XXII – Confess thy sins and die

Disclaimer: I don't own any FF8 character or place. But I own all Temera characters.

A:N: Surprise, huh? Well, I don't know where this chapter came from. Have fun.

"Dammit." Rubbing his sore hand, Seifer sat down next to the man who was probably supposed to be the priest he had talked to less than ten hours ago. The numerous wounds on his body hadn't come from blades, guns or any other weapons. They were results of simple human force, of fists that seemed to crush all. So much about Foda being an adequate combat teacher for BG.

"Seifer?" Trying to ignore the pain that went through his body, Shura tried to open his eyes. What he saw were shadows and slightly more than the blurred vision of an angry knight. "Seifer, it is you. You must hurry! He's looking for her. He'll find her soon. Fujin. You gotta go and take her away from here."

"Where is she?" He searched for one of the few potions all BG students usually carried with them, but found none. It was a simple reminder of his egocentric way of believing nothing could harm him. It was one of the many flaws about himself that he wanted to be cursed for right at the moment.

"Forget about me, Seifer. It's too late anyway. You gotta find Fujin. She…" Coughing, he closed his eyes again. He knew it was the blood from his inner wounds that filled his lungs and slowly choked him. "The hut… Aresa's hut… Go, Seifer… hurry."

"Shura! Shura!" Cursing himself, Seifer searched for the old man's pulse, before cursing himself once again. Why the hell had he even allowed her to stay in Temera? Why the hell had he – as her self-chosen superior – left her alone in some godforsaken mountain village with nothing more but her magical powers and her weapon for defence?

Her magical powers. As he stormed out of the church, he tried to calm his nerves again. Fujin was strong. She had faced monsters daily in her training sessions. She had unbreakable courage that had even kept her calm when being close to death – he had seen it when she had lost her eye in combat.

Combat. Yes, Fujin was strong, but she hadn't been strong enough for Foda. All too clearly he remembered the day they had fought against each other, same as he could remember the day when she had been sitting in Kadowaki's office looking in the mirror trying to remember about herself. The pain, the fear in her eyes. Foda was more than a goddamn monster or some opponent. He was her personal nightmare.

When he finally shook his head in order to get rid of his worries, he noticed he had already mastered most of the tricky way up the mountain's slope and wasn't far from the hut now.

>>>

She kept on running. Running till exhaustion could make her break down finally. Her breath formed little clouds in the air, while burning her throat from the inside. To her left and right, the trees appeared like giants. So this was what it had felt like. This was what had happened to her when she had been a child. How she had run away and accidentally stumbled across Sapphire Lake. When he had hunted her for the first time.

Only a few things had changed, she realised. She was 17 now, and not ten. He was her teacher now, and not her father. She was heading for Sapphire Lake now, instead of stumbling across it. And it was deepest November and not May, when the Lake was a death trap. And she didn't have Raijin beside her now. Just his shadow, an illusion produced by her memory, showing her what had happened then. As the trees vanished, she stopped immediately.

Again she could feel he icy cold of the water to her feet. She had already felt it when she had been there with Seifer, Raijin and Shura. Exhausted, she closed her eyes for a moment and breathed deeply.

"You haven't changed at all, Fujin." Smirking at the picture, Foda stepped out of the trees, too. "You're still a good runner."

"Nonsense." Trying to calm down, she took the silver locket from one of her pockets and showed it to him. Another smile stretched across his lips. "Ah, so you found it. Guess that marks me as a murderer, doesn't it." When she kept staring blankly, the smile turned into quiet laughter. "Oh, Fujin… Why did you have to care about him? You and your mother and Raijin? We could have been a family!"

"You killed him."

"I'd rather call it… removing an obstacle. I loved her, you know. I loved Aresa. I did it for us. But you found out and you went mad. You said you'd tell them… everyone. Darling, I wouldn't have had to remove him, if you hadn't made such a drama of it. It was just for our best."

"Yours! Yours! Not ours!" Half furious, half frightened, she stepped back, as he approached her.

"And now you blame me for being selfish, right?" He waited for her to do so, but she didn't. The giggles came back again. "Oh, Fujin! Yes, okay I confess. I was selfish. I wanted his place… in that hut, in that family, in your mother's bed… But don't you think you were something better." When she glared at him, shocked, his smile even grew. "Yes, Fujin, you're selfish, too. And beside that, you're weak. You don't even have to power to pull through your plans. You don't even have the power to stand up for your own wishes. It's Almasy, isn't it?"

Immediately, her body tensed. What the hell did Seifer have to do with Foda? What did she have to do with Seifer? He was her leader and nothing more, wasn't he?

"Come on, Fujin! Don't look as if you were surprised or even startled. You've fallen in love with that goddamn son of a bitch. And that though he's such a bad match. He's a selfish, arrogant bastard, without discipline. How else could someone fail a simple Seed exam more than twice? And besides, you know where he's going every night. The clubs, the ladies… He doesn't even have the slightest bit of interest in someone like you and you know that. But still you're doting upon him. And you watch him going to the clubs, flirting with those stupid bimbos every night. What do you do? Nothing. You don't even try to stand up, just grovel at his feet and silently beg for a single glance… God, that's pathetic, Fujin. Really pathetic. I – at least – reached my goals, but you… Wanna bet I'll see you at his wedding with some damn blondie some day? Stupid whoreson…."

"STOP!" Having taken enough, she threw her Shruiken at him and watched him evade quickly. No one, absolutely no one, was ever going to talk about her leader like that. "Beast!" Clutching her weapon again, she casted some lower spells on him, but they proved to be useless. It only increased her fury. As she tried to avoid his quick kicks, she found herself almost out of breath again. Tired of fighting without any result, she stepped back and tried another attack with hr shruiken.

His kick hit her right before the weapon left her hand. Now it lay next to her in the snow, only two meters away. Coiling up to ball on the cold ice of Lake Sapphire, she fought to suppress the pain that spread from her stomach. For a few moments, she felt like the sound of ice slowly cracking had merged with her breathless coughing, but she knew it was impossible, probably just another memory. Slowly, she opened her eyes to find his boots right in front of her face. She couldn't see him smirking, but she knew he was.

"Stupid, Fujin. Really stupid. How about me doing you a favour? I'll safe you from hopelessly, uselessly doting upon that bastard."

"Seifer's no bastard…" As she heard his laughter merging with the first rustling of a thunder spell, she closed her eyes again. So this was it. This was the end of her journey. Lonesome… weak… defeated… in some stupid forest up in a godforsaken village. Lonesome… A single tear came running out of her ruby eye. Silently, she cursed herself for talking so rarely. Now, at the end, she realised how much she would have wanted to tell them. Her brother, the guardian, and Seifer, her knight. Taking a last deep breath, she prepared for whatever was there to come…