Disclaimer: The story, plot, and some minor characters are mine. The rest are Square Enix's.
Chapter 04: Tequila Mockingbird
Note: This chapter hasn't been QC-ed either, so if you notice any inconsistent facts, grammatical errors, etc, please feel free to tell me. This chapter didn't come out as long as I imagined, actually laughs. Many thanks to the nice reviews. Now on to the story. Enjoy!
The whole Garden was in tumult as news about the death of a cadet named Rawdon Cecile spread about the entire place like wild fire; and to their amusement, almost each one of them had tried to make up one or more possible causes of death with died from battling against a T-Rexaur being the most famous. Even SeeD members and Garden faculty had also decided to settle the matter with the same conclusion and agreed to schedule several SeeD members to patrol the place every night, not to mention also to inform the victim's family.
"If Zell doesn't come out." Bringing a hot dog, a cup of orange juice, and a cup of coffee inside two small paper bags, Seifer paced about before the entrance of Training Center, glancing once in a while past a Garden faculty member, who disallowed anyone to enter the place until the meeting finished, glancing to see if Zell had finished the meeting. The extent to which he was compelled to wait, as Seifer insisted, proportionally vouched how much he loved Zell. "If Zell doesn't come out—"
"Yo, Seif!" called Zell, eyes set at the paper bags. "The hotdog's gone cold?"
"Well, I wonder," Seifer mused, giving the bag containing the hot dog to Zell. "I suppose it has—I've been waiting here for almost an hour."
"I'm sorry about that. I'll make it up to you," said Zell, taking the content out.
"That's just like you to eat a hotdog for breakfast," said Quistis, passing by the couple.
"Wait, Quistis," called Zell impulsively.
"Yes?" Quistis asked, turning round to face Zell.
"We've fought T-Rexaurs for Hyne knows how much! I daresay he didn't die fighting a T-Rexaur—there were too many holes, stab scars spread out in different vital places compared to bite marks to conclude so," said Zell.
"I know—his body looked like it was shot by a Gatling Gun, although we didn't find any bullets. There is just not enough evidence to form a conclusion," replied Quistis.
"Reminds me of your blue magic Gatling Gun," muttered Seifer, smirking.
"What are you implying?" asked Quistis nonchalantly, throwing her face leftward, facing Seifer.
"Just stating the obvious," said Seifer, raising his left eyebrow.
"Cut it out, you two. Oh well, there's no point in pondering about it now," said Zell. "Just to be safe, I suggest you guys to be more cautious. I know I'm not supposed to fret about it—we're all level nineties fighters equipped with the best weapons—it'd take more than an Omega Weapon to beat us and all, but I just have a bad feeling about this. Just be careful."
It was unusual of Zell to feel endangered by something that he himself was not sure of. Nonetheless, now that Zell had warned them, Seifer and Quistis could not help but became more alert, especially after seeing the dead body of a Rawdon Cecile—holes all over his body, the contents of his stomach sprawled, and both arms gone.
Zell had Cerberus, Bahamut, and Eden junctioned onto him, and his Ergheiz—the latest, and, so far, the best gloves—allowed him to use his ultimate Duel skill My Final Heaven; Quistis had Carbuncle, Siren, Alexander, and Ventura junctioned onto her—Ventura was a six-pair-winged, man-like, non-elemental GF she encountered in the Deep-Sea Research Facility during Time Compression, and her Blue Magic Shockwave Pulsar itself could mass-destruct the entire lifeforms inside Training Center in one blow; and Seifer had Leviathan, Tiamat, and Krysta junctioned onto him, and had had his Gunblade remodeled into its latest version, Providion, which allowed him to use the Holy-based Limit Break Heaven Judgment—if not for his rebellious nature, he would have been a SeeD member since a long time ago. Obviously, all these parameters showed but how extremely difficult it seemed to even lay a scratch on any of them.
"Well, I had a strange dream last night—it's sweet and scary at once—it's vivid," said Zell, taking advantage of the momentary respite, while Quistis was already headed over the way out. "I can't remember the face, but I was facing a guy who'd killed everyone in his sight but me."
"Did you win?" asked Seifer, taking the first step to leave the Training Center, for, obviously, he saw no more reason for them to stay inside it.
"Well, you disrupted my dream," said Zell, unwilling to admit what happened next. "I only remember I was scared."
"It's not like you to get scared. It's just a dream though. Now let's take you to the Infirmary—you're looking even worse."
Infirmary was the last place Seifer personally wanted to visit; however, this time, it was for Zell's sake. He disliked the smell of Ether that Dr. Kadowaki always used, and he always felt that being nursed made him look helpless and weak—and he disliked that imagery, of course. Seifer was one of very few people who distinctively split things into what he liked and what he disliked, and he would do almost anything to get rid of things he hated, or avoid them if nothing else worked while take very good care of things he liked—he was very seldom apathetic. For this nature had he suffered.
"The medicine should cure the fever, but if you don't start watching your eating habit and take a sufficient amount of rest everyday, you'll be sick again soon enough," said Dr. Kadowaki. "Seifer, would you help me remind him to do so—you may use force if necessary."
"Sure," said Seifer, smirking at Zell. "You hear that, Zell? Say hello to Mr. Salad, Mrs. Soup, Mrs. Rice, and bye to wretched hot dogs."
"Oh, come on!" grumbled Zell, elbowing Seifer irritatedly.
"Okay, you may go now."
They left the Infirmary and went to the Dormitory
"It's already eight-forty. Why don't you go straightaway to the classroom? I'll go get your stuff."
"I'm feeling ungainly of my body." It was then that Zell started to convulse. His head was dizzy, and he felt slightly nauseous. He almost fell down if Seifer were not there to catch him.
"What did Dr. Kadowaki put in your medicine? Whatever it was, I'll bring you back to the Infirmary. I'll inform the faculty that you're sick."
Seifer carried Zell to the Infirmary while other cadets round watched the scene in awe—no matter how much they had seen Seifer and Zell together, it never ceased to amaze them to see a pair that were always over each other's throat became the best of friends today, not to mention rumors about them being a gay couple had been hot around the Garden—a cadet with initials MP had asked on the message board if they were a gay couple, and Xu replied, stating vehemently that they were only friends, and told the cadet to mind his own business. Seifer could not care any less.
"He suddenly collapsed. What did you give him?" asked Seifer.
"It was just an aspirin. Did he eat anything unusual?" asked Dr. Kadowaki.
"No, he ate one hot dog and drank orange juice," mused Seifer. "Maybe it's the terrifying sight he had just seen—a pillaged body of a dead cadet inside Training Center."
"Probably. His temperature is very high. Put him in the bed there. I'll give him a stronger antipyretic drug and see if he gets better," said Dr. Kadowaki, motioning Seifer to put Zell in one of the beds.
"I'll inform the faculty that he's sick now. Please take care of Zell," said Seifer, done moving Zell. "I'll check on him again after class."
Seifer was on his way to the elevator when he saw Squall amble about on the front of Quad, looking like trying to find something.
"What are you looking for?" asked Seifer.
Squall was hesitant to answer. "Rinoa's earring."
"What?" Seifer looked at Squall and laughed. "Might as well hire SeeDs to form a search squad—what do you think?"
"Mind your own business, Seifer," said Squall, knowing this would happen.
"Right, I have something to tell you: Zell's sick and is resting in Infirmary."
"How serious?" asked Squall, still scanning his surrounding.
"He collapsed—he insisted to teach but collapsed on the way to the classroom," said Seifer, somehow followed Squall scanning his surrounding.
"I don't think there's a free instructor to substitute Zell. Would you go and inform the students that the class is suspended?"
"Wait—if it won't give you a heart attack, I could substitute Zell," said Seifer, aware that he himself was beating around the bush. "I know the materials well."
Squall paused and looked at Seifer, not sure what to expect. "But can you teach?"
"I can lie very well... and I'm used to improvising," answered Seifer, eyes fixed upon Squall's looks.
Squall cast about; then judged best simply to let Seifer attempt. "I've seen that. Well, it's almost nine—if you want to get on with it, go to the classroom immediately. I'll inform the faculty later," said Squall, now his attention returned to his surrounding.
"Alright," said Seifer. "And... thank you."
With that, Seifer left Squall to his classroom on the second story.
"Be seated," said Seifer, seeing that all of the students had gathered. He could hear many of the students inform other students what they saw in front of the Infirmary, and they knew that their instructor was sick—some of them did not hesitate to shout the shout of joy. "Due to sickness, our Instructor Zell cannot attend the class and is resting in Infirmary; and therefore, Commander Squall has appointed me to substitute him for the time being, to teach you."
"Aw, shucks!" one of the students exclaimed. Others followed suit.
"Be quiet, if you please!" hollered Seifer in a loud but dignified voice.
They were immediately silent. They had Seifer's image as a blood-thirsty villain or some sort embossed on their minds. As much as they hated to admit, they knew very well Seifer alone could take the entire students in the classroom combined together down.
One of the students dared to raise his hand.
"You may speak," said Seifer to aforementioned student.
"Out of curiosity, knowing well we hate you, why did you agree to teach us in the first place?" asked him in his small voice.
"You're very direct," said Seifer, smiling. He found this kind of person, the kind that could speak his mind freely admirable. "The answer to your question would necessitate me to tell you a bit about my past first—it would be long. Are you still interested to find out?"
The student looked to his seatmate on his left, then to the classmates on the right.
"Fine by me," said his seatmate.
"Sounds interesting, why don't we give it a try?" spoken another student.
"Then it's settled—we wanna hear your story."
"Very well," said Seifer, his mind rushed to form a Seifer from years back. "Together with my orphanage gang members: Commander Squall, Instructor Zell, Instructor Quistis, Irvine, and Selphie, we were raised in one of what had become nothing but dull isles, in Centra continent, by a person we called Matron, whom you probably know today as Sorceress Edea. I used to dream of conquering the world and all I wanted was power, until one day Matron read us a story about Sorceresses and their knights—she pictured knights as brave men who devoted all of their lives to protect the Sorceresses, the Hyne's Descendants. Thus I realized how shallow my dream was, or should I say inferior, cheap even, compared to what the Sorceress' knights had done. The existences of the knights remained still in the Sorceresses' hearts, shared the same plight of being despised by all human beings. One has to choose his dream, and I chose to become a Sorceress' knight."
At this point, Blake had started imagining of having a knight, only to be surprised at the fact he would hear soon enough.
"At the age of eighteen, I had started to lose my confidence as staying in this Garden did not at all help me in finding any Sorceresses. It was until I ran into Sorceress Edea, whom I didn't know was actually our Matron. She offered me a chance to fulfill my dream—she offered me to become her knight. I knew from the beginning what kind of path I would end up walking across, how evil she was, possessed by Sorceress Ultimecia. And afterwards, as you know, I helped her realize her plans by taking over Galbadia Garden, destroying Trabia Garden, and initiated a direct war against this Garden. How many lives I sacrificed to fulfill my dream—it costs a lot to fulfill your dream, and one can't be stingy with these things. To create something, someone must be willing to sacrifice. And the bigger the scale, the amount of sacrifice will be proportionally comparable. Zell once retorted with 'but, it doesn't mean that you should sacrifice yourself, does it?' And I told him that it was my own decision, that the Sorceress' plans would come true regardless of my existence, that it had always been my dream to become one, that if I didn't stand out as her knight, everyone involved in the plan would be an object for the society to blame and despise, and also that he needn't feel sorry for me."
"Well, I don't encourage you to commit such things. Back to the story; after Time Compression, I decided to settle in Winhill, knowing well I had fulfilled my dream and wanted to live a quiet life killing monsters and just waited for the ball to come. One day, I met Zell again. Once again we conversed about that topic, and he told me that if he were I, he would try to find a way so that everyone would stay alive and not become an object for the society to blame... and that he wanted to prove his words. And he did. He convinced Commander Squall to bring the entire Garden to Winhill under the guise of letting students gain more knowledge in foreign monsters, which actually was a plan to show you all how nonthreatening I had become," said Seifer, chuckling.
The same student raised his hand again, but did not bother to wait for Seifer's permission before asking, "So you're a gay couple?"
"Well, you don't normally pull a conservative straight like me and he turns out to be a queer. But we did have a history of getting to know each other, although as much as I hate being referred to as a homosexual man—I'm normally not attracted to same sex—Zell is an exception, and as much as I hate being referred to as one, I haven't found a better term to define it—you may tell me if you have. So, yes, we're a gay couple," said Seifer, laughing.
"That's so cool!" exclaimed the student.
Seifer continued laughing for a bit before he regained his composure and continued his story.
"Back to the story; he convinced the faculty to let me get back in as a student. And so I thought, the least thing I could do for Zell was to be by his side, to take care of him, and by not being the badass that I was. Along the way, I found myself interested at teaching. I have to admit I've many times imagined how romantic it'd be to teach with Zell, and we'd be known as 'Zell and Seifer', the hot instructor couple or some sort. I am here to prove that I can teach, to you and to myself, and I do hope that you will cooperate. So, as I said, it costs a lot to fulfill your dream, and one can't be stingy with these things."
Everyone in the classroom applauded Seifer and had a big grin in the face. Everyone but Blake. It never occurred to Blake that someone he had always wanted to kill had always been right in front of him, in the same classroom, in the same Garden. He had an enormous urge to kill Seifer right away, but thrift put paid to that idea. He knew very well he would not survive a head-to-head fight against Seifer without using his sorcery power, which he obviously did not want others to know about.
"So, on to the subject," spoke Seifer, opening Zell's Kyle Marx's Guide to Magic Drawing – For Teachers book.
The rest of the class went smooth and Seifer proved to be a decent teacher. He headed off to Infirmary straightaway after the class, prepared to tell Zell what he just experienced.
He saw Zell sit on a chair, talking to Dr. Kadowaki who was busy checking her patient records, reeking of Ether.
"I've heard from Squall you're substituting me teaching. From your look, it went well?" asked Zell, jumping off his seat.
Seifer answered the question with a sneer. "You seem to be well."
"You could get a hot dog with that sneer. Yeah, doc said it was food poisoning—something in the hot dog was expired. Once she found out the problem, she gave me another prescription, and the medicine worked well."
"Are you hungry? I'm a little hungry myself. What do you say we have a wander out in Balamb town in a bit and get some hot food and a few cold drinks?" asked Seifer.
"It's hard to beat that," said Zell enthusiastically.
"Come along then," said Seifer. "Oh, by the way, I've somehow told everyone in the class that we're a gay couple. I hope you don't—"
"I don't mind," Zell looked at Seifer and smiled amicably. "You're a show-off to begin with, after all."
"Whatever, shortarse," Seifer chuckled. "Now, why don't you get your ass up and walk already!"
"You forgot the magic word," said Zell, grinning at Seifer, his eyes aglow with love.
Seifer offered his hand and murmured the magic word, "Please."
They were not aware there sat an awestruck doctor, unable to come in terms with what she saw and heard, nose pinched and lips pursed.