'Seifer, go now!' Jayson barked as Illyssa fell from Seifer's fiery punch, his eyes not leaving Kazen.
'You're kidding?' Seifer retorted, flashing him a mischievous grin.
'You're unarmed and I need you to guard the door so no one comes in or out.' Jayson replied drawing Fixxer the blade glinting darkly in the faint light of the Quad.
'Fine.' Seifer muttered giving Jayson a resigned look and walked off, glancing once more at Jayson before he disappeared through the door.
'So what will you do now Omen? You defy me again and again, you betray your family.' Kazen said as Illyssa slowly stood, her cheek a tortuous welt of seared red, angry flesh where Seifer had punched her.
'Family?' Jayson spat, raising Fixxer.
'You gave me nothing but punishment and pain, you never cared for me.' Jayson retorted and shrugged a strange grin crossing his features. 'A family of murderers we are then and I'll show you who's the biggest murderer by finishing you off like I should have all those years ago.' He snarled, moving quickly towards Kazen.
In that moment Kazen drew a thin rapier from inside his cane as Illyssa drew a whip which cracked up at the scaffolding of the stage hitting someone whom had been hiding there watching the scene unfold.
She fell onto the stage onto her back, yelping in pain. Jayson faltered as he recognised her voice, her coppery hair. 'Meia!?' he moaned in pain and surprise.
Illyssa grinned as she ravelled the whip back in her hand as Kazen held Jayson's pained gaze.
'Is this what keeps you here?' Kazen demanded.
'That can easily be remedied.' Illyssa said softly as she moved to the prone figure of Meia, anger twisting her features into a menacing leer.
'NO!' Jayson roared and dashed towards Illyssa, Fixxer held low down by his legs as they thrust him nearer to her.
He crossed the intervening space to the stage and slammed into Illyssa with his shoulder, slamming her into the wall as Meia murmured in pain to him.
The whip cracked at the back of his neck, drawing his attention back to Illyssa.
'This whore has you blinded!' Illyssa hissed, blood trickling from the corner of her lips.
'And you don't think your father did the same to you? Twisted your thoughts to his own ideals, made you his slave and left you with no true thoughts of your own. You're pitiful.' Jayson snapped back, swinging Fixxer up so that it cut through the whip as she lashed it at him once more.
'You'd rather stay with those that killed your mother? Why do you want this life?' Illyssa retorted, dropping the whip and reaching for some other weapon in her dark robes.
'Because I was able to choose it! And I'm only sorry I didn't kill the cold hearted bitch myself.' Jayson growled, feigning a swipe at her.
'Really? When you're so much like her?' she grinned as a soft sound of tearing flesh behind Jayson made him realise what she had been up to all along.
She had been distracting him so Kazen could make a move on Meia. Jayson turned and saw Kazen raise his thin blade, thick rivulets of crimson blood ran down it as Jayson's gaze followed it down to Meia's body which was cut open, the fabric of her top slashed open exposing the furrow of split flesh and bulging organs that ran down her midline. The blood poured from her wound and her lips as they moved slowly, steadily growing slower as she gazed up at Jayson in silent excruciating pain, her eyes fading as her life left her and she fell still.
Jayson stood stock still his head bent down as he looked upon her, and then the fingers of his left hand slowly curled into a fist that trembled rapidly, his lips curling back to reveal his teeth as he clenched them together.
'Yes….' Kazen whispered. 'Let the darkness take you.'
Jayson looked up at that moment and Kazen flinched as he saw that Jayson's eyes were balls of pure blackness, devoid of anything except a spark of anger that was growing into a roaring flame.
Jayson gave a guttural, animal roar as he raised his right hand flinging Fixxer at Illyssa, the blade flying straight into her gut as she screamed in surprise and agony, the force pushing her into the wall as the blade erupted from her back and embedded itself into the stone, pinning her still.
Jayson ignored Kazen as he stalked over to Illyssa's writhing form as she struggled to free the blade from herself, the blood trickling down her abdomen and thighs soaking into her robe.
Jayson raised a hand to the burnt flesh of her cheek, digging his nails into it, the blood welling up under his fingertips as the charred flesh came away revealing tendon and bone. Illyssa's head was flung back as she let out a piercing wail as Jayson dropped the wad of flesh to the ground.
'You're wrong…. I'm so much more worse than her.' He whispered into her ear as he dug a hand into the gaping wound and tore her jaw from it's socket so it hung loose with a gush of blood, her tongue waggling, soaked in crimson gore.
Kazen still stood frozen, his dreams becoming a hideous nightmare before his eyes.
Jayson still wasn't finished with Illyssa, his fingers diving and tearing away at her body making gaping wounds all over her body as blood and her internal organs dropped to the floor as he tore away the muscle that supported them.
Flesh was piled at his feet before he seemed to be sated with her, her limp body ripped bare to the bone in numerous places and her consciousness had long gone. It was now that Jayson turned his attention to Kazen.
'So I guess you succeeded Father… I can feel all my power throbbing inside me, crackling with such malevolent energy…' Jayson said softly as he approached Kazen.
'It's a shame you won't live to see what I do with it.' He said grinning, raising his left hand which crackled with a dark reddish orange light and then his right hand which crackled a deep green.
'ULTIMA! FLARE!' he roared as the red and green lights crackled from his shoulders all the way to his fists where it grew in swirling balls before his hands erupted, surrounding Kazen in a multitude of magic explosions and the combined forces of the spells blew away his clothing and flesh, then the underlying musculature before burning up his bones.
Jayson watched all this as the spells faded away leaving only a pile of dust where Kazen had been and a series of droplets of molten metal from where he had held his rapier.
Jayson went over to Illyssa's corpse and tugged Fixxer from it before tossing Illyssa's remains onto Kazen's ashes.
He stood over Meia, his dark eyes filled with swirling turmoil. Pandora was finally dead, they could torment him no longer or haunt him, but it had cost him the one thing he loved most in this world, the only person who had truly cared and understood him.
He pulled his sweater and bound it around her body, sealing the wound. It was too late for him to bring her back to him even with all the power that crackled inside, her soul had left this shell of flesh, just as his had been burned away.
Strapping Fixxer to his thigh he slid his arms under Meia's limp body, lifting her up and holding her close to him. The rage still burned inside him and he knew there was just one more thing he had to do.
'Odine…' he hissed to himself.
The man who had designed him, told Kazen what could be made from him and led to his youth of torture. The man who had found Kazen and helped him live, enabled Illyssa to become this murderess. He had nothing left at Garden now but Odine gave him one last purpose.
The doors to the Quad burst open as Seifer and Squall ran in their eyes widening as they took in the blackened walls and the carnage.
'What happened?' Squall asked before his eyes fell on Meia.
'Damn it…' Seifer muttered.
'Pandora's dead and now I have to go see Odine.' Jayson said softly.
'What?' Squall asked.
Seifer just nodded understandingly.
'He will pay for what he's done to me, to her.' Jayson replied, gripping Meia tightly.
'You can't do that! It'd be war on Esthar!' Squall snapped.
'Like I care?' Jayson barked.
'Maybe you should rest? Grieve a little before you do anything too rash…' Seifer suggested trying to inject some calmness into the situation.
'There's no need to grieve… she's gone and never coming back.' Jayson said bluntly.
'Now get out of my or do you intend to stop me?' he growled, his black eyes flashing dangerously.
The two SeeDs parted and let him stalk out the door, holding Meia in his arms, her head pressed against his chest as his arms lay behind her neck and knees.
Squall and Seifer followed behind him mutely, knowing they had no chance of stopping him but worried of the consequences of what Jayson planned to do.
Jayson finally reached the courtyard and stopped, closing his eyes and he muttered something softly, his body fading momentarily before Squall and Seifer's eyes and then becoming solid once more as they became aware of a dark shadow above them.
Jayson's hair and clothes wavered as the gusts of air surrounded him and the shadow grew larger, the sound of beating wings growing louder, nearing the intensity of thunderclaps.
A feral beast was hovering above Jayson, its black-feathered wings outstretched as a large leonine body hung below them, the fur unruly and unkempt, a dark golden brown, whilst large paws dangled down, heavy hooked claws unsheathed and flexing slightly as Orion's crimson eyes watched the other two SeeDs warily.
Orion landed softly beside Jayson, his claws clicking loudly on the stone slab surface. The feathers on his eagle head were ruffled as he folded his wings, allowing Jayson to climb onto his back. He opened his beak to let out a defiant screech, the sharp serrated edges shown as a warning to the gathering SeeDs and cadets as Jayson straddled Orion's muscular neck, sliding one hand into the mass of feathers whilst the other held Meia tightly.
The growing crowd was blown back as Orion's wings unfolded and started flapping slowly, his monstrous, malevolent form rising into the air before amazed eyes.
The crowd stood in silence, gazing upwards as they became a speck in the sky before it was broken by Seifer.
'Do you think it's worth warning Esthar?' he asked Squall dryly.