Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I do not own the places. I don't own anything related to FFVIII, all I own is the plot.
- Chapter twelve: Reinforcements -
Squall looked around the table. "We've got five days to settle this. She won't act before she's married, but after that no one knows."
"What are we supposed to do?" Zell asked. "We're not allowed to kill her, so what other option's left?"
"We'll wait for Cid's orders. He'll send someone with knowledge of this problem. As long as they haven't arrived, we'd best see if we can find out more. Selphie, you and I will go to Rajin. Zell, you can take Quistis and wait at the harbour for Cid's person to arrive."
"How do we know who'll be our person?" Quistis wondered out loud.
Squall shrugged. "You'll know. Cid said we wouldn't need an explanation."
He looked at the clock and motioned Selphie to stand up.
"Let's go, people. It's time."
Quistis waited silently for them to leave the room before getting up herself. She waited until Zell had quickly drained his cup of coffee and then set out towards the harbour.
"Hey Quistis, what do you think Squall and Selphie are going to talk about with Rajin…"
Quistis shook her head. "I don't know Zell. Probably how we can keep close tabs on Fujin."
"Hmm…" Zell said ponderously. "I still don't understand how Rajin could betray his friend like this. He must've known calling us in would have these consequences. He must've known that we would have to do something to keep her from doing whatever it was what she'd wanted to do."
Quistis sat down on a small bench, ignoring Zell's questions. He didn't really want an answer anyway, he was just thinking out loud.
She leaned back and took in the salty smell of the ocean. Zell sat down next to her but kept unusually quiet. Perhaps he noticed she didn't want to talk.
She closed her eyes and thought about Seifer and about what Selphie had said. She wanted to close him in her arms without having to look over her shoulder to see if anyone was around. And Selphie was right to say Fujin would attack Balamb if she got the chance.
So perhaps she should forget about Fujin as an obstacle and do what she wanted to do.
Suddenly Zell jumped up. "Quistis, here comes a ship!"
Quistis looked up and tried to read the emblem on the side of the ship.
"I think it's from Balamb." she said. "This one's for us.'
They walked to the edge of the pier and waited patiently for it to open up. The door opened and slowly a woman stepped out to greet them.
"Children…" she said warmly.
Quistis relaxed. "Edea, Matron…It's been too long."
She embraced the woman who had been her mother for so long and felt like a young child again. She released her with slight reluctance to let Zell hug Edea as well.
"Aren't you surprised to see me?" Edea asked.
Quistis shook her head. "No, somehow I think we already knew you would come."
"Who else could help us with a sorceress." Zell agreed.
Edea smiled. The door behind them opened again, showing another female figure they all knew.
"Ellone!" Zell said cheerfully.
He hugged her and Ellone smiled quietly.
"Come, let's walk to the hotel."
Happily Zell and Quistis both took an arm and led their friends to the hotel. As they entered the city centre, leaving the harbour behind them, Quistis felt as if they were being watched.
She tensed her muscles, ready to lash out at an attacker. She looked at Zell, but he hadn't noticed. Suddenly all four of them stopped. From the shadow of a shop door came someone they all knew very well.
He was surprised to see Edea, as Quistis could see.
"Seifer…how have you been, my dear."
"Edea? Wh- what are you doing here…are you here for the wedding?"
She nodded kindly.
His face lit up. "How wonderful! That's fantastic! I- I missed you."
She smiled warmly and opened her arms. Gratefully he hugged her. Quistis stepped back slightly and turned away.
When Seifer released Edea, he glanced at Quistis. Edea took Zell's arm and pulled him away from them.
"Come, show me to the hotel."
Zell nodded slowly.
"Sure. But what about-" he looked at Seifer and Quistis and felt the tension between them rise. "Oh…I see."
Edea nodded and they left the other two on their own.
Seifer didn't know what to say. He knew Quistis was still in love with him. He could feel it. The whole Squall-thing had been a lie. But he could feel a certain amount of magic inside him, pulling him away from her with deceiving words.
Fujin had him under a spell, just like before. But this one he could easily beat.
"Quistis, I know."
"Know what?" she said softly.
"I know that you and Squall…"
She sighed. "So what now? Do we pick up where we left off? Or are you going to keep your promise to Fujin?"
He looked at his feet. He didn't know either. It seemed that now they had the opportunity to decide what they wanted, they didn't know what it was they wanted.
Quistis started to wander through the street and Seifer followed her quickly.
"Do you even know what you want yourself?" Quistis asked.
Seifer seemed hurt.
"I know I love you." he said firmly. "I never wanted to lose you, but we had no choice."
"You seemed so happy when Edea said she was here for your wedding."
Seifer hung his head. "What was I supposed to say? That I had hoped she had come to stop Fujin? That my secret desire is that she'll somehow make me able to break that promise? And besides that, who are you to judge me about if I want to go on with you? You say Squall is nothing to you but you let him kiss you."
Quistis was silent for a while. Not only to find a proper answer, but also to let his words sink in. He did still love her and even though he was bound to keep his promise, he wanted to be with her.
"I shiver every time I think about that. I can't even look at him anymore without remembering how that felt. I don't want that. He was supposed to be my friend and he pushed his limit saying it was 'for the mission'. How do you think that makes me feel?"
Seifer silently placed his hands on her shoulders.
"I feel strange. It feels so strange to walk here with you."
"Not knowing what to do, you mean?" he asked.
She nodded. "I don't even know if I should say I love you. Because if I do, I won't be able to take it back and then I'll feel horrible because I have to watch you marry her."
"But I have to say it. I need to tell you how much I love you, how much I missed you."
He took her hands and looked her straight in the eyes.
"You understand what I'm trying to say?" he urged. "I want out! Seeing you again after thinking you were dead…and now this whole sorceress thing…I don't think Fujin has peaceful plans for her take-over bit. She'll cause an all-out war just like last time sorceresses were on the rise. It doesn't matter if I marry her, she'll attack my home and my friends anyway. So if there's no point in me marrying her anymore then I don't see why I stay here. I want out, I want you. I want to be with you the way we imagined."
Quistis looked at him with a mixture of joy and worry.
"You don't think Fujin will stay calm and quiet?" she asked.
Seifer laughed hollow. "Why else would you guys be here? Don't think I thought you were really here for the wedding. I know Fu's father didn't invite you. And I don't believe the 'threat' thing either. Not now you called Edea in for help."
"So why are we here?" Quistis whispered.
Seifer brought his face close to hers. "You're here to fight Fujin. I know you are."
She stared at him. "H-How?"
"Everything. Everything's just…it's the only possible reason. But…there's more. I want to help. I want to help so I can be free with you again."
He hugged her tightly.
"I want to be able to love you again."
She started to sob.
"Me too…" she whispered.
She felt so warm and dizzy that she forgot where she was. She kissed his neck, she kissed his cheek. When her mouth found his, her eyes were filled with tears.
"No more war. No more separation. You and me for ever." he whispered.
She nodded but her nod changed into a 'no'. He didn't understand.
"Seifer, I want everything you're saying, But it isn't this easy. Fujin came between us once, she can do it again. The only way we can be happy is after she is defeated."
He thought about it for a second. "You're right. Take me to Squall, I want to talk to him. If you're going to do this then you'll do it with my help."
He took her hand and allowed himself to be led to the hotel with a warm smile on his face. The looks of surprise on Squall's and Selphie's faces were priceless, but Edea nodded politely as if she had already know he would come.
"So…you want to help us?" Squall said after a few moments of silence.
Zell looked up at the ceiling. "First Rajin and now you too…Don't you two care about your friend anymore?"
"She's different." Seifer said slowly. "She's no longer the one she used to be. She changed."
"It's the sorceress' power within her that changed her." Edea said, her voice sounding very clear. "The power is like a constant fire, giving you energy and a feeling of security. But it also brings a suspicious mind and a thirst for more power."
Everyone looked at her. The older woman sat in her chair near the fire, sounding both old and wise as worn. It was hard to believe that this gently person, in her simple cotton dress, had once threatened their world.
"The power changes you and there is nothing that can stop it."
"But how did she get the power?" Selphie wondered.
Edea shrugged. "It was probably inside her from the moment she was born. When a child comes into this world there is always the possibility that this child carries the talent. And this talent soon becomes the power itself. Fujin's mind tried to repress it constantly, but this took so much energy that she sometimes lost control of her body and mind. In a scared frenzy to get it that back, she gauged her eye out as a child."
"How did you know?" Seifer asked curiously.
"It is written on her face, as it could have been written in a book. I see it so clearly, but until yesterday I never fully understood. But now everything falls in its place. Her mind, so tired with fighting the power, had to draw energy from other parts of her brain and that is why her voice was so harsh."
Edea looked at her hands for a moment, as if she was trying to recall Fujin's face in her mind.
"All the energy she needed to suppress the power ensured that she was unable to speak like a normal person. Now that she has learned to control her power, to use it as she wants, she no longer needs to suppress it and therefore her voice has returned to her."
The others looked at her with surprise and awe.
"You know so much." Selphie said with a sigh.
Edea laughed and reached into her bag, showing them a medical chart.
"Doctor Kadowaki and I have been studying the subject. The credit is not all mine." she said.
Squall looked at the chart. "What I still don't understand is this; where does the power reside."
"It lives in your blood. It's a magical substance everyone has. It allows us to use magic and GFs. But with some people the dose is too high. They become sorceresses. We should be able to transfer the power from Fujin to someone else, but this would only postpone our troubles."
"We could transfer it?" Quistis asked, wanting to know if a solution was finally in sight.
"The power can be transferred, but only to one person. You can only send it from one person's blood to another's. And transferring it would only create a new sorceress."
"If we were only able to divide it into two..." Selphie whispered.
"…This isn't possible, sadly." Edea said with a sigh. "A power can never be divided. Yet a divided power would never be able to join as one again. We need a host, a person to carry the power of own free will. Someone we can control and supervise until we have a way of destroying it."
She looked at Quistis.
"Quistis…doctor Kadowaki and I have been through everyone's medical charts and we discovered that…that you have a high dose of the talent in your blood. That is partly why you have been able to use blue magic. Would you…would you be willing to accept Fujin's power until we found a solution?"
Everyone went quiet. She felt Seifer tense up next to her.
"M- me?"
She looked at the others and suddenly felt very small. Seifer avoided eye contact with her, his face averted to the ground. She could see reluctance in his eyes. But she also knew that this was the only way.
"…"
Accepting it would make her into a sorceress…she would change, as Edea had said. But it was…it was her duty. How else could they stop Fujin? And it was the only way that she and Seifer could be together.
"…Yes."
JadeAlmasy: Thank you :) Glad you liked the chapter. I hope this one was okay too, because I wasn't too sure of it myself…well, we'll see in due time what other people think of it :)
Firess ifrit Devil: You want it to be a Quall? Hmm, sorry, this is still going to be a Seiftis…I'm not really good at writing Qualls. Somehow I find it difficult to picture them together in a believable way. I don't think I could write one convincingly. So this is definitely a Seifits. So Fujin's a sorceress and Quistis will become one…I'm mean, aren't I ;)
Kitty Malone: Wow, thank you! It hasn't been called captivating before :) I'm very, very glad you think it's a good sequel. I hope to see you at the next chapters too!
Dark Angels: I had to delete all those stories cause they were songfics and those are now no longer accepted by the administration. It has something to do with infringement of authors rights and stuff. I deleted those so that I'd be able to keep posting this one! And the sexy voice thing; Seifer can't help it if Fujin is layering her voice with magic and stuff. Remember, she is still a sorceress. Oh well, he loves Quistis and he won't leave her. Trust me on this one :D
Matron Raenee: I'm glad you removed yours. I'd hate for your account to be closed. I know it sucks to remove some of your work, it's not something you'd do for fun. But discretion is the better part of valor, eh. Glad you liked the chapter :)
Wow, I opened my mailbox today and found 19 emails, of which 14 were reviews for this story and another one I'm updating. That really feels good :D
Thanks everyone, and of course, see you all at the enxt chapter!
Love, Raven55