Chapter Eighteen: Fight (Seifer)
I was mad. I was more than mad – I was in some kind of berserk frenzy. My only priority was to protect the two girls I had abandoned – my own stupid damn fault.
And probably kill the bastard Ryden in the process. Redemption – that's what it all came down to in the end, and now this squirming man was going to feel the force of my 'redemption'.
Using his own strength, he managed to force me away from him, causing Hyperion to be flung sideways but still in my grip and dashed over to where the Fervent lay next to Gaia, stomping on her as he ran which made her scream through the gag and lash out with her free leg.
I scowled and threw Hyperion in front of me, ready to strike and began to strafe around past Gaia and kept my eyes on Ryden, who appeared to have calmed. He turned with cold eyes and the Fervent in hand, his dead eyes boring into mine as if to worry me.
Instead I snorted, "You think that little act will get me scared?" I grinned and he moved silently away from Gaia and toward me with a gleam of victory in his eyes.
I took an offensive stance and prepared to strike and briefly allowed myself to glance at Wyvern, who looked terrified and was wriggling to free her hands very slowly.
I focused back on Ryden who was getting to grips with Gaia's blade and I took the opportunity to charge with a harsh yell, making him jump and barely raise the Fervent in time to defend himself.
The blades clanged and the sound reverberated over the large area and Ryden fell back, looking a little disorientated and straightened, bringing the sword up to shoulder height.
"She's not yours, Seifer, she's mine," he said quietly and pounded forward, pointing the Fervent forward in my direction. I dodged the blow easily and swung Hyperion into his back with the noise of a butcher's knife into flesh. He screamed and I tugged the blade out and I saw in the poor lighting the damage had been quite deep, with blood spilling out to Ryden's horror.
He swiftly manoeuvred a hand to his back and yelled, "Curaga!" allowing the healing light to glow from his hands and mostly heal the wound.
I blew air nosily out of my mouth in annoyance as Ryden, now healed, spun around to face me and dropped the Fervent.
"Useless junk of a weapon," he spat and instead flexed his hands experimentally. He looked at his palms and took in a slow breath as I readied myself to battle an unarmed enemy with Hyperion pointed at Ryden. Do you attack an unarmed man? He was stupid enough to throw his borrowed sword down, wasn't he? I have the right to make him pay for what he's attempting to do!
"Protect," he muttered in the meantime and blue light spawned from his hands and encased him in a glowing hue of intense blue before fading into a soft shell.
I growled, discarded all thoughts of him being weaponless and struck the protect spell to no avail, while Gaia appeared to have freed her mouth as I heard her gasp for air behind me.
"Get the bastard!" she screamed hoarsely.
I lifted Hyperion above my head and brought it down upon the spell, which merely made Ryden shudder a little from the impact and stand smugly with his arms crossed.
He extended his hands a smiled.
"Flare," he commanded and I retreated as the crimson energy gathered around his hands and directed my way. He threw the flare spell off into my direction and the coils of power wrapped around my legs and exploded all around me in a dazzlingly painful display of heat and energy. I yelled as I felt my trench coat catch fire and my face get scorched. The spell dissolved and I fell to the ground with a gasp of breath, wondering if I lost my eyebrows in the process.
I managed to open my eyes and see that Gaia was next to me a hand free and now she had pulled herself into a sitting position and was furiously untying her other hand and leg.
"I'll kill the bastard," she murmured to me with a flash of grey eyes and pulled at her bound hand which popped out and she grinned.
"Finally. Are you okay?" she asked with a slight frown and I nodded and stood, shouldering Hyperion again and wiping at my fire exposed watering eyes to clear them.
"If you're gonna play the game that way, Ryden..." I warned and flicked through my junctioning with a smile. Not bad at all.
Ryden had dodged into the dark and I looked around to no effect – he was hidden like I had been. Gaia stumbled to her feet and picked her Fervent up and ran a hand down the blade lovingly.
"I can find him, Seifer," she reverted to her cooler persona and I gave her a nod.
She drew herself to her feet a little unsteadily and held out the Fervent with a wicked smile, etching out her elaborate limit break 'C'.
"Chandrakanan!" she cried and the letter burst into flames, allowing passageway for her dragon made purely of flames to slide out into the air and soar up to the ceiling, lighting the room effectively. I saw Ryden crouched in a corner hiding and I stormed over to him with a snarl.
He got up and pointed at me, accompanying it with a cry of, "Thundaga!" making the crackle of static charge up in the room around his finger, while his hair stood on end before three bolts of blue lightning shot out of the tip of his finger with a electrical crackle and into my chest. The surge of electricity shot through me with a massive uncontrollable jerking of my body and back out into the atmosphere, leaving me a mess on the floor. I felt like I was dying. Probably was, the spell felt so strong.
But that was only a Thundaga – where was the strength behind those spells coming from?
Ryden assumed a regal stance, flexing his hands with a grin.
"Thought you were so powerful, didn't you?" he sneered as he swaggered toward my heap on the ground. I felt like the Thundaga had short circuited my limbs as I feebly moved my arm maybe an inch in an attempt to get up.
Suddenly, Ryden leapt back and Gaia came on the scene with a yell of anger, thrusting Fervent in Ryden's direction.
Her skin was still glowing faint ruby and her dragon of fire was slowing fading in power like it did in the last battle it was used. Gaia briefly glanced at her creation before hooking my arms under hers and dragging me back a way next to Wyvern, who during this time had still been fighting to free herself.
"Oh Hyne, Seifer, can you move?" she said frantically while tugging uselessly at her hands. Gaia hefted me into a sitting position, leaning me against the wall and crouched in front of me.
"Can you move?" she asked urgently in a low voice, glancing to check that Ryden hadn't moved. From the corner of my slacking eyelids I saw him standing motionless, as if he was viewing his handiwork.
I opened my mouth slowly.
"Uhh... buy me some time," I managed to say and Gaia nodded.
"I'll hold him off," her eyes narrowed and she had disappeared in an instant.
Wyvern struggled again, but became still when once more it didn't work.
"Seifer... I'm sorry I brought you into this," she whispered with a sob. I slowly craned my head up to see her tear blotched face while in the background I heard a yell from Gaia and a clang of the Fervent on the Protect spell.
"'S not your fault," I said tiredly and pulled my arms onto my lap and began to push my knees up so I could try and stand.
"I think if I hadn't of come here, this never would of happened," she told me mournfully, ignoring another cry from Gaia – this one in fury - and I moved my hands clumsily to the wall to help push myself up to my feet.
"Nah, then we wouldn't have met, yeah?" I replied, focusing my attention on my legs dragging me up to my full height against the wall.
Gaia sprung in front of us, facing Ryden to the side and looked triumphant, her eyes sparkling dangerously in the light. She had Hyperion in one hand and put it down next to me with a curt nod and faced Ryden who still looked like he was going to be victorious despite two people against him.
"Seifer may not have had the whole arsenal of spells perhaps you counted on him not having, but I on the other hand..." she said calmly and showed him a palm.
"Dispel," she said coolly, her eyes disinterested. It looked like she was turning back into the Gaia I knew at the beginning. She stood with a hard, closed off expression and spun the Fervent with an emotionless grin.
The globule of purple goo encompassed Ryden, whose eyes widened. The Protect hue was melted under the Dispel and as quickly as it came, it liquefied into the air, leaving Ryden unprotected and Gaia smug as she could with a tip of her thin lips.
At this point, the feeling in my limbs were beginning to get the feeling back and I experimentally shifted a leg about to positive results. With a groan I took my weight off the wall and onto my own feet. Battling this psycho should take my mind off the pain.
Ryden backed off into the shadows, caused by the Chandrakanan fading as it lazily flew in circles around the ceiling, leaving only the lamps Ryden had lit earlier.
"You're feeling better?" Wyvern asked as I stiffly picked up Hyperion, and then turned to Wyvern with a crooked smile.
"Never felt better, Wyvern." And with that I joined Gaia, who looked pretty smug now that Ryden was looking decidedly less confident now his defence was gone.
"Want to help?" Gaia gave me a sideways glance and I stepped in front of her.
"No – I think I want to deal with this myself, Gaia," I replied sternly and took an offensive position with Hyperion out in front of me, prepared for battle.
Gaia snorted and remained stoutly where she was until she made a decision. I threw my left arm out to stop her standing next to me to make my point.
"Gaia, I'm fighting him alone. That means you don't help," I said pointedly and Gaia gave me a cold look accompanied with a loud, rough sigh before backing off to Wyvern, still bound and helpless.
Ryden had scurried into the darkness once more and I prowled into the gloom, eyes strained to capture any hint of Ryden. Nothing.
Little bastard – where is he?!
"Come out, you pathetic creature!" I yelled and swung Hyperion aimlessly into obscurity only to hit a metal bar with a shuddering clang. My hand hurt at that stupid manoeuvre and I cursed.
I heard a whisper and suddenly a flare of light dazzled me from nearby and a vivid orange and yellow flame came at me, searing the air with a sizzle and hit me in the stomach.
I merely grinned as my elemental defence junctioned with Firaga allowed me to be very resistant to all Firaga attacks, even ridiculously powerful ones. The blaze sizzled and faded like dying embers, leaving me mostly unharmed – just slightly heated up - and Ryden in shock.
I waggled an index finger with a nasty grin.
"Never fault my junctioning skills, Fords," I tutted and hurled my bodyweight into him, making him cry out in surprise as his back hit the wall and he fell to his knees on the ground, winded.
He gasped for air as I noticed his sleeves pulled back to reveal something on his right wrist.
"What's this?" I barked, gripping his wrist tight and inspecting the metallic device wrapped around his wrist. Ryden struggled to no avail and I grabbed his jaw and made him face me.
"What – is – it?" I emphasized my words with a snarl and released his jaw so he could talk. He gasped and with his other hand rubbed his jaw. His hand hovered in the air as a fist, but I pressed Hyperion deeper into his neck and gave him a meaningful expression and it dropped back to his knee.
"It's a device that... OW – you bastard! It boosts para-magic," he explained and I ripped it off, tossed it to the ground by my foot and stomped on it. It fizzled with orange sparks for a moment before giving up and shutting down in a dying glow.
Satisfied, I leaned back and drew Hyperion away from his neck, instead hovering it over his heart.
"Ready to be 'released', as you like to put it?" I hissed and Ryden watched me with afraid eyes.
I pressed Hyperion into his chest, causing Ryden to scrunch his eyes shut in silent pain.
The whole large room had become painfully silent, with Wyvern and Gaia both hushed and watching – Gaia halted in her untying of Wyvern's bonds. Wyvern was sitting on the cold floor with Gaia bent over her, both frozen in their tracks, their eyes fixed intensely on me.
He tried to kill them – so an eye for an eye, right? Time to kill one more pathetic creature on this world, whose aim was to destroy others lives.
"No! Seifer, we can't – we've supposed to have changed! You can't do it!" Wyvern pleaded as I stood motionless with Hyperion pressed to Ryden's chest. He remained on his knees, looking quite normal considering the life threatening situation he was in.
I heaved in a deep breath. This was probably the make or break moment for my SeeD career – do or die and all.
With a roar I swung Hyperion around in a spin and with a thwack smacked Ryden in the side of the head with the flat of my blade and saw him crumple onto the ground with a groan before falling silent.
"Is he dead?" Gaia asked me as she untied Wyvern and I crouched by Ryden's still body. Feeling the adrenalin rush and rage drain away, I checked his pulse to find him perfectly alright.
"He's just unconscious," I informed the two and Wyvern gave a sigh of relief. She helped Gaia free her own hand and broke free, ran over to me and threw her arms around me, burying her head into my shoulder and cried.
"I thought you weren't coming back!" she shouted with a muffled voice in my trench coat and I wrapped my arms around her.
"I'm so glad you two are safe..." I murmured. Gaia watched me and gave me a small, almost uncomfortable smile, nodding to Wyvern and giving me a little nod.
Wyvern leant back and looked at me with a small smile.
"You did it – you're a reformed man," she congratulated me and I smiled and ran a hand nervously through my hair.
"Yeah. I suppose I am – at last," I conceded and pulled Wyvern closer and offered a hug to Gaia with one open arm.
"Come on – friends?" I offered and she surveyed the situation.
"I suppose the new me can have hugs," she rolled her eyes and crossed the gap between her and us and folded her arms around Wyvern and me with a small chuckle.
"Who'd of thought we'd end up this way?" Wyvern shook her head before me and Gaia rolled our eyes and both of us burst into laughter in unison.
"Didn't think. Just did," I said bluntly and we separated and stood in silence for a moment.
"Let's go. We can tell Cid where to find this Ryden boy," Gaia said before turning on her heel with the Fervent firmly in her grip and began to walk away.
"Well, are you coming or not?" she turned and asked, eyes narrowed slightly. I noticed that she had a hand on her side where she'd been burnt in the Firaga accident, but she showed no signs of giving in to the pain she must have felt through that battle. Wyvern and I looked at one another briefly before joining Gaia as the new posse. Together we left and climbed up the lift shaft and back into the light.
"Seifer?" Wyvern whispered down to me as I climbed up behind her. Gaia had mechanically pulled ahead while Wyvern felt uncertain, pausing at nearly every rung, which was beginning to irritate me, as though I might just sling her over my shoulder and take her up with me.
"Yeah?" I replied, not bothering to hush my voice as I pulled myself up a few more rungs with Hyperion resting comfortably on my shoulder.
"Can we go to Balamb together after this ordeal and everything's sorted?" she nervously asked and I smiled in the gloom.
"Of course, Wyvern," I told her and she looked down at me and gave a truly happy smile that lit her face up in the dimness, making those eyes sparkle with life.
"Great!" she appeared to cheer up considerably and climbed a little faster, to my relief. Gaia had disappeared into the lift hatch and waited patiently for Wyvern to reach the top. Wyvern slowly made it to the top and was helped into the lift by Gaia, shortly followed by me.
Gaia reached down and I shook my head before hauling myself and Hyperion into the lift and sitting on the floor and taking a few deep breaths. Wyvern sat white faced, unconsciously gripping her hands tight in fists, while Gaia looked unruffled by the whole incident, comfortably leaning against the lift wall, considering she was probably the worst off after being taken from her Infirmary bed to fighting like she was perfectly fine.
"Thank you for coming for us," Gaia held my eyes briefly with hers before cringing in pain and slumping further down the wall and gave a small moan.
"Kaira?" Wyvern asked with concern and shuffled over to Gaia, who looked a little worse for wear, her eyes shut and hands gripping Fervent tightly.
"Looks like I got checked out of the Infirmary a little early," she grimaced and gripped Wyvern's hand.
"We'll get you right back, won't we Seifer?" Wyvern assured Gaia nervously, shooting me a terrified glance.
I gave Gaia a false smile and got up.
"Sure we will," I replied and punched the button to go up to the ground floor. Thankfully the lift ground into action and back to the ground floor.
Cid is going to go ballistic.