Disclaimer: this is it. The great disclaimer... get ready. I don't own FF8 or Square yet, so don't sue... not yet...
Bit of Seiftis in here, I'm not so good at it, but hopefully it will please some. Large chunks of italics means a flashback sequence. This is the longest chapter so far. I hope ya don't get bored.
May it be an evening star
Shines down upon you
May it be when darkness falls
Your heart will be true
You walk a lonely road
Oh how far you are from home
Darkness has come
Believe and you will find your way
Darkness has fallen
A promise lives within you now
Philippa Boyens
Knighted
Chapter 6:Many Partings
By Knighted
"I still can't believe it." Squall turned to his friend angrily at the comment, who stepped away a bit from the brunet as they walked down the long road towards the town of Balamb. The raven-haired girl behind them smiled. Not so long ago her Knight would have dumped Zell in the disciplinary room for his words.
"Hey cool it Commander. I was just expressing my disbelief at you actually leaving work on the desk un-done. Rinoa smiled and, placing a hand on Squall's shoulder, looked sideways at Zell. Lowering her voice, she whispered huskily to Zell
"Oh, he's done a lot more than work on that desk recently... huh, darling?" she grinned evilly up at Squall's face, waiting for some sort of response as Zell's mouth opened ever wider. He spoke
"Oh, yeh, darling, I've done a lot more than that on it recently..." He informed them. Rinoa opened her mouth to laugh, and then suddenly registered what he had just said. Zell seemed to be having some sort of fit in a bush off the side of the road. She was about to utter a scream of indignation when Squall decided to finish off his statement
"Sleeping on it, for one thing." She stopped, and stared up at him. Zell looked up from his engagement in the bush. Then the blond man shook himself and stood up, jogging along to catch up with Squall. The two men continued their stately walk for a few seconds before they stopped, looking back to Rinoa who was still stood there with her mouth wide open.
"What? You said I'd been doing stuff on the desk." Squall questioned, looking sincerely concerned. She stood there. Zell turned back, and slowly collapsed to the ground, shaking with laughter. Squall's eyes began to crinkle, his shoulders heaved as he put his hand to his face, snorting. Rinoa looked at them, then leapt forward at her man, knocking him to the dirt.
"I'll give you something to laugh about..." she lay upon him and kissed him. His lips were salty with tears of laughter, and she revelled in his soft touch. As soon as she was on him, he knew nothing else but her feel, the weight and pressures of her body on his, her scent; a scent of rosebuds but more amazing, more startling more brightening. They broke off and gazed into each other's eyes, lost with only each other. She nuzzled him with her face, looking into the eyes, once only a cold blue mist but now something warm, like a hot bath on a winters day. He looked to her eyes, the two pinpoints of light that were guiding him in the dark place, their hot irises of chocolaty brown swirling like an ocean. Those were eyes that you could drown in. And he wanted to.
A retching noise to their right lifted them out of the trance, sliding them slowly but inexorably down to the world. They looked sideways together, to see the form of Zell, bending over and making melodramatic noises of sickness. Squall sighed. Whatever happened, Zell would always react the same way. Lifting Rinoa almost bodily off him, he rolled up and grabbed the offending blond by the large extrusion of hair above his forehead. The man screamed, clawing at the swordsman's hand, but Squall dragged him slowly back towards the track. As they reached the track the iron-knuckled fists swung wildly at his abdomen, just catching him in a winding blow. The Knight dropped Zell, who laughed and ran backwards away down the path. Squall wheezed
"One surprise after another..."
He didn't know how true he was.
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Quistus sat at the polished desk, viewing its entire vast expanse; from the signing in-trays to the missions out-trays, the wooden structure stretched around her in a 12 metre long semicircle. She knew that because she had paced around it nervously several times before she had actually sat down behind the monstrosity. She fund comfort in bringing up the old exercises-one of the first was regulating the length of your step to a standard length, so that you could measure anything on the ground. But it looked smaller on the outside than on the inside; like that 'Tardis' time machine thing thought Quistus, remembering her days buried in the deeper reaches of the library reading ancient crusted books of wild science fiction and the like in places few people ever went nowadays. Yes, smaller on the outside, and bigger... oh so much bigger when you were sitting at it's crux, like driving an oceanic liner. She peered round to the edges of the swollen filling system again. She had known Squall was maybe a bit of a control freak, but it just seemed weird to be able to sort this amount of paper a day. And he said he hated it, too. She didn't doubt that-he had been brought up to fight. But the sheer volume... they must have a forklift to take all the 'out-' boxes away every day she wondered absentmindedly. She had thought that this was going to be easy, that Cidd would do most of the work...
The plain fact was, Quistus was bored. Always she had been so content at Garden, with her way of doing things. She had even found work enjoyable but now... Now something else was on her mind. A 'he' sort of something in fact. The sort of something she dreamed of. Seifer. He had smashed her world.
"Quistus! Come back! Don't go!" Rinoa had said that, as she and Selphie had chased her to the docking bay where the Ragnarok was parked. But Squall held them back
"What are you doing?" screamed Rinoa, tears pouring down her face
"She'll be killed! Do SOMETHING!!!" but he stayed them. She was told afterwards by Rinoa, twisting her black hair in embarrassment as the three women chatted in her room afterwards that Squall had said, looking down at her
"Because I know how she feels..." and I turned, as if I sensed what he had said. He saluted me, the Commander, pride and obstinacy radiating from him. He knew how it felt. Knew how it felt to have a loved one in need-to realise that you do love truly, that you can love truly. And I stopped and saluted. Then ran. Ran my ass off.
It had been a close thing. The execution was just about to proceed, one second... but that's one second I don't want to think about. It was like a horror film scene as I burst in with the ship, through the dome. The crowd, that Delling mob, cheering, screaming death to the persecutor who was now the persecuted in the middle, on a platform, and the officials in their black suits around him, my love, my only. Seifer would have been executed for his allegiance with the sorceress. But I saved him. I risked everything for him. He wasn't afraid when he stepped down from the upright platform, just angry. He grabbed the nearest official and threw him into the crowd. He would have killed them all, if I didn't grab him and shout some sense at him. It wasn't easy, with the crowd all around, grabbing at our legs. More than one Galbadian citizen will have whip marks on them today. Somehow we managed to fight our way back to the ship, and once in side, no man with no ground weapon save a large artillery piece could take down the Ragnarok.
Cid had been angry. Angry as hell, actually. He threatened me with my job, my home at Garden, everything including, if I remember rightly, my life at some points. But I weathered the storm, waited for the Headmaster to blow himself out, to wearily turn me away back to my room. But I think, maybe, that there could have been a faint sense of pride in his voice as he threw me out of the room. And after that... Seifer. He saw me then, for the first time I think, without his cool-posse, without his bully mask. Saw me for what I was; what I am now, though... changed a bit. And we loved.
...And even Seifer had changed, after a while. His experiences with Ultimacia and Edea had sobered him-he was no longer the cocky striding leader of the feared Disciplinary committee. He himself had been disciplined, and where usually he would have scorned Quistus's weakness to leave everything to save him, he saw that weakness was what made people human, and that he himself had weaknesses. ...or something like that.
The young blond sighed, her heart aching for the man, for his soft caress which seemed to make the problems of life fall away like a loose burden. She smiled as her mind wandered again, back to his re-entering the Garden.
The whole garden turned out for Seifer's return. They lined the corridor, still as the terracotta army. No sound penetrated the heavy air save the slow thunk of large boots and the swish of a now-tattered trench coat; a remnant of former glory, of dreams unconquered. Quistus led the betrayer down the avenue of silent faces, her delicate legs making no noise in the hushed atmosphere. But as the two walked past Zell, there was a low mutter of
"Well hey there, chicken-wus." Like a shot the martial artist was on him, a deft upper punch in just bellow the rib before Quistus had time to stop it. She reached for her whip, but another beet her two it. As Zell swung for another hit on the crouched and already bloodied Seifer, a loud voice shot out like a bell over the crowd
"Zell! Stop." Zell froze, and, not turning around, stood up and walked round behind the two as Quistus helped Seifer up. All other heads were on the Commander, standing menacingly, further down the aisle of uniformed men and women. Rinoa stood with him. Slowly the new couple began their procession towards the main garden, Zell trailing behind, a look of utter contempt on his usually smiling face. As they approached the Commander of Balamb Garden, Seifer looked up at the man. No expression could be read on Squall's face, save in his eyes, which were ice-cold with fury. Quistus stopped and steadied the man beside her. She looked from him to Squall, pleadingly
"Squall, we need to get him to the infirmary! He needs medical attention!" the Commander's face did not change. But he said, in a clear voice
"He shall not enter here."
"But Squall, look!" Quistus lifted up a flap of the grey coat, and a mixture of blood and threads poured out onto the floor. The people round them gasped, but that white face blocking the entrance did not move a millimetre. She looked up again at her superior, and stepped back. Suddenly Squall's face was a mask of fury, out of which his eyes shone like two beacons of a blizzard. Taller he seemed to stand, and those standing near felt a shiver run down their spines. The hall shrunk and darkened under the presence of the man standing at the end.
"Didn't you hear me! The man will not enter my Garden!" he spat into the pool of Seifer's blood on the floor. The crowd gasped, and Rinoa stepped forward, putting a calming hand on Squall's arm. He spun around, and yelled to the back
"Someone get a janitor to clean up this mess! And call an ambulance. We need to get this fool to a hospital." Quistus and Seifer started to turn and walk away, but Squall spun back and grabbed the blond man's chin, bending down to Seifer's crouching figure. Face to face, they stared into one another's eyes. Seifer looked away, but the brunet swung his face back again.
"And you. If you ever step foot on these grounds again, I will see to it that you wish that you'd died on the execution plate." He let Seifer's chin drop, and stood up to look at Quistus.
"Get him out of here." He turned, and looked down at Rinoa's face. There were tears there. He embraced her, his anger dropping away. They stood there together, as the crowd begun to whisper. She whimpered
"Why? Why does it have to be this way?" He sighed and closed his eyes, feeling remorse and shame for his actions. He thought back to Seifer's past...
Quistus and Seifer had almost made it to the door when his voice rang out again, one last time. The crowd silenced, and the two stopped in their tracks. All eyes were on Leonheart.
"Wait!" Squall paused, to collect himself.
"Behold! This man, before you here. He was not always bad, or degraded." Quistus's eyes widened as he continued.
"He was once a great warrior, and one whom no-one would dare to contest." Squall spoke from the heart, from his soul. As the words poured out, he felt as in a dream.
"For nothing starts as evil, though evil may come to it, if it lets it. So see him now, and remember. Remember that, though you may only walk and see one straight path of life, there are many that you can not or will not see. This man dreamed, and it took him from the paths of this world to the paths of the next, and others. But not all dreams are evil. Nothing is ever certain. And you may not see the right path until you reach the end of it. And so behold, and remember; do not dream the path. Walk the path." There was silence. Squall looked down, and stared. Then, very slowly and carefully, trying to avoid the stares of others, he took Rinoa's arm, and walked down the path, back towards Garden. When he reached the end of the crowd, he started to run.
Quistus looked at Seifer, who had momentarily forgotten his wounds. He looked back, incredulously, and, half to himself, muttered
"Where the hell did that come from?"
In the chair, Quistus was woken from her dream of the past by a gloved hand. A hard but not harsh voice whispered to her
"Quisty... wake up..." She opened her eyes, and at what she saw felt her heart fill with warmth. A man was standing over her, looking into her eyes. A man, tall and lean, blond hair cropped short and upright. His sapphire eyes, peered into her blues, piercing into her feelings in a way she could never experience with anyone else. Seifer. She jumped up, suddenly alarmed
"Seifer, what are you doing here?! Squall-" he smiled and interrupted her
"Honey, Puberty-boy is done, he's gone to Balamb, remember? He an' Rin are leaving today?" she let out a tense breath of air, and looked up at him. He smiled wider
"Come here..." she fell willingly into his embrace, pushing on to his chest.
"I missed you..." she whispered, drawing lines across his new shirt. He buried his face in her hair, and kissed her. He breathed in, her scent filling his mind, feeling her pressed against him, her sleek body. These were the moments he lived on now, through all the toil and hardship of finding jobs and sleeping in the streets, her would go through it all for just one more minute in her presence. Suddenly she looked up, and kissed him with a passion that staggered him, drawing him in, a tong-caressing gesture of love, felling her lips so soft, her mouth pulling at him. But it was not to be... not here. He broke away, his eyes closed. He breathed deeply and slowly, calming his body. Then he opened his eyes, looking at her disappointed face. He grinned
"More time for that later. For now, we've got to go say our goodbyes." She smiled, a simple flexing of her facial muscles which sent his heart leaping in his chest. She tugged at him
"Come on. We'll take the Ragnarok. I can't be bothered to walk." He smiled to himself. It wasn't just him and Squall who'd changed. He jogged to catch up with her
"Quistus Trepe, I never would have thought it. Won't Cid get somewhat... annoyed at the usage of fuel?" she shrugged, and he grinned wider. He was quite looking forward to a week without the Commander to barge in on him and Quistus.
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Squall looked up just in time to see the massive beast sweep out of the forest to their right and scoop Zell up in its massive jaws as the blond stumbled backwards. Rinoa screamed
"Zell!"
On the verge of panic, Squall looked around wildly. Then fighting instinct took over. He swept out the Lionheart gunblade, it's blue-tinted adamantine blade glinting in the summer sun, and charged.
The t-rexsaur seemed to sense something coming, as it whirled around, Zell still yelling and waving his arms about wildly. As the beast turned about, it encountered a figure, running and then, in one deft movement, seeming to be right in front of it's eyes. Squall leapt up to the creatures neck, a precise jump which was enhanced by magic as he had been trained. The great blade swung through the air so fast that it sang with the wind it created, the blade vibrating as if longing for flesh to bight and sever. As the t-rexsaur tried to smash it's tail round, the Commander took one fell swipe at it's neck, the heavy sword moving in his hands like it was part of him. The tip swept through the throat, drawing a fine line behind it, and just as it reached the centre, a full round of pulse ammo fired from the base of the blade smashed into the windpipe at point blank, 20 pounds of metal impacting on armoured flesh at 3 times the speed of sound. As Squall landed, he looked up in time to see a huge hole being blown in the monster's spine bellow its head. It screamed an ear-splitting roar, sending Zell flying to the ground, and, in it's death throws, ran headlong back into the trees from which it had so suddenly appeared. Slowly the sounds died, climaxing with an earthshaking thud as, presumable, the massive carcass of the terror dropped to the ground.
Squall stood up, cleaning his gunblade on the grass, sheathed it, and ran over to where Rinoa was already casting healing spells on Zell. The martial-artist tried to push her off
"I'm no hurt, it's didn't bite hard. Just bruised." Squall looked at the light indentations of the teeth around Zell's belly.
"It must have had young to feed, it was trying to take you back alive to through to them. You were lucky." Zell stared up at him.
"Thanks for the information man." He replied weakly.
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As the three walkers reached the docking bay in Balamb, a huge roaring sound hit their ears. For a moment Rinoa feared that the T-rexsaur was back to wreak vengeance upon them, but as a shadow descended, they realised that a large space-going vessel, namely the Ragnarok, was slowly coming into land outside Balamb. As the noise died, they heard a calling from the other side of the bay, and saw an ecstatic Selphie, with Irvine attempting, unsuccessfully, to calm her down. They walked over, and the petite brunet ran to meet them, closely followed by Irvine.
"This is sooo exiting!" she squealed, as the others attempted to cover their ears at the repulsive noise she was making. Irvine rolled his eyes
"Please, Selph, they're just going away for a week!" he looked at them mock-apologetically
"sorry, she still gets overexcited easily. I've been trying to train her but... OW!!!" his joke was punctuated by a quick 'nudge' in the shin by Selphie's boot. Squall looked annoyed then asked
"Who's in the Ragnarok?" In answer there came another call from up near the Balamb hotel. Quistus was strolling leisurely towards them, her blond hair glinting in the red evening sunset. And behind her was...
"Seifer" growled both Zell and Squall. They started forward, but the others held them back. As the tall gunblademan walked up with Quistus. He looked at them, and sighed
"Look, I'm not here to attack you or posses you or whatever, I just... wanted to see you off as well." His eyes switched nervously back and forth between Squall and Zell, seeing them unconvinced.
"OK, can we call it quits?" he pleaded
"You beet me with the Sorceress and when I came back... you have won. Fine?" the two other men looked down, now ashamed of their automatic aggressiveness. Squall stared into Seifer's eyes
"Quits, people. There's no fight here. It's not Garden." Seifer looked relieved, and Squall picked up the bags that had been brought up earlier. He turned to the SeeD boat waiting for them, and breathed the cool sea air. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.
As he escorted his Sorceress up the gangplank to the iron ship, he looked back at the small party of their friends smiling up at him. His gaze moved to the blond couple.
"Seifer. You have a week." He smiled as he waved and called
"Use it wisely."
...and they sailed into the sunset.
...Few, that was long and hard. But it's satisfying in the end. Hope you like my cheesy ending. It's 9:30pm at the moment, and I'm listening to the Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers music cd. It's great. Just thought I'd share that with you.Thanks for all previous reviews, and please review... NOW!
Thanks,
Knighted