(a/n:… I STILL don't own viii. If I did, Irvine would die, Selphie would end up with Squall, and Raine would still be alive.)
I was laying back against the table, Ultemecia waiting calmly and I miserably for Seifer to come. Assuming he would. I doubted it, deep down. Part of me didn't want him to come… if he did, we would –both- be dead meat. My vision had gone all psycho on me, so I could only see the floor. I watched a black pair of combat boots stumbling past me, the tip of a sword brushing the floor. It had to be Squall. Blood dripped on the floor after him, and I realized a soldier was leading him at gunpoint. I felt like crying again.
Happy now? You've officially ruined my life.
Liberi Fatalli… The fated khildren will fall… one… by… one.
…You mean Squall? And Seifer? And me?
Hahahaha…
Answer me!
It will be –I- asking questions now, Loire… -You- are no longer in kontrol.
I waited helplessly. How long passed? Hours? Days? Years? I was exhausted but couldn't sleep. Ultemecia wouldn't let me. I begged her, over and over, just to let me sleep, to escape this monotony of not being in control. Then I saw it. A burst of light… where a window in the White Room had shattered. A gunblade had been stabbed through it. Seifer's gunblade. No, I wanted to scream, go back! But I couldn't…. I couldn't do –anything-.
"Sierra! Are you okay?!"
I felt Ultemecia make me smirk. I really hated her. "Sierra… this is not Sierra. This is… a shell… whikh Sierra used to inhabit. And now she is mine."
Seifer looked horrified. "Let her go!"
"No… not yet. I will, under the korrect… konditions."
"…Name it. Just don't hurt her, or I'll kill you myself."
Ultemecia tore me from the metal table, snapping the pieces metal that had held me in as if they were toothpicks. I tried to warn Seifer, but Ultemecia wouldn't let me. I felt myself walk out the door, looking strange with almost glowing eyes and strange wing-like things poking out of my back, wearing the tattered remains of a sweatshirt and cargo jeans. Seifer fearfully followed. I was forced to walk out of the facility, to the edge of a huge cliff, crater-like. Water washed against the cliff hundreds of feet below. I panicked, but Ultemecia didn't let me do anything. What was new.
"Bekome… My sorkeress knight. Or… well, you will see." She made me put one foot off the cliff.
"Don't hurt her." I could practically hear Seifer's mind working, trying to find a way out of this. But there –wasn't- a way out of this. I was dead or he was dead, either way.
"I will give you… a little while. Say, a day. I'll be waiting… right here. Tomorrow morning. Go. Make your dekision. If you don't kome back, then I will make her throw herself off the edge." I felt Ultemecia make me wave him nonchalantly off.
"I'll be back for you, Sierra. I promise." He backed off and then turned and ran.
He'll never kome back.
He will too, you snotfaced--
Now, now, remember who's in kontrol…
Urgh…
So I let her have me, at least for the moment.
(3rd Person Point of View!)
Seifer sat with his head in his hands, talking to his brother Landon.
"So what can I do, Landon?"
"…If you hurt her, it will also hurt the sorceress."
"No!" Seifer slammed his fist down. "I won't her get hurt! Damnit, don't you see that I love her?!"
"I do," Landon sighed, "But it's that or get her sealed. Which one?"
"Neither!"
"…So many years at military school… and you're still a softy."
"I am not a softy!"
"Yes you are. Look at how you'll sacrifice everything for that Loire girl—"
"It's because I love her, like I told you! And if you'd get a heart, then maybe –you'd- know what it feels like, too!"
"…I'm coming with you. Just to negotiate with the sorceress."
"If you hurt her—"
"I know, I know. Calm down, Seifer!"
"Whatever." Seifer scowled distastefully. "But just… don't hurt her, Landon. She's all I got now."
(Sierra's Point of View Again )
I was so tired I wanted to scream. I hadn't slept in, what, four days, with constant exhaustion from being possessed. It was killing me, if Ultemecia didn't first. I watched the tide tumble in and out, in and out, over and over, the surf breaking and sending spray everywhere. It was a loooooooong way down… I didn't wanna face that, no way. But I didn't want Seifer to suffer, either. I saw to figures appear, and Ultemecia made me smile. A cold, evil smile that I couldn't pull off on my own.
"Seifer Almasy…. Who is it that you have brought with you?"
"….My name is Landon Almasy. I'm Seifer's older brother."
"And what is your khoice, Seifer?"
"I--"
Then, before I knew what was happening, I felt something sharp stab painfully into my stomach. Ultemecia and I screamed as one, and I realized Landon had stabbed me. Seifer cussed at Landon many, many times and then dropped down beside me, pulling me into his lap and tearing off part of his long white coat, wrapping it gingerly around my waist. Ultemecia lost her grip on me, and I groaned.
"How –dare- you hurt her?" Fire burned in his eyes as he looked up at Landon, who shrugged.
"It was all I could do, Seifer."
"Bull shit!"
He pulled me closer, and I shivered, cold and in serious pain. He put my head on his shoulder, cradling me back and forth.
"Go away, Landon. I'll deal with you later."
"But—"
"I SAID GO AWAY!"
"Fine. I was just helping." Spat Landon, stomping off and reminding me of a little kid.
"Now, are you okay?" he used curaga on me.
"….Seifer…."
"Yeah… Yeah, what is it?"
I smiled weakly up at him. "…Thankyou… I love you."
"I love you, too." He picked me up, carrying me gently somewhere… I didn't know
where, seeing as my eyes were squeezed shut in pain.
"Omigosh!" Selphie exclaimed, "Is she okay?!"
"I don't know. If she keeps bleeding like this, no, she –won't- be okay…." He took the piece of white material from his coat away, and I saw that it was no longer white but crimson. He replaced it with a new one.
"…There's no paramagic for this, is there? And where's Squall?"
"He went in before me and he didn't come back out."
"Dangit! I'm going after him –right now-!" I heard the worry in her voice, making me suspect that she had feelings for Squall.
"Be careful Selphie." Seifer warned her.
Darkness tinged the edges of my vision.
"Hang in there, Sierra. We're going back to Garden."
I clutched at his coat. "Seifer?"
"What is it?"
"….Don't tell Cid what I am."
"…I won't, Sierra… I won't."
I let myself be comforted by the warm blanket of unconsciousness.
