One Good Deed
By Caelia
Chapter Eight: for your own good
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Rinoa sat very still. She was remembering one of Quistis's lectures that had mentioned sudden movements attracting wild beasts. She had no desire to be cut to pieces today, or any other day for that matter. All she did was respond to a simple page by her quiet fiancé. She never in her darkest nightmares imagined the mess she would find in Squall's office. The file drawers attached to the desk had been ripped open, manila folders spilling out everywhere. On top of the desk were files on the Galbadian Army, and Selphie's Web Page on Laguna had been opened on the computer.
Squall was pacing back and forth between Rinoa, seated comfortably on the couch, and the desk, destroyed at the far end of the room. Still employing the "don't speak unless spoken to" tactics, Rinoa waited patiently for Squall to verbalize his problems. Finally he did as he stopped his striding and came to stand in front of her. He looked furious - his brow was knitted together; his features were darker than usual. The scar stood out. "I was thinking you could help me with something," he said at last, his words clipped.
"…I can try," Rinoa replied hesitantly. She scooted over to make room for him to sit down. Squall threw himself into the cushions, praying that they would absorb some of his confusion. Once again, he was silent, trying to think of a way to phrase all that he had learned in the last ten minutes or so.
"I don't want to disturb your plans, but it looks like I'm going to be a having a blood relation at this wedding after all. Sorry." Squall cautiously lifted his arm off his eyes to gauge Rinoa's reaction.
"Would you care to elaborate on that one, dear?" She prodded gently.
"President Loi… Laguna wanted me to call him; he left instructions in the SeeD request form," Squall took a deep breath and tried to clear his mind before he continued. "I figured it was just for a clarification or to tell my some story about when he was younger." He stopped.
"And…? I can't help you unless you tell me what happened." Rinoa said, poking at his arm as she said this.
"Well, I was right about the second part. He wanted to talk to me about Winhill and Raine. Told me how he left Raine to look for Ellone when she was kidnapped. He said what he hadn't mentioned to us earlier was that he left Raine pregnant. She had died by the time he had returned. And her son, well, he had been sent to an orphanage of the tip of Centra. He sent Ellone down there too, hoping that she would be safe." Squall paused and eyed Rinoa. She still gave him a blank stare. He sighed and stated the obvious, "Rinoa, he thinks I'm his son."
She didn't even blink. "Well, I knew that Squall. Now the question is what are you going to do about it?"
"How did you know?" he exploded. She shook her head.
"Appearance, attitude, personality…" Squall cut her off.
"Are you kidding!? I look nothing like him, and I do NOT act like him!" he insisted, jumping up from the seat and stamping his foot. Rinoa made the mistake of giggling at his childish behavior. "What do you think is so funny, angel?" he said, letting his anger slip slightly. Rinoa stopped smiling.
"I just knew Squall. I wasn't around when you two met up, but I knew," she shrugged. "I guess it came to me with all of Edea's knowledge. But the question still remains, what are you going to do about it?"
"I don't know."
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Off the northern tip of Esthar, on the island where the Shumi Village lies, there is a lake that remains frozen solid all throughout the year. In the center of the lake, there is a hole that leads down a cavern named the Ice Den. Shiva can be found resting there, well, that is, when she is not being called upon by those that have the power to junction her. At 6:30am on Wednesday morning, Seifer and Skyeli hovered over that very same hole, preparing to enter the Den.
Skyeli sneezed again and shivered, obviously cold and tired. Seifer took great pains to ignore her discomfort. "I don't need to remind you that 'Ice' Magic is completely out of the question here. Since 'Fire' Magic is a sort of specialty of mine, I'm really only going to act as a support. I expect you to beat her on your own. If you fail, I'll intervene…"
"Glad to know I have your undying faith," Skyeli muttered and stuck out her tongue. Then without another word took a deep breath and jumped into the hole. Seifer shook his head and followed.
She was surprised to find that the Den was brighter than it had been on the surface. The light reflected down through the ice, forming patterns of shadows and highlights like she had never seen before. Even Seifer's loud landing could not pull her eyes from the beauty of the scene before her. It wasn't until she was attacked by a rather weak, although shocking, Bite Bug that she was jarred back into reality. She destroyed the creature with one hit and turned to glare at Seifer.
"Mind telling me why you didn't do anything before it bit me?" she asked, her voice steadily rising.
"You need to learn to pay attention," was all he said before leading the way down one of the paths.
Funny, that's what I thought I was doing… Skyeli thought as she fumed silently. He's even stricter than Selphie. Over the past couple of days Seifer had pushed her so hard, she was aching in places she didn't even know existed. Up at the 'ass crack' of dawn as Skyeli was now fond of saying, and then training and studying until well past dinner. And it had only been two days! She wasn't sure of how much more she could take…
"Hey!" Seifer's voice echoed back on the cave's walls. "You still with me? I want to be back to the Garden before 1pm so we can grab some lunch then test your new GF abilities in the Fire Cavern."
"Oh yippee," she said under her breath while twirling her finger, then quickly called out, "Coming!" as she jogged up to walk alongside Seifer. "So… did you come here as your pre-requisite, or did you go to the Fire Cavern?"
"I came here. Quistis, er, Instructor Trepe thought that, given my ability with Fire Magic, I would at least pass this much…" he trailed off, not wanting to think of the time just before the Sorceress War.
Skyeli smiled. "So did you pass?" she asked with the sarcasm dripping from her voice.
"Very cute, yes I did. It was one of the few tests I did pass that year. Now let's get going," Seifer ordered. He sped up and took the left route at the next fork in the path. Skyeli again drifted back to the patterns the ice was forming. She stayed close to Seifer by gripping his coat lightly so that she could keep her focus on the walls.
Something inside the ice was whispering to her. She could feel power literally leaking from the ice into her system. Had Seifer looked over at her, he would have noticed that her eyes had taken on an odd, silver glow. Skyeli gently lifted her arm towards the wall. She knew that if she could just touch it, all the power would be hers. But she should have been paying attention. Skyeli didn't even realize when Seifer stopped in front of Shiva's bed. In fact, the next thing she realized she was being blasted back fifteen feet by the Ice Goddess herself.
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Selphie was plain bored. Rinoa and Zell were out on a mission, Irvine and Quistis were in class and that left only one person. Squall. Problem was, he had shut himself up in his office after Rinoa left and was obviously brooding over something. She supposed she could go harass Squall into telling her his problem, and it seemed like the best option at the moment anyway. With that, the Garden's little ray of sunshine made her way to the elevator.
Squall was predictably just where Rinoa had left him on Monday night: his office. He had managed to straighten out the room since his earlier outburst, but was still shaken by the confession of the President. My father? It didn't even make sense, the physical resemblance was minimal at best, and he wasn't even going to start thinking about the major personality gap. The most rational explanation he could come up with was that this was a cruel joke of sorts; that everyone was in on it, even Rinoa. Squall folded his arms on the desk before him and rested his head on them, giving into his thoughts.
Selphie knocked for the fourth time. Someone who wasn't as close to Squall would have given up after the second time, assuming that he was not in, but Selphie knew better. He was in there and he was doing one of two things. He was either so lost in thought that he actually didn't here the door or he was doing his best to pretend that was the situation. Selphie just shrugged and let herself in, dropping any pretenses and formalities. She took one look at Squall, sighed sadly and sat on the couch left of his desk.
Squall had fallen asleep. He gave up on thinking, and plain decided that unconsciousness was the way to go. He had, of course awakened to the sound of the lock releasing in the door, but chose to rest a few minutes more anyway. Finally when he was ready, he cleared his throat and without lifting his head asked, "Is there something you wanted Selphie?"
She started a little at being addressed by the seemingly slumbering young man, but shook it off and smiled at him. "Not particularly," she replied cheerfully enough. "I was just lonely and you were the only one around. Not that I think of you as a last resort or anything. You don't normally like to hang out in the middle of the day, but with everyone off doing other things I thought it might be nice for the two of us to spend some time together. You know, get a lunch, walk around Balam-"
"That'll do Selph." Squall sighed as he lifted his head from the desk. "You win, I relent. We'll do what you want for the afternoon."
"Booyaka!" She exclaimed as she jumped up and down twice then darted at Squall. He tried to side step the on-coming attack of an over-excited Selphie, but there was no avoiding it. In a matter of seconds she had latched onto his wrist and was dragging him out of his office door.
The car ride into town had been pleasant. (Well, aside from Selphie antagonizing a T-Rexaur into chasing them for a mile or so.) It was a beautiful day in Balamb; the sky was so clear and blue that it was almost impossible to tell where it ended and the ocean began. They drove with the windows down, allowing the fresh sea air to wash through the car and over them. It was relaxing to Squall, and at the same time, exhilarating to Selphie.
"Where are we going first?" He asked, breaking his silence for the first time since screaming at the T-Rexaur.
Selphie paused thoughtfully, and then lit up as an idea came to her. "I know! We can go to the hotel and have lunch on the patio. We can wear sunglasses and watch the ocean and act sophisticated and stuff!" Her enthusiasm managed to crack a smile from Squall as he pulled into the garage at the entrance to the town.
"Whatever," he replied lightly and with that said, fluidly exited the car. Selphie gave a small smirk as she stared at him from behind. That's it; you've almost got him trusting you. A few more well thought out bursts of energy and he should be ready to spill all his problems. And then, I get to fix them! She smiled happily at her own resourcefulness, and then jogged up to walk beside him. Eat your heart out Rinoa.
Squall just sighed quietly and looked at Selphie as she bounced contently next to him. It was hard to be depressed when she was around, even if he tried. And he was trying. Laguna was weighing on his mind even now. To find your parents, every orphans dream come true, right? Well, he wasn't sure if it was Squall Leonhart's dream. He just wanted a simple kind of life and this was not making it easier. He glanced at Selphie again as they passed the Weapon Shop. Maybe he shouldn't dwell on this right now. He had been cooped up in that office for two days. Selphie tilted her head up as she felt his eyes on her. He smiled and said, "Hyne, the sun feels so warm."
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"This stupid continent is so cold!" Skyeli exclaimed as she plopped herself down into the heavy cushions within the SeeD train cabin. Seifer didn't seem to find the climate that objectionable, so Skyeli had decided to complain until he couldn't take her temperament anymore. She had been going off on anything she could think of since they left Shiva's cave. The bite bug sting, the frostbite; she would tackle anything she could. The surprising thing was that she wasn't even in a bad mood. Quite the opposite actually, having just defeated Shiva she was feeling rather accomplished. What she wanted was a reaction from Seifer, and so she repeated herself. "I said it's cold here!"
"Yeah, I think you might have mentioned that. About a hundred times before…" Seifer took the time to pause and glare at her before continuing. "So just buckle down and shut up. We are in the fully heated train." With that he lapsed into yet another silence. Skyeli just crossed her arms and pouted. Perhaps she wouldn't be pushing Seifer-no, Professor Almasy's buttons today. Instead she chose to relive her glorifying battle against Shiva, which oddly enough, was exactly what Seifer was doing.
Something had struck him as bizarre from the very beginning of the fight. Shiva made a short, flowery introduction then immediately attacked Skyeli, who appeared not to be paying attention at all. This, however, was where it got strange. When Skyeli stood up she stared Shiva straight in the eye and Seifer swore she growled. Odder than that, Shiva looked terrified, not only of Skyeli, but also the ice attack the GF had thrown at her. She spent the rest of the fight throwing weak spells at Seifer, never bothering to cast so much as a Blizzard on Skyeli. Within moments, the battle was over, leaving a victorious young cadet as well as a mildly shocked Seifer. He had never seen Shiva back down from any opponent before. There was definitely more than he was being told about Skyeli Paige.
Too quiet, Skyeli thought. She pulled her legs out of the Indian Style she had been sitting in and began to idly kick them back and forth. She looked up at Seifer again. He had spent the last one and a half days kicking her ass, and whenever he looked at her she felt the suspicion in his gaze. He regarded her as some sort of mental bomb, as if any minute she was liable to crack up and slit her wrist again. She was only trying to make things easier on everyone, including him. But he had chosen to keep her alive, so she respected his wishes. Skyeli concentrated harder on him.
He was thinking about the battle. She would try to make things easier for him again and take his mind off of earlier that morning. Hopefully he wouldn't turn away her gift again.
"Won't you at least talk to me?" Her voice sounded raw as it broke through the silence. "It's a long way back to Balamb, you can't expect me to sit here and stare out the window at scenery that flies by to fast."
"Well, would that be a change of view, considering you've been staring at me?" Had she been staring at me? He was unsure and yet positive at the same time. Skyeli blushed, but quickly stuck out her tongue and tried to rescue herself from further humiliation.
"That's because you had a strange expression on you face. I thought you were going to pop a vein or something. What were you thinking about? Tying your shoes or buttoning that trench coat of yours?" She smiled sweetly and batted her lashes.
"Why you little…" He began, trying to think up one of his crueler insults. "No, nevermind, if you are going to be rude like that, I just won't talk at all." Now was Seifer's moment to smirk. He folded his arms over his broad chest and leaned back into the seat. Skyeli, sitting opposite from him, dropped her jaw in shock.
"No, no, no, no! I'll be good, I'll be nice! Oh, please Seif, er, Prof. Almasy?" She had turned on the sofa to fully face him, kneeling and grasping her hands in front of her in a pleading manor. "Come on, 4 hours with no one to talk to is bad enough, but it's worse when there is someone sitting right there." With this she began inching closer and tried (as well as failed) making a puppy dog face. Once within arms reach, she proceeded to poke him in an attempt to find a ticklish spot and break his icy demeanor. Again, she failed.
Sighing loudly and dramatically, she plopped back down into a sitting position, so close to him that there sides pushed up against each other. She turned her head to face him. "You really are no fun."
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A/N: PLEASE REVIEW ME! Anyway, I've sort of done a quick read through of all the chapters up until this point and revised any minor mistakes I could find. Really nothing major if you've been following along. Just general grammar problems and such. So, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please read and review! Chapter 9 should be up in a few days.
Chapter 9: early preparations ~ The test is approaching and tensions are running high. How will Skyeli handle her partners? What happened in Shiva's cave? Why do I sound like the narrator for the original Batman show?
DISCLAIMER: I don't own them and I'm not strong enough to fight off everyone on FF.net for them. Skyeli Paige, Caine Morningstar and Reiko Keyling belong to me, so please don't steal them. They're all a little nuts anyway. . .
