Chapter 15

Quistis sat down beside the wounded Seifer on his bed after having wrapped his wound in bandage. This calm Seifer is so unlike the Seifer that had dragged her away from those walls; his face, calm and relaxed in sleep like a little boy, his breathing smooth and gentle. She frowned slightly while watching him sleep and soon found herself lost in thoughts. Why had he gone out and save her? Of course, the obvious reason was that he probably wanted to bring her back and torture her himself, but still, it would be much easier if he would let the Marlboro finish his job for him rather getting himself hurt in the process of bringing her back. Or was he really there to save her? No, She thought back to the hellish prison she had just saw, such cruel man probably couldn't care less about what would happen to her. Those people in there, if he could torture them like that, he probably wouldn't hesitate to do the same thing to her, which was the reason why she had decided to run, weaponless as she was. Then, again, she shouldn't have come back in the first place. But she couldn't leave him there to die… Quistis sighed; thinking about what had just happened wasn't helping. It just left her to be more confused at herself. And now, she couldn't possibly leave, the guards were following her like mad, it took a lot of effort for her to asked them to leave her alone with Seifer, unwatched. She had no other choice but to deal with whatever the devil had in store for her, and hopefully, Squall and the others would find her soon, as she had no idea how to get out of this Island by herself.

A soft moan caused her to snap out of her thoughts. Quistis stood up and started to step away from the bed.

Seifer stirred and sat up gently in his bed, clutching his arm as he felt a familiar surge of pain running through it. "Quistis…?"

She didn't answer, still uncertain about what his reaction would be to her.

"Don't worry, I'm all out. I'm not gonna hurt you feeling like this." He frowned in annoyance of how his action earlier had caused her to pull back from him in fear.

Quistis let out a sigh, "How are you feeling?"

"I'm definitely not enjoying being scarred by your little Marlboro!" He snarled. "If you hadn't run away, this wouldn't have happened!"

"Well if you didn't treat me the way you did, I wouldn't have to run!" she retorted.

"If you would have listened to my orders and stayed away from that gate, I wouldn't have to treat you the way I did!" he countered.

"IF you hadn't been keeping in prisoners and torturing them the way you did, then there wouldn't be a gate for me to wander off to!" she glared at him.

At that, Seifer didn't know what to say to her. He had lost.

Turning his head away from her, he started in a much calmer voice, "Those prisoners… that prison… is where the Dark Lord kept his slaves…"

"Slaves taken in by you!" she narrowed her eyes at him.

He nodded in response, frowning in pain. "It was his order… those who dared fight against his army, challenging him in those attacks is to be brought back… and taken into the Dark Prison. It is where the Lord kept his darkest work, the arts of torture. Sometime, after a rough attack, late at night, you would be able to hear them scream and cry in agony while being tortured… It was worst than hell…" Seifer closed his eyes, not daring to look her way. He remembered only too well how those screams of pain would haunt him in his sleeps. Those nights, he wouldn't be able to sleep until it was over. The thought of seeing Quistis in there, facing those hellish creatures, being tortured by them turned his blood cold. He slowly opened his eyes and turned to watch her. She was standing with her back to him, shaken slightly, was she crying? He felt another surge of pain run through him, but this time, not through his wounded arm, but rather, his heart.

"Quistis… I… I don't want you to be near that place…" he turned away from her, not being able to watch her. "I don't want you to see them… I don't want you be taken in with them… to see what they have to see… to face what they have to face…"

"But you don't mind torturing others! You don't care how many families you've ruined, how many loved-ones you've killed! The fact that you're keeping me in here while torturing others in there does not make you a better man!" She yelled at him in an outburst, tears streaming down her face before turning away from him. Squall was right, Seifer was lost… Forever…

"Don't you understand, Quistis?" he got up from his bed and started to walk over to her. "That prison is beyond my power! It is his. I have no authority there! Whatever goes on in there, I have no say in it! Don't you get it! IF you were to be taken into that place by those guards, there's no way that I could help you! I wouldn't be able to protect you! I couldn't allow that, Quistis… I couldn't… " his throat tightened, and he couldn't bring himself to say the rest. I don't want to lose you.

But there were not unheard. Quistis turned slowly to face him, he was staring at her with an expression she sure she couldn't have mistaken for anything else. It was one of pain, hurt like a little boy whose toy was taken away. She walked slowly up to him, and tiptoed up to kiss him lightly on his lips, pulling away shortly after, slightly shocked at what she just did. Seifer, who was trying his best to keep the color of his face as far from hot red as possible, didn't know how to react but to pull her into his arms, holding her close to his heart. She closed her eyes, and relaxed against him, you're wrong, Squall… He's not lost…

"Promise me, Seifer…" she started softly, "Promise me you wouldn't bring anyone else to that prison…"

"I promise."

And he'd always kept his promise to her. How I wished that you would keep yours, he thought sadly to himself.

His thought was soon interrupted by a racket heard outside. Quistis pulled away from him and walked over to the window, looking down. More slaves are being led into the black gate. She took a closer look at them, eyes widened in terror as she recognized familiar face. Kenneth…

She turned around, throwing Seifer another glare, "You took in prisoners from Dollet!"

Seifer shook his head furiously, "No! I didn't take anyone else other than you!"

"Then what is this!" she pointed outside the window, staring at him waiting for an explanation.

He walked over to where she was standing and looked down. Did the lord start organizing attacks without his knowledge? "I don't know…"

"What do you mean, you don't know! Seifer, that was a SEED officer you've taken in! First me, now him! If you think Garden will rest at this, you're very wrong!" she shouted at him, quite angry at seeing her Dollet team member taken in and not being able to do anything about it.

Seifer grabbed his coat and head towards the door. "Stay here, Trepe. And for Hyne's sake listen to me for once and stay!" he paused, pointing his finger at her meaningfully before rushing out.

A/N: and another chapter down - I'm starting to enjoy my holiday… on the very last day --" hell- I mean school starts tomorrow.. -.-' counting down to the april break… anyways… what do you think of the story so far? Don't forget to leave some reviews