A Promising Young SeeD

Chapter 5

Ceremony


"In the flesh. Miss me?"

Seifer stepped back slightly so that Quistis wasn't pinned so uncomfortably against the wall. She could finally breathe normally again, but he had also made sure to block any possible escape from the small closet.

"I—"

She wasn't entirely sure how to answer that question, or if it was even serious. Missing Seifer was like missing an extremely itchy rash. Infuriating, but also strangely pleasurable to scratch.

"When I realized there was a honey-pot messing with my organization, I never once thought it would be little Miss Perfect."

"Honey-pot?" Quistis was having trouble processing everything that was happening. She was only just taking in his appearance.

She tried to think of the last time she'd seen him. Who was she kidding, she knew exactly the last time she had seen him. He had been released from D-district after the trial, then fully pardoned a little while later. A little over two years ago. She was there when he had been let out. Hell, she had helped get him out. Along with Rinoa, and surprisingly, Squall. But Quistis had been too scared to say anything to him. Seifer had seen her, though. He had grabbed her hand and squeezed it.

There was a moment. A look. And that was that.

He had basically fallen off the face of the planet after that. No one knew anything. Banished to obscurity. Part of her thought that maybe that was what he wanted. He had enough notoriety for a lifetime. And yet, here he was, seemingly part of a huge drug dealing organization in Esthar. One of the biggest diamond dealers in the business.

He looked more tired than she was used to seeing, but just as intimidating. Just as handsome. His hair was longer, brushing his shoulders and in his eyes. The color had darkened with age, more of a dirty blonde now than the platinum locks of his youth. He had a purposeful stubble on his face as well, the look of someone who accidentally-on-purpose forgot to shave which just added to the allure. He was dressed well, in an expensive button-down shirt and slacks with a brown leather jacket on top. The sleeves were pulled up, forearms exposed in a strangely attractive manner. Strong and sturdy forearms. There was a hint of a tattoo on his left inner arm, that was certainly new. She couldn't make out what it was, hampered by the poor lighting and his jacket sleeve.

He slammed one of his hands on the wall next to her face, the quickness and force of it making her hair flutter, a whoosh of air in her ear. She sucked in a surprised gasp, not wanting to let him see any fear. Bracing himself against the wall, he had boxed her in, and brought his body close to hers again. In his other hand he was holding something in front of her face. She recognized it instantly.

"Cute little tracker, I have to say. Well designed and made. Clearly not Garden issue, though. Homemade. Very interesting…"

"Zell made it." Quistis wasn't sure why she was offering up this information to him, but it felt right in the moment. Especially since Seifer had always unfairly dismissed Zell.

His eyes gleamed, not in mockery, but interest. "Chicken-wuss? No kidding. Gotta tell you, when Rai recognized you… well, you almost could have had the jump on him, not that you would have succeeded, of course. Sorry about knocking you out. Imagine you have quite the headache right now."

He hardly sounded contrite for someone allegedly apologizing.

"But—"

"Why did I let you track us? Once we saw you, seemed the easiest way to figure out why you, and I guess Chicken-wuss, were snooping around. You wanted to find Siegfried, well…"

He finally stepped back, pushing himself off the wall, and gestured to himself, in all his imposing bravado.

"Here I am. Rai wasn't lying. Whatever you're doing, you're in way over your head."

"You're Siegfried? But Raijin… he was the one in Phantasmagoria. The one in the apartment…"

Seifer smirked. "Am I Siegfried? Yes and no. You really think I let some pedestrian loser know what I look like? None of those dealers you've been playing around with know what I look like. They only know Rai. Only people who are important know who I am. Consider yourself lucky I bothered to take this meeting here."

She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms in front of herself, hoping to keep the distance between them. Some meeting. He had dragged her in a closet where their witnesses were a bucket and a mop.

But, what he said made perfect sense. Seifer was the one pulling the strings, but he let Raijin do the dirty work. So typical. Then again, if an enforcer was needed, Raijin was a hell of an enforcer. Siegfried wasn't a person, it was a group. A collective. A posse.

"So, you want to tell me why you've been seducing low level dealers in Phantasmagoria? We've been tracking you for a while, but your actions make no sense…"

Quistis tilted her chin up defiantly, squeezing her arms tighter around herself, keeping her mouth shut.

"Or are you that desperate for ass? The slime balls you are slumming it with… good god, Instructor. I would have thought you had taste. You aren't doing it for the diamonds, so I'm not sure why else you are messing with those idiots. If that's all it was, I could have easily helped you out." His gaze on her turned down right predatory.

She glared at him. Channeling all of her instructorly intimidation she could muster. There was no way he believed she was sleeping with those guys. He was just trying to get her riled up. And, annoyingly, it worked. Seifer knew her better than anyone else.

The memories of the orphanage, of her early time at Garden, of, well, life, had made that abundantly clear. Especially as they all came crashing back with the infusions at Garden. She wondered if he had the memories as well. He had never used GFs as much as the others. He hadn't needed to.

Seifer had always been there. Always a thorn in her side. Always an itch. Minus the single year she spent with the Trepes. Always antagonizing her. In a way that only a young boy with a crush will do to a girl. But it never stopped as they got older. The pleasure he got out of making her uncomfortable was infuriating. Infuriating, and… They had both always blurred the lines between anger and desire. There had always been this thing between them.

Seifer snorted, seemingly clueless to her inner turmoil. "Whatever. Look, just stay the hell out of my way, okay? You have no idea about the people you are messing with. If I was someone else, you'd be dead. A long time ago. Whatever game you're playing stops here."

She stomped her foot on the ground. "It's not a game! This isn't a game! We were… We—" Quistis shook her head, unwilling to cry in front of Seifer. He would just see it as weakness, after all. And the last thing she wanted was for him to belittle her further. She already felt like a complete idiot trapped in this closet with him. He had all but told her that she had made very little progress, and there was going to be no chance of getting beyond Seifer. Their plan was essentially ruined. Months of wasted time. Yet again. Back to square one.

His gaze softened as he studied her, thinking carefully. "You're not with Garden, are you? You guys are alone."

A statement. An accusation. Seifer was always quick on the uptake.

She shook her head, confirming what he already knew.

"Why are you here in the hospital?" she finally asked. Her turn for information.

Seifer shrugged, turning his head to the side, an unreadable expression on his face. With that question, it was as if all the intimidation and domination-games he had been playing with her deflated out of him at once. "I'm sure your little snooping chicken will figure it out."

He took a deep breath through his nostrils and then sighed deeply. He was clearly contemplating something, though she wasn't sure what was going on. Were they enemies? Were they on the same side? Seifer didn't seem like the type of person who would just become a drug dealer on a whim. And he clearly had gone out of his way to protect her after knocking her out. Made sure she was safe. He also kept his dealers in check. Which, from a dealer standpoint made sense for business. You don't want dealers being users... bad for income. So were the police.

But was there more to it? Despite Seifer's actions in the war, and his overall impulsiveness, he had always had a tendency and desire for chivalry. For honor. As distorted as that honor may look to an outside observer.

"Give me your address," he finally said.

"Huh?"

"I hate repeating myself, Instructor, you should know that. We can chat. At your place." He fished his phone out of his pocket, apparently hoping she would offer up contact information.

When she did nothing, he darted his hand forward and yanked her towards him by her waist, practically peeling her body off the wall. She let him, most of the fight worn out of her, and frankly, she really didn't think he was going to harm her. He was close enough now that she could feel his chest moving with his breathing. His eyes met hers, his look indiscernible.

His hand, warm against her, moved from her waist to her hip, trailing his fingers down to her thigh until he found the side-pocket of her leggings, where her phone was. Without taking his eyes off hers, he slipped the phone out of the pocket and fiddled with it with one hand, while gently pushing her hair behind her ears with his other in a surprisingly intimate manner. Holding up her phone between their faces, he turned it towards her so it could scan her biometrics. She found herself reaching up and typing in her password without even thinking.

The whole exchange was making her heart beat, vestiges of emotions and memories coursing through her mind.

Seifer arched an eyebrow at how flustered she was and then tapped their phones together. "There, I should be able to figure it out from there."

He put her phone back in her pocket with a slight smirk, keeping his hand on his thigh a little longer than necessary.

That snapped her back into reality.

"Hey, wait a second! You're going to come to my place to chat? I'm supposed to believe that?" Quistis was skeptical.

"You'll just have to trust me, now won't you."

He grinned again and before she could respond, Seifer had pressed his body against hers again, pinning her against the wall once more. "Remember the last time we were in a closet together?"

The words were whispered in her ear and the hot breath made her angry yet intrigued at the same time. She could smell the faintest cologne on him. Mixed with something familiar. A memory flooding back.

It was before he ran off to Timber, when he was breaking out of Garden. He had broken out of the disciplinary room and when she tried to stop him, he had dragged them both into a closet. He'd confessed to her that he knew this was the end for Garden for him, but he felt responsible for what was happening in Timber. He'd even apologized for what had happened on the ill-fated field exam. He was saying good-bye. For what he thought was for good.

"You've always been my favorite, Quistis. I've always-" He never finished the thought.

Then he had kissed her. He'd kissed her good-bye. Because he truly thought he would either be dead, in jail, or… She doubted he ever thought they would be on opposite sides of a war. The great injustice of mercenaries.

The kiss had been short, but intense, and at the time had left Quistis dizzy. She had barely recovered from it when she realized the asshole had locked her in the closet at Garden.

The sardonic arrogant smirk was immediate on his face when he realized she did indeed remember. "Thought so. Not even GFs could take that away."

His voice rumbled low in his chest and his face was close to hers. For a moment, she thought… But instead he pulled away.

"This new look you wear in Phantasmagoria is hot on you, by the way. Dig the wigs."

He saluted the air before opening the closet door. "Well, see ya! Or…maybe not. You'll just have to wait."

The door shut with a click. She went to open it, and—

"Dammit, Seifer!"

The asshole had locked her in. Again. So she couldn't follow him and Raijin to wherever they were going.

Damn that man. He always had a way of putting her off her otherwise best concentration. Her best work. Seifer was a terrifying enemy to have for many reasons, the least of which was his sheer physical power and military strength. No. He was smart. Smarter than he let on. A natural leader in that he would be the first in the fray. Capable. Fearless. But most of all, he read people's weaknesses right away and knew how to exploit them. But like every human, even Seifer had weaknesses, the greatest being his impulsiveness, and strangely, his romantic idealism.

A terrifying enemy, but that meant he was an even better ally, and the few times they had worked together before the war had proven that. Maybe they could work together once again. If that's what he was offering.

Secretly, she hoped so.

She looked at her phone and realized quickly she had no reception. Great, just great.

Flipping the mop bucket over, she sat down and waited. Zell would be there eventually. There was no point making a huge scene or trying to find something to break out of the closet. Her head was still swimming from her concussion and the entire exchange that had just happened.

At least this gave her time to think.

After about fifteen minutes, the door opened and Zell appeared, phone in hand. "Quistis?"

"Yeah, I'm here," she grumbled, standing up.

He motioned for her to exit the closet, an amused smile on his face. "Got a text from an anonymous number that I would find you in this exact closet. Care to explain?"

"Dammit, that asshole did something to my phone too! He must have somehow stolen my contacts." Quistis fought against herself to throw her phone against a wall and destroy it.

Zell looked skeptical. "Let me guess. Seifer's here too? I didn't see him, but once I realized Siegfried was Raijin…that jackass… there is no way he has the tech knowledge to pull something like that off. To do it quickly requires some pretty high-level coding ability."

Quistis shrugged, heading towards the stairwell so they could exit the hospital and she could get some much-needed sleep. "Well, how else do you explain him having your number? We'll know soon enough. Trust me."

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

A few hours later, refreshed, they finally were ready to debrief.

"So Seifer is behind it all, huh?"

Zell was fiddling with Quistis' phone, trying to figure out what Seifer had done to it to steal her contact information.

Quistis shook her head, unconvinced. "I'm not sure. I mean, he's definitely in charge. But are we really supposed to believe he's living his life as a criminal mastermind? I just… I don't think he would do that. He's not someone who'd set out to ruin lives just for the hell of it. Don't you think?"

Zell looked up from the phone and frowned. "The guys a jerk. Deranged sadist, though? Probably not You wouldn't have helped him get out of jail if he wasn't."

Quistis bristled. "You knew?"

He shrugged, connecting a cord from her phone to one of his laptops. "No judgement on my part. You guys always had a weird history. And, if I'm being honest, it was even weirder when memories came back. You guys were at the orphanage so much longer than me and all…"

Zell trailed off. It had been strange for all of them to suddenly remember things from childhood again. And embarrassing. Maybe that was why she had helped Seifer. Because she remembered him as a boy with a dream of being a knight. An insecure little boy who covered up his insecurities with bravado and bullying. Who was the perfect victim for Ultimecia, in the assumed form of Edea. His de facto mother. The only mother he had ever known.

"There it is!"

"There what is?"

"Tricky little bastard. He somehow installed something in your phone by just tapping them together. Whatever tech person he has is really good. Better than me."

"Come on, no one is better than the boy with the ruby dragon tattoo," Quistis patted him affectionately on the back.

Zell rolled his eyes. "Stop calling me that. It sounds ridiculous."

She sat down next to him to look at her phone. She didn't see any apps on there or anything that Zell was talking about. Looking at his screen, there was just a bunch of letters and numbers scrolling around.

"There. I think I got it out, but I wouldn't be surprised if he had a way of listening to us through your phone when it was on there. And tracking you. Damn. This thing is awesome. I wonder if I could design one—" Zell absently handed Quistis back her phone and started to type frantically on his laptop, apparently trying to recreate the app.

"You think maybe Fujin is their hacker? She was always really smart with technology," Quistis called out to him as she went to the kitchen to fetch a cup of coffee. Taking her mug down she dropped a sugar cube in the bottom before pouring it.

"Maybe… Shit!" Zell sounded panicked.

She ran back into the room, coffee cup forgotten.

"The code self-destructed. Seriously. Whoever Seifer has is gooooood."

Quistis put a hand to her chest to stop the palpitations. "Shiva, Zell, you scared the crap out of me."

He looked sheepish. "Sorry…"

"I wonder why Raijin and Seifer were hanging out in a hospital. I doubt they work there." Quistis went back to the kitchen to retrieve her coffee cup, not that her pounding heart needed the caffeine.

"Well, why would anyone be in a hospital?" Zell asked rhetorically, his fingers clicking loudly on his keyboard.

Quistis took a sip of coffee and let out a deep sigh. "Because they are sick, duh."

"Or?" Zell prompted.

"Or because, they are visiting someone. Zell, can you—"

"Three steps ahead, baby doll. Already hacked into the hospital's patient list."

Quistis sat at their small table, watching Zell's eyes scan through whatever he was reading. She tried to be patient, but it didn't come naturally to her when waiting for things on a computer with nothing to do.

"Well, I don't think Fujin is Seifer's hacker," he finally said quietly.

"What? Why?"

"She's a patient in Esthar General."

"But, she still could—"

"She's been there almost two years," he added, his voice somber.

"Two years? Are you sure?" So Fujin had been in the hospital since a little after the time Seifer had been released? He got out, just to lose one of his best friends? What had happened?

Two years was a hell of a long time to be in a hospital. The only reason to be in there that long could be—

"Long term care unit. She's comatose."


beta: colobonema