Author's note: Super-duper-extra-sorry for such a long break... I dunno, haven't been feeling inspired and had a pretty busy xmas.. Well anyways, I tried to make this chap a little longer to make up for it.

And you don't have to worry, there'll be a couple of more chapters. :)

to Shadow-Seraph: Thanks :) But I still have no idea for the sequel... I want it to have a real story with a plot, like this one. Open for any ideas :)

to Iskander: Thank you :) And noooo, not yet...... :)

to Hikari Heijin: Thanks :)

to Dante Leonhart: Whoa, congratulations. Quite an achievement. And thank you so much! :) I'm glad you like my story, but next time, go with cholocate, I don't like vanilla :)

to Omega Weapon: Well I thought that Quistis might still be the more reasonable choice.. I don't dare think of Selphie as a sorceress :) Thanks and also a big thank you for signing my guestbook :)

And a special thanks to angels obsession too, in case she's still reading this :)

-Seifer's POV-

We've made our way to the backyard, by the sea. The whole place is in ruins, but there's.... chains. On the ground. And... dead SeeDs. White SeeDs.

"The SeeDs of the future," Squall mumbles, walking among them.

I suddenly feel like holding him. I'd want to tell him it's all gonna work out but.... how can I be sure? None of us really knows what we'll be up against in that castle over there..

"Well?" Quistis asks quietly.

We all turn to her.

"......shall we.. go?" she asks, looking at all of us, one by one.

"...we have to," Squall says.

"No, we don't," I say. "We can run like cowards and leave this to someone else. But we won't. We will go up there and end all this, all at once."

Quistis looks at me for a while, then nodds. "He's right. We will take care of this. We will go up there and do what needs to be done."

We all look at the castle, then at each other. None of us wants to take the first step. But after all, Squall is the first one of us to break the stillness, and the silence.

"Let's go guys," he almost whispers and starts walking towards the biggest chain.

We all follow him. It takes us forever to get closer to the castle. It seems to be anchored into our world with dozens of chains. I take a brief look around. Is this even our world anymore? I doubt it.

"It's huge," Selphie whispers, with somekinda frightened admiration in her voice.

The sky all around us is now filled with black clouds, the castle just floating in the middle, like some wicked boat in the darkest ocean.

We walk and walk, and finally we reach the front stairs. As we all just stand still, afraid to proceed, the door opens and lets out blue smoke.

"Whoa," Zell says quietly.

"It's like it's inviting us to come in," Quistis says.

"It'd be rude not to go then," I say and enter, the others close behind me.

-Squall's POV-

Quistis divided us into two teams, and of course the two best fighters can't be in one team, so I'm with Irvine and Selphie. I'm amazed Quistis put Zell and Seifer into the same team, but then again, she'll be there herself too, to make sure they don't start fighting or anything.

"Squall?"

I turn to Selphie. "What is it?"

"Where should we go?"

I look around. "Since the others went thru that door, I'd go up those stairs."

Atop the stairs awaits a surprise...

"It's Spinxhara!"

I look at Irvine. "How do you know?" I ask, even tho I think it's not all that relevant...

He shrugs while loading his gun. "I used to have his card."

Even with our abilities sealed, it's not that difficult to defeat. After the battle, we get to choose which ability to unseal. I'm very much pro magic.

"GFs!" Selphie says. "They would help us out a lot."

"I would go for Limit Breaks," Irvine says. "'Cause then we could probably beat them faster, and---"

"Yes, but with our magic we could heal ourselves and each other, and so we wouldn't need GFs," I say. "Besides, we could also beat them faster with magic."

-Seifer's POV-

"Hey, what's happening?" Quistis asks, looking around.

"Nothing, why?" I ask, turning to her. "The hallway's empty. There's nothing here."

"No, I mean..."

"Magic!" Zell shouts. "I can use my magic again!" he says, curing himself.

"The others must've found something," I say. "Let's go now, we're not gonna find anything standing here."

From the end of the hallway we enter a door on the right and find ourselves in a big room.

"Man, this place is trashed," Zell says, looking around. "Hey Seif, where you going?"

I don't bother answering him. I enter the big double doors on the back of the room.

"What didcha find?" Zell asks behind my back.

I sigh and step aside to let him see the courtyard.

"Cool," he says and walks towards the fountain. "What's in here?" he mumbles as he enters the doorway on the right.

"What did you find, boys?" Quistis asks.

"Zell went to the right," I reply. "Maybe we should go cover his back."

"Don't bother," he says, returning to us. "It's nothing but the dungeons, and they're locked anyways."

I shrug. "Should we go back then?"

"And I don't need anyone covering my back, thank you very much," he mumbles.

-Squall's POV-

"Left, right or straight forward?" Irvine asks like a game show host.

"Straight forward!" Selphie replies with a jump.

I pull the huge door open.

"What do you see, what do you see?" Selphie asks.

"A... balcony," I say and enter. Yup, it's an indoor balcony of somekind.

"Cool!" Selphie says behind my back.

"You think we can use that chandelier to walk across to the other side?" Irvine asks.

I shrug. "It's worth a try."

But as soon as we're all standing on it, it starts to wobble.

"Get back!!"

Selphie has tried ot jump back even before I shouted, but she's too late and we all fall down onto the room below. The fall's not that long and I believe we're all unharmed.

"Hyne, you scared me."

I spin and around and face Seifer. "How did you get here?"

"Thru that door."

I turn around and see the door he's pointing at. "Oh."

"What's behind those doors over there?" Selphie asks.

"A courtyard, leading to the dungeons," Seifer replies.

"So what have you got here?" Irvine asks.

"We're opening this hatch," Zell says, pointing at the floor. "It's a little loose, we think there maybe something under here."

"Cool."

"Is there anything else on the courtyard?"

"A fountain," Zell says.

"Oh cool!"

I glance at Selphie, who looks remorseful.

"Sorry. I like fountains."

"Well, you check out the hatch, and we'll return upstairs," I tell Seifer.

He nodds and kneels back down to it. "Guys, there's some stairs here."