This one's longer than the last. I had this though quite a while back about Quezacotl in Aztec culture, and it led to an idea that spawned this chapter. It's basically comparison again, but on a different level. Next I'll be moving on to more of his psychology behind everything that's happened, and that. This time, he's comparing himself to GF; I left out a few, since I couldn't think up much in the way of history behind what they're based on.

Hooray, I got to see the end of Kingdom Hospital!

Part Two: Gods

Seifer flipped ahead a few pages, looking at the pictures in the book with slight revelation. It had been given to him by a new acquaintance from athwart the sea, whom sat across the café table from him, sipping coffee in the shade of the building. Every page had captured a moment in time – an impression – of a Guardian Force in various mediums.

Every photo, painting, sketch had immortalized a being; captured it forevermore as a thought put on a piece of paper to be remembered.

Seifer looked thoughtfully at the blue-sky overhead and thought to himself briefly.

Will I be remembered?

He looked at the young woman and she smiled as if she'd been reading his thoughts. She pointed down at the page he'd stopped on – an oil painting of Quezacotl soaring through the clouds framed in lightning. There was no sign of outward emotion, but Seifer knew the creature in the painting was happy.

"Where I'm from, a lot of the GF were seen as Gods in ancient cultures. Quezacoatl, for instance. Supposedly, he was once a human ruler of an empire, and when his people sacrificed him, he became a God in the form of a snakebird. And, like a constellation too, or something, but don't quote me on that." She laughed.

"He was human?" he asked, having never been much for ancient mythology, but the thought of a GF having ever spawned from a human struck him as being quite an odd idea.

"Yeah, I think the story went that he was a good ruler, but the people turned against him because he'd something wrong… In the end, he knew he had messed up, and I suppose he felt it was the right thing to let himself die to make it up to them."

Seifer didn't fancy himself as ever having been a good anything, except for a pain in the ass. In a way, he had been a good friend to Fujin and Raijin… up until he became a Sorceress' Knight. He had let them down at that point, causing them to leave his side because he'd changed for the worse. In the end, they came back; but first he had to admit defeat. In some way, it seemed almost like he had sacrificed his pride for the sake of himself, and his friends…

"Really?" he said, leaning forward onto the table. "Anyone else?"

"Well, Odin. In mythology, Odin was the leader of all the Gods, and I read somewhere that he was constantly afraid of an overthrow happening, because he knew that one day someone would destroy him, and take his place as a God. I don't know if anyone ever did, though."

"I did," he said with a smirk, despite how painful the memory was now. "I sliced him in half during a battle with an old… friend. Then Gilgamesh showed up. Anything on him?"

"Gilgamesh? I remember one of my old Instructors teaching about him – it was in an epic, the, uh, 'Epic of Gilgamesh'. I still have those notes somewhere… He was a human that went on a quest for Immortality. But not just for himself, for the Elders of his village, too. And… Um… This God, Ea, had it out for him or something. He lost his best friend, some dude named Utnapishtm built an ark for when the world flooded, and then he finally found the Immortality flower – just to have it snatched away by one of Ea's snakes. So he gave up, because he knew that the Gods weren't gonna let him fulfill his quest."

Seifer had gone on a quest of his own, to carry out his Romantic Dream, which he wanted his two best friends involved in with him, but he had lost them only a little while into his career, and when Squall defeated all of the Sorceresses he had no way of continuing on the path. Squall obviously was doing just about everything in his power (although, in a more indirect sense) to keep him from doing it. In a way, Squall was almost a God himself. He sure as hell had a large enough fan-base…

He flipped another page and she nearly spit her mouthful of coffee out in excitement.

"Ooh! Shiva! That's a good one!"

Shiva was Squall's GF, a being that seemed like she'd been hidden in an iceberg like Serendipity.

In the sketch, she was floating casually, a faint smile on her lips.

"Shiva is actually always portrayed as a man in my corner of the world. And as a man, she's the God of Creation and Destruction, and has an extra set of arms. When her masculine self dances, he is called the Nataraja, which I think means 'Lord of Dance'. When he dances, worlds are formed and shattered… That was in a movie once – some creepy guy made a statue of him dance."

Seifer himself had both created and destroyed. People, places, things – you name it. But he also had the Sorceresses giving him targets; making him waltz.

Casting that aside, he sniggered to himself about the fact that Squall's main GF could actually be a guy.

"Um… Let's see… Siren! Sirens were usually portrayed a mermaids, or woman-like creatures that would sing to lure sailors close to the rocks, to crash their ships."

That sounded a lot like the Sorceresses to Seifer. They had promised him everything, and by letting himself be used, he ended up stranded and alone in the middle of ruin.

"Hm… The last one I know anything significant about is Minotaur. I remember a story about how some dude was thrown into a labyrinth and the only way out was to defeat the monster, Minotaur, but no one believed he could do it, but he proved them wrong."

The blond boy stared at the passing clouds in the sky. He had been trapped in his own metaphorical labyrinth, a labyrinth built of his nearly unachievable dream, and his pride. Very few had ever seen the self that was hidden inside of that maze; they had only ever beheld the outer Seifer, the "power-hungry" Seifer. Even his friends, had never seen full extent of what lay inside his soul, the beauty that was hidden underneath the rough exterior.

Although he admitted to himself that he sometimes wanted to rip the outer walls down, and let the inner recesses shine through for the world to glimpse, he knew it would never be that easy. Even if he could, the world would never believe what was right in front of them all along.

Maybe, if one time in his life he could show that hidden design to someone, he would feel better. And maybe, just maybe, that person would secretly hold it dear to their heart, knowing that this wannabe tyrant was truly just a misunderstood human deep down.

End of chapter two, already? Well, hope you enjoyed, leave a review and let me know!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go eat some cookies.

Oh, and if anything in the myths is out of order, let me know – a lot of them I studied years ago, and don't remember too well now. I should re-read them – I'm reading Beowulf again at the moment, and looking for the German work with 'The Slaying of Siegfried' in it. It was like… The Nibligund or something…