small distance behind him Quistis watched his actions and her heart went out to him, she now understood more about who he was and why he had done what he'd done in his life, pain seemed to shape and twist him but it wasn't who he was. If he truly was consumed by his anger then he never would have been able to show remorse or do what he was doing now, they were all only human no matter what had happened to them and she wished that others would be more understanding of him.
He was one of the bravest people she had ever met.
"Well did Laguna shoot him?" Rinoa asked, humour playing in her eyes from where she sat across the table from Squall in Raines old pub. "Only me and Ellone couldn't really make out any gunshots." She added before taking another sip of her coke.
Squall chuckled, "No, he didn't do anything like that." Then when she gave him a look that told him she knew he was hiding something he added, "But I hit him kinda hard."
She nearly spat out her drink laughing and then, just in case it was a touchy subject she covered her mouth and tried to look serious. She failed but Squall didn't seem to mind.
"It is kind of funny when you think about it, I mean Lag – my father just stood there and watched me. It must be the political training he has or something."
Rinoa laughed again, managing to talk through it, "Political training? Are you kidding? Or just going mad or something?" she asked, looking into his now fun filled grey eyes.
"No, I'm about as sane as I ever was. Jaylen on the other hand... there's something wrong with him and the way he went on about my mother... it's almost like he was in love with her or something." He told her and then shook his head at the thought.
She wrinkled her nose, "I wouldn't put it past him and it would certainly explain his hatred of Laguna. But I can't help thinking that there's something else – I just get this feeling that I can't pin down, could be my powers or something. I don't know." She tried to explain
"Like we're not being told everything?" he suggested, relived that he wasn't the only one to pick up on it. "But whatever it is... I don't want to know, I've already nearly killed Seifer – I don't think I'd have the restraint to back away again."
"Squall?" Rinoa asked, wanting to finally be told what she had missed but he just gave her a teasing look, he wasn't going to tell her just yet and she knew it.
He hadn't looked in the box for twenty years, although he hadn't gone a single day without thinking what was inside or his part in it. So carefully he opened it and pulled out a small faded white envelope, he didn't know what had made him keep it – perhaps a way of proving to himself that he'd done the right thing or maybe because it was hers.
"Jaylen, those people, the ones I watched return Ellone this from my window. Can you ask them to take a letter back to Laguna?" Raine voice sounded pained and far away, she was weak and probably only a few days from labour.
"Why?"
"Because they're from Esthar and they're more advanced than we are here, Laguna... he could get help." She wheezed and then pushed her cousins offered hand of help away when she tried to sit up.
"No, why do you want help from him? He left you here alone." He protested, "he's no good Raine, you don't need him."
But she shook her head in defiance. "I love him Jaylen, he's my husband and if there is anyway of reaching him then I want to tell him I'm having his baby and to ask for his help. He only went so he could save our little girl, you know that... so please – please...just do it!" sweat poured over her pale skin, mixing with the tears she'd started to cry.
"Alright." He told her, so that he could be seen to be giving in, "I'll do it if you right it."
She smiled then and that was enough for him, if she though Laguna was coming for her then she would be alright and he could give her peace in her final days, rather than have her face the truth of her husbands abandonment.
"Thank you Jaylen, thank you." and she pulled out a white envelope from underneath her mattress and smiled as her cousin took it, she knew if her husband received the letter then he would send her help before he could return herself.
But he had never delivered it and the Estharians had gone home without so much as seeing Raine as she had been too sick to come down herself and he had done his best to keep everyone away from her.
Now though, doubt had started to creep into his mind – no matter how much he had tried to push it out and he knew it wouldn't be long until the rest of the villagers learned what he had done. His wife had already left him years ago because of his obsessive tendencies and he feared the wrath of the villagers that no doubt would follow soon after.
So he made up his mind to leave Winhill and start out somewhere else, he packed a bag and took all the money he had with him. He placed a note on the counter to his shop assistant saying that she's now the owner and eventually he returned to the faded envelope.
Without a word he threw it onto the roaring fire and let the final words of a wife to her husband burn away and remain unheard and unanswered and with them the chance for a better life.
"Did you throw him to a T-rex?" Rinoa asked, she was fast running out of ways Squall could have attempted to attack Seifer.
"Nope." He told her, smiling as she once again missed the obvious answer.
She went to suggest something else but stopped before she could speak when Laguna walked in to the pub with Ellone. Squall followed her line of sight and just nodded, briefly looking to her until she did the same. It was time to pay his respects before he left.
"You two both ready?" Laguna asked them and Rinoa looked a little surprised, she hadn't expected to be joining them.
"You want me to come with you? I though this was strictly a family thing." She said, baffled and at the same time honoured by the suggestion.
Squall looked at her and gave the smile he used only for her, "I want you to come with me Rin, you're the most important person in my life and I want to share this." His voice was quiet so that only she could hear him and so that no one else could laugh at his choice of words, she knew what he meant though, he could tell.
"Ok." She told him, suddenly feeling shy as she stood up and walked round the table, taking his offered hand and joining the rest as they went outside and up onto the hills of Winhill to remeber a wife and mother.
Well It's nearly the end of this story so I've probably only got another chapter or so to go. (I have already written the follow up though) so as always positive reviews and constructive critism are welcome. Thank you.
