Chapter 2: Fight To Forget
Flying into action, Squall raised his Lionheart and ran to protect his fallen friend from the foe about to kill him. Aiming his blow carefully, just enough to scratch the opponents neck without fatally wounding the figure; Squall drew his blade and held it like a baseball bat as he ran. Gaining on the two figures as the blow was slowly coming down on Seifer, Squall drew his target and swung his blade, but instead of a slight glancing blow he hit nothing but air and was sent off balance.
A soft, but powerful punch sent Squall back and gave the other person a chance to run across the terrace and pick up the blade that pinned Hyperion to the ground. Spinning round, with the heavy black robe billowing, the Lionheart clashed with the other blade with a hiss, sending blue green sparks flying.
Squall pulled the Lionheart back and slashed out at his opponent's head, but again the blow was blocked expertly. Each thrust was parried perfectly and sparks flew as Squall tried his best to gain some sort of advantage over the other fighter. With blades scraping together Squall kicked the other in the chest, causing him to back peddle, leaping up Squall aimed his blade at the fighters arm, wanting to incapacitate, not kill him, but as he came down the other fighter rolled quickly out of the way and Squall once again hit nothing but air.
The other fighter kicked Squall from behind, and then as he fell forward, knocked his legs out from underneath him, causing Squall to be knocked to the ground at Seifer's feet, who had been watching the battle with rapt attention.
Twisting around and flipping himself up Squall was ready to join the fight again, determined to win this time but just as he was about to strike Seifer grabbed him from behind.
"It's alright Squall," he said. "Calm down".
The other figure stabbed his blade into the ground, clearly irritated.
"Fucking hell Leonhart," he said, in a very pissed off manner 'what the hell are you playing at?'
"Relax A," said Seifer, back to his familiar cocky tones, addressing the other man 'you're both ok, what's there to worry about?'
"Plenty," said the other figure, while taking off the large hooded robe surrounding him. "For a start he shouldn't be awake, he still has some of the dragon death in his system." He finished removing his heavy black robe revealing a slender figure underneath, clothed with a loose white tee shirt and black pants, on the third finger of his left hand there was a silver ring and around his neck there was a familiar looking pendant.
"My necklace!" cried Squall, breaking free of Seifer and charging at the other man.
Squall dived at the other, attempting to pin him to the ground, but with a sudden twist and a flip, Squall found himself lying on his back, staring into a pair of deep, chocolate eyes.
"Wrong Leonhart," said the other, "my necklace." And with that he pulled out from under Squall's shirt the all too familiar Griever.
Squall focused on the image around the others neck. It was, at first glance very similar to the one that he himself wore, but on closer inspection it was subtly different. The animal on the necklace was not a lion, it was something else, something sleeker, but before Squall could see what it was he got off him and took a few steps back.
With the adrenaline of battle gone from Squall's system the headache that he had previously was starting to come back and with a vengeance. His vision started to grow fuzzy and dim and his throat felt as if he had swallowed a brick.
He stood up, but for some reason found it to difficult to keep his balance. A slight groan escaped from his lips as he fell back, only to be caught by the other character there.
As the world spiralled into black yet again Squall was able to ask a single question.
"Who are you?"
Squall saw a brief glance across to Seifer, which seemed to have in it both questions and exclamations, although no words were spoken.
"My name is Aidan Squall. Now sleep, you need your rest."
And with those last words echoing in his ears Squall slipped back into blackness.
A kiss.
Soft and sweet, tasting slightly of vanilla.
Arms wrapped around him.
"I love you."
Did he ever say that?
"I love you too, Zell."
A voice hauntingly familiar pierced his dreams, cold but with a soft lilt.
"Shit, this is bad"
"What's bad?' thought Zell, "and where am I?"
"What's the matter with him A?"
"Isn't that Seifer's voice?' Zell asked himself. "Did we survive?"
"He's not completely dejunctioned."
"What do you mean, not dejunctioned? I thought you removed all the Guardian Forces from our minds?"
"So did I Seif, but something's wrong here, there's still dragon death in his system and it shouldn't be there, it's got nothing to hold onto"
"Wait a second, did that voice just call Seifer Seif? Does he know him? Who is he? And are they talking about Squall?"
"Well do something for Hyne's sake!"
"I can't! Leonhart shouldn't even have woken up with that much death in him, he should be totally out cold. I don't understand why Dincht isn't awake yet, he should have recovered by now."
"Shit, busted, better make a good show of it then."
With an overly exaggerated yawn and way too much stretching Zell finally opened his eyes and sat up in his bed.
"What's goin on?" he asked, pouring as much tiredness into his voice as he could. "An' where are we?"
Zell looked around the room and saw Seifer and another man leaning over Squall on the bed nearest to him. Both men looked up at him and then just as quickly looked back down again. Seifer slowly pulled away from Squall and made his way over to Zell.
"We're stuck in the middle of Centra for a bit, Chickie. That creature that attacked the 'Rok did some pretty serious damage, to it and to us"
"Squall will be ok," said Aidan. "He just needs a little rest that's all. He's running a fever at the moment." Aidan looked up from Squall and fixed his attention on Zell. "How do you feel Dincht?"
"Fine, I think," Zell replied, looking over the man who had, apparently saved them.
He was about Squall's height, 5'7, and had brown hair, spiked very slightly along with deep chocolate coloured eyes that seemed to be almost everywhere at once. His face was not handsome, but not ugly either, it simply was; it looked more like the face of a person who had read countless books and endured countless problems, but had come out of it with a smile. The white tee shirt he wore covered up an elegant and athletic frame, more suited to a dancer than anything else. Around his neck Zell could see a chain, but nothing more and a very familiar ring was on the third finger of his left hand.
"That's Squall's ring!' cried out Zell, "Who are you and why have you got it?"
"My name is Aidan, Dincht," he said, making a sideways glance at Seifer who, in response, merely shrugged his shoulders. "And this ring isn't Squall's it's mine"
Taking off his ring Aidan passed it to Zell and as Zell took it, he stepped back quickly as if burned.
Zell examined the ring carefully in his hand, he could tell instantly that it wasn't Squall's, just by the feel of it, after all he had handled Griever for quite a while during the last Sorceress war. As well as that the design was slightly different, instead of a roaring lion forming the band, the animal was a tiger, caught in mid pounce, with elegent claws and a slim, but dangerous, body. Convinced this Aidan wasn't robbing them blind Zell handed the ring back.
"Thank you," Aidan said, taking the ring back and putting it once again on his finger.
"What happened to us?" asked Zell
"The Ragnarok was attacked by a monster called an Onyx Dragon. A new breed that came down in the Lunar Cry 5 years ago. When you crashed, it hit you with a powerful poison called 'Dragon Death'. You were lucky I was there."
"Apparently it attacks by feeding off junctions, then attacks each cell in the body, destroying it and moving on," said Seifer. 'Aidan had to remove each one of our junctions and then had to remove the dragon death intravenously, drawing it out."
Zell quickly scanned his mind, feeling for the familiar echoes and voices that indicated the Guardian forces presence, but felt nothing, but before he could say anything Squall started to jerk and buck in his bed.
Aidan was at his side in an instant, he placed it fingertips on Squall's temples and closed his eyes. As quickly as it had started Squall's spasm faded. It seemed though like Zell was the only person to see Aidan put a small vial of Squall's blood into his pocket.
"What's wrong with Squall?" asked Zell
"For some reason he still has some of the Dragon Death in his system and I don't know why, I need to do a more few tests on him," Aidan replied, looking distracted and confused by this new turn of events.
"Erm….can I ask you something?" Zell said
"What?" said Aidan, his attention returning to Zell.
"Where can I get changed back into my old clothes?"
Aidan looked at Zell carefully and a grin spread over his face.
"I dunno chickie, I think that cute gown could be a new look for you," Seifer teased, slapping Zell on the ass. Zell wheeled round, nearly punching the taller blond for that, but decided not to, he didn't want to get blood on the bed sheets.
"Down the hall on the right Zell, there's a small bathroom there." Aidan pointed to a door, set just behind a wardrobe. "And your old clothes are in the chest there."
"Thanks." Zell sprang out of bed, grabbed his clothes out of the chest and headed for the door.
"Don't take too long chickie, otherwise we might think you were up to something." Seifer spoke with a lecherous grin on his face.
Zell turned round and gave Seifer the finger before heading out of the door to the bathroom.
Zell walked back down the hallway now clad in his usual clothes and feeling much better for his shower. Sadly Aidan's bathroom didn't have any gel in it, so Zell's hair was just sleeked back, with a few bangs over his eyes.
The hallway was large and looked to be made out of a very strange kind of rock that was warm to the touch, sort of a natural central heating system. It was broad, but sparse, nothing on its smooth walls and only one or two windows. It actually reminded Zell of Matron's old house, but Zell could hardly remember it because of the Guardian forces.
Zell came to the door at the far end that opened up into the bedroom where he and the others had slept away their illness when he heard voices.
"There's something wrong with Squall."
"What?" Zell heard Seifer reply.
"I don't know," responded Aidan. "But it isn't the dragon death, it's something else."
"How the hell do you know that?"
"Because there's no Dragon Death left in him, it's all gone."
"I thought you said he was so full of it he should be out cold."
"I did. Nothing I know of could ever have got rid of such a potent poison so fast, and I honestly don't know what to do with him."
There was a pause, long and heavy, as if a veil of silence had been thrown over the room. Then Aidan spoke again, his voice sad and sorry.
"They don't remember me do they?"
Zell heard a sigh that he assumed to be Seifer.
"No A, they don't" Seifer replied.
"I didn't think they would." A simple statement that Aidan made almost clinically, but Zell sensed an underlying emotion to his words.
"Hyne above," thought Zell. "We know him?"
"Hell, I'm surprised they even remember me the amount of times they used those bloody Guardian Forces," said Seifer, his voice trying to lighten the mood, but failing abysmally.
There was another long pause.
"I loved him Seif, I loved him with all my heart and he's forgotten me."
"Holy shit," whispered Zell "He's gay? Him and Squall were together?"
"You don't know that A, he may remember, we'll just have to wait and see."
"I don't want him told Seif."
"Then I guess I won't tell him, A. …You've got my word on that."
"Good."
"Have you got any idea what's doing this to him?" asked Seifer, his voice thick with worry.
"Not a clue Seif, not a clue.' Aidan replied. "But it's killing him, if we don't find out what it is soon, Squall'll die"