Disclaimer: Don't own FF8
Also, had to up the rating to M. The beginning of the chapter has some semi graphic depictions of violence and allusions towards it, so... yeah. M for violence, language and "innuendo"
Part IV:
Mia was crouched next to him, "This is the man who was associated with the alias on the donor ledger for Herzog..." she murmured, pulling her hair up and adjusting the pin that held it in place.
Squall looked at her, "are you sure?"
Mia narrowed her eyes, "of course I'm sure. Who do you think you're talking to."
Squall rolled his eyes, "Whatever. So how are we-"
Before the sentence was finished, Mia had pulled on her gloves and quietly broke the lock on the window, opening it and slinking through. "Dammit," Squall murmured, peeking in after her, but opting to stay out of the building, just in case. There was a man, who was alone in the room, watching TV, from the information they gathered, he should be alone for quite some time.
Mia crept behind him soundlessly and within a second, her hair was tumbling from her head and the pin was against the man's neck, "Don't look back, don't even move. Tell me who Brutus is and I won't kill you." Brutus. A code name listed in almost all of the information they had pulled together. Obviously the person was important, but the identification was a complete mystery.
"Brutus...? I...don't," the man squirmed slightly. With his movement, Mia wrapped her arm around his neck, moved the pin swiftly and stabbed it in the side of his chest before putting it to his neck once more. The wound on his side didn't bleed, but he began to gasp for air. "Wha..." he was wheezing, "you... bitch.."
"There is a hole in your lung," Mia said calmly, pressing the pin closer to his airway, "You need a chest tube or it will collapse. Tell me what I want to know or I'll stab the other one and enjoy watching you struggle for air."
The man coughed, blood tinging his sputum, "Are you... seri...serious.. seriously asking me... what you already..know?" he managed out, groaning in pain. This was obviously not the answer Mia liked and she flipped the pin from her hand, aiming it towards the man's left side.
"WAIT!"
She paused, "You have 3 seconds, Three.."
"In Deling!" He wheezed, his coughing becoming more violent.
"Where? Two..."
"Brutus..Deling.. will be there."
"When? One..."
"I don't.. I don't know, please"
"Wrong answer."
She must have assumed he was at least partially telling the truth, because she quickly let go of him, much to his surprise, only to roughly knock him out with the butt of her gun. Mia crouched down, pulling a small medical kit from her satchel and she gently placed a small piece of gauze over the small hole in his side, creating a seal to prevent further damage to the man's lung, "There... should last you until the hospital," she murmured, glancing back at the window and nodding towards the place she knew Squall was watching from in the darkness.
Squall let out a breath he had been holding. She was way too reckless, but at least they had gotten some information. He remembered her being fearless, especially when it became to putting herself in danger, but this was just suicidal. They had no idea what to expect within the walls of the building she had entered. At the very least, she had something: Deling. Whoever Brutus was, they would find him in Deling. They were all planning a trip for Caraway's celebration marking his 30th year as General of Galbadia in a month. Squall supposed it was possible the alleged kidnappers would be counting on Rinoa being there. Deling would be a good place to take her, it did not have the protection Garden did, even with Caraway at the helm. He was about to push in through the window when he heard a crash, opting instead to duck down quickly.
"WHAT THE HELL?" Another voice. Shit. The guy was supposed to be alone, then again, he had thought Mia's careless attitude towards the break in was a terrible idea for this exact reason.
"You? YOU? Herzog's little whore?" Squall crept his body up to peer through the window to get a view of the person who had burst into the room, catching Mia. The man had a gun to Mia's head, "You must be pretty good if Herzog gave you any of our names," he pulled the gun back and grabbed Mia, slamming her against the wall. "I've always wondered what all the fuss was about with you. Maybe if you're good I might just let you go."
Mia met him with an icy stare. She was used to men begging her, that certainly was not going to change now, even if her life was at stake.
The man smirked and pushed his body against hers, inhaling deeply near her hair, "What? I'm sure you'll like it, no need to be so quiet," He pulled back roughly and slammed his fist to her face, "But don't scream or I'll put on my brass knuckles next time I do that."
Squall pulled himself through the window quietly and drew his gunblade. All of them faced this in training, learned to tolerate a certain level of pain and violence, and he was sure that female SeeD had a whole other thing to worry about. Whether you were trained for it or not, he couldn't just sit there and watch a comrade get assaulted.
The man's grip on Mia's neck tightened as his other hand began to pull at her clothes, "So, tell me who else knows you're here, sugar."
Mia stared at him, continuing to meet his gaze and refusing to back down meeting him with complete silence. It was not the reaction he was looking for. His grip tightened, and the hand that was undressing her quickly balled into a fist and punched her in the stomach. Mia gasped as the air was drawn out of her but recovered quickly, shutting her mouth and shaking her head before gasping out, "Just... get yourself off...already, sugar."
The man opened his mouth again but he never finished his threat as Lionhart pierced through his back, cleaning slicing his spine. Mia collapsed to the ground, gripping her throat, coughing painfully, "th..thank you," she looked up at Squall and seemed genuinely in awe that he would save her life, as if that was the last thing she figured he would do.
Squall briefly pondered if that was the first time in her life she had ever said 'thank you' in a way other than sarcasm or manipulation. "We need to go." Squall glanced at the door and bent down, "Can you move?"
Mia nodded, "Takes more to kill me than that, just a superficial wound...NO!"
A gun fired and Squall felt a searing pain in the side of his abdomen. He looked down to see a small amount of blood oozing from his side, the majority of it thankfully masked by his leather coat. He turned toward the the the sound of the bullet had come from to see Mia pulling her knife from the attackers neck, the same man whose life she had spared moments before.
Mia rushed over to him, holding her own side gingerly, "We need to get you to a medic. Now." She slipped the knife back into its sheath on her thigh before ripping what was left of her shirt and pressing it against Squall's wound.
"Mia.. we can't. Kadawaki will talk to Cid." Squall cursed mentally. This entire thing had gone horrible wrong and on top of two casualties, he would definitely need a surgeon. That was going to be very hard to keep from Garden.
Mia laughed. She laughed like a child; a child covered in blood, her blood mixed with others as she stood by two dead bodies with steam raising off of them as they cooled, "Well then, Leonhart, I guess we'll see how far you trust me and how much I remember from medic classes."
Earlier that day...
Rinoa knew she shouldn't. Squall would KILL her... but it wasn't like she was breaking into anything personal. Or so she told herself.
Squall had been working on his laptop, on the SeeD database... she wasn't even thinking of it, actually was rather engrossed staring at the slight flexion of his shoulders as he typed without a shirt on. She was merely planning on having her way with him, not him passing out afterwards and leaving the laptop open just BEGGING to be peaked at. After he had fallen asleep the events of the Fall Festival and her and Selphie's conversation afterwards drifted into her head. Selphie's suspicion that Irvine was hiding something, her Dad's cigarette case... the boys had assumed Selphie and Rinoa had not heard that conversation, but they were painfully mistaken.
Rinoa glanced back to where Squall was fast asleep on the couch, naked beneath a blanket with a giant Chocobo on it. He was so cute. She kept stealing glances as she typed the name into the database, praying she didn't get caught, conveniently wearing an oversized "SeeD" shirt of his, like it was a disguise of some sort.
As she began to type the name, it autofilled in and data began to fill the screen. A lot of it. Apparently this girl had a large file. Rinoa blinked, convinced she was hallucinating when she saw the login name on the network 'Cid Kramer'. Squall hacked into the network himself? And apparently was just recently looking at this very same file. Very interesting. Maybe SeeD had different levels of access, though she was shocked to discover Squall didn't have the highest.
Rinoa began to scroll through the words that filled the screen.
Name: "Mia Vendenberg" birth name unknown B 2084/6/17 in Deling City
Mother: Mia Vendenberg, prostitute. B. 2064 D 2089 Cause of death: overdose, suicide. Body found by 5 year old daughter.
Father: unknown
Stat: 69 inches. green eyes, black hair, large tattoo covering back and R arm of a dragon. Tattoo of owl on L hand, Tattoo of old Centran writing on L leg.
Skills: specialist in hand to hand combat, ninjutsu, undercover operations, assassin, speaks Centrian, Galbadian and Estharian
Alias: Dragon Woman, Woman, Sugar, The Dragon
Rinoa paused. Mia used her mother's name... her mother who she found dead of an overdose. She must have changed her name before she even entered Garden, as they seemed to not have records of her being Penny. She was born in Deling, like Rinoa, but was about 10 years older. SeeD sure has a habit of picking up orphans. Born in Deling but grew up in Timber. A lot like Rinoa, actually. She glanced back at Squall, relieved he was still asleep and looked back at the screen.
Affiliations were listed, the number was huge, many politicians, the head of armies, police forces across the globe. She took a sharp intake of breath as she landed on a few names: Delegate Herzog, Laguna Loire... Squall's dad? There was a small note in the entry, 'thought to currently be in relations with' her lover? Laguna was her lover?
Squall had to know this, he after all, was the one who assigned missions. Unless this was something that was only in Cid's file. Maybe Squall just found out himself. Rinoa frowned.
She thought she was shocked to learn about Laguna until she saw the final name: Fury Caraway. It wasn't that her Dad was listed, she was aware from over-hearing conversations as well as from conversations with Mia herself that she had worked with him at one point. It was the caption attached that got her attention: 'client to Caraway from 2097 to 2101'
Four years. She had worked for her father as a SeeD. A SeeD, who her father hated, for FOUR years. Rinoa was a child then. It was shortly after her mother died. She tried to go back into her memory, was the girl there? Four years... what was she doing? On top of that she began the mission when she was still a teenager. It seemed highly unconventional. During the same four year period, other missions were listed as well, so Caraway was certainly not her sole client.
Rinoa frantically began to scroll through the additional data: mission reports, medical reports, incidence reports, her eyes catching alarming details here and there. She didn't know how much time she had before Squall would wake up and her frantic scrolling was leading her to miss important information, she was sure of it.
Successful mission, clean up, 7 casualties. Successful mission but WHOOPS killed seven people. Rinoa snorted. Leave it to Cid to reduce human life to a single sentence.
Report by onlooker, 'girl took a pin out of her hair and stabbed 3 men in the carotid artery in bar, killing them almost instantly and walked away... may have been high'
Failed drug test
Failed drug test
Hospitalization
Incidence Report: Assault on fellow SeeD
Suspension
Successful mission giving vital information on...
Successful assassination of Highest Priest.
Successful mission as personal guard of President of Esthar
Promotion to head of Trabia
It didn't make any sense. She scrolled back in time, trying to understand the pattern when a hospital report stuck out, before the string of incident reports and suspensions
Hospitalization: Termination of pregnancy. 2098
Fourteen. Age 14. When she was working for Caraway. She felt bile rise up in her throat, eyes with hot tears. She was desperately trying to suppress the urge to vomit when she heard Squall's voice. His words interrupted her marathoning brain just as she threw up in the trash can next to the desk.
"She did not have an affair with Caraway" he said quietly, "I have my suspicions that the whole thing did have some political involvement, but I'm not sure with whom. It was not your Dad though."
Rinoa looked at him from the basin, face pale, eyes wet. He didn't even seen upset that she had been scanning the database behind his back. Instead he looked sad and reached out to stroke her hair back. "I should have told you this, but... it's SeeD and well, it's her privacy. I knew she had worked for Caraway, but I had no idea the extent of it until earlier tonight. I'm sure you-" He rubbed the back of his neck nervously, Laguna-style, "I'm sure you noticed this isn't my login. Guess listening to Selphie talk for 3 hours straight finally paid off."
Selphie Timlitt, master hacker/machine expert. Of course. She wondered if Selphie had subtly planted the idea in Squall's head in the first place, just like she had in Rinoa's, "But..." Rinoa found her voice, "Laguna. My dad." She finally managed to say.
Squall sighed deeply, "I don't know why she was working for Caraway, presumably something with Delegate Herzog. She's been tied to Herzog for years. Honestly, she doesn't talk about it, and the report is very vague. I mean VAGUE, it makes me look like Charles Dickens in my reports. That's all I know," His hand that had been gently petting her hair, trailed down her shoulder to squeeze her gently, "As for Laguna, well, she must need something from him. Protection would be my best guess. She may have a lot of people in her pocket, but she has a lot of enemies. There are a lot of people who would pay for a lot of money to see her dead. I don't even want to think what Laguna get's out of it, well, because I would just rather not think about that."
Squall had a point. Picturing his father with his co-worker. A co-worker that he knew had been around the block more than once? I mean, Squall may still deny it and not speak of him like that, but Laguna WAS his father.
"Maybe they actually like each other," Rinoa felt stupid after she said it.
Squall snorted and leaned over her, scrolling the mouse down the screen until it came upon sets of pictures. Various pictures of Mia. She hadn't changed that much, though she became more and more thin over the years, her eyes tired. Her hair still black, always long. The most recent one was taken in Esthar: she was wearing a dress, an evening gown, she looked classy, dignified, a shawl covering her shoulders. Her hair was pulled back into an elegant bun, she was unrecognizable, far from the tattooed, messy haired girl, who had a propensity for blackmailing public officials and prescription narcotics. Rinoa only knew her from the green eyes, and the pin tucked into her hair. A hair pin that had killed people in a bar 6 weeks before the picture was taken.
Laguna was in the picture as well, Mia's eyes were glued to him and she clearly didn't know her picture was being taken. Laguna was discussing something with Kiros. They both looked... happy. Rinoa observed the picture carefully, glancing back between the two figures,
Rinoa 'O'ed, "She's in love with him." It was the same look in Mia's eyes that Rinoa gave Squall. She would know that look anywhere. Laguna, per usual, appeared oblivious in the picture.
Squall didn't hear Rinoa's comment as he pulled on a pair of pants, buckling his gunblade holster to his waist, "We'll talk about this later, alright? I've gotta go, I've gotta be in Balamb. I would never leave like this if it wasn't emergent. You know that, right? I'm sorry... I promise, we'll talk tomorrow."
Meanwhile
"I'm just saying, Mia is sitting pretty in Garden and I'm wearing a Visitors pass. a VISITORS Pass, Kitten. Seriously?!"
"Seifer, I am already regretting bringing you here, please do not make it worse. It's bad enough whatever I am going to read on Selphie blog, please behave. And for the love of Hyne do not call me Kitten in public..." Quistis buried her face in her hands.
Seifer pouted and crossed his arms, turning his attention to the other person in the room, "I think your cigarettes are adequately packed," Seifer pointed out as Mia continued to pound the fresh carton onto the wooden coffee table in front of her.
Mia paused, "Right," she opened the pack and extracted a cigarette to place in her mouth, "Sorry, I guess I'm distracted, gotta go to Balamb tonight. So, when Selphie gets here I'll start."
Seifer shrugged and leaned back his chair on two legs, lazily dragging his arm around Quistis, "Suits me. So I guess you got a lead, huh? What happened to that guy you were tracking down?"
"Him? Oh, he's dead," Mia may as well have been talking about what she ate for lunch that day.
"Dead?" Quistis shot up in her seat, causing Seifer's seat to almost tumble over if it wasn't for his quick recovery, "What do you mean 'dead'?"
"What do *I* mean? What do YOU mean? I didn't know the word 'dead' had more than one interpretation." Mia glanced over at her, tossing her hands into the air as if to say 'what gives?', "Besides, I got what I needed. In Balamb, I'm going to follow a lead on the code name, Brutus."
Quistis pinched the bridge of her nose shaking her head, "You know what I meant..."
"Geez, someone's got their panties in a bunch. Why so restless, Mia? No one to sink your teeth into around here?" Seifer jeered. Mia narrowed her eyes as Seifer continued, "I guess the average age is about 30 years junior to what you usually like..."
Mia snapped, lunging across the table towards him, her pin pulled from her hair. The pin was inches from his neck when she stopped herself, body trembling in fear and anger. Quistis had reacted quickly, her whip wrapped around Mia's wrist... just in case. Mia shrugged the whip off her arm and shoved the pin back in her hair, turning her back towards the couple, "Yes... I'm TESTY, so do not piss me off. I literally JUST told you what happened to the last guy that did that. As for WHY, Seifer, get your mind out of the gutter, it's because a certain cowboy took my stash...if you must know."
Seifer and Quistis exchanged a look before Quistis spoke, "Mia..." she was exactly sure how to broach the subject of 'are you mentally stable' with the other woman, it wasn't exactly normal 'elevensies' conversation, "Is that part of the reason you had us all meet?"
Mia sighed, finally lighting her cigarette and inhaling deeply, "Sorry, Seifer," she mumbled, "I'm on a razors edge right now, do you SEE the 3 nicotine patches I'm wearing?" She did not address Quistis' question.
"Is there rum in here? It's not even noon," Seifer sniffed Mia's cup of 'tea' experimentally.
"SHUT UP, SEIFER!" Mia and Quistis yelled in unison, before Mia added quietly, "And for Hyne's sake, it's whiskey, what do you take me for? A co-ed?"
Seifer's life was thankfully saved by Selphie, who bounded through the doorway and quickly took a seat next to Quistis, avoiding Mia's gaze effectively altering the mood of the air.
Mia sighed and flopped onto the couch shifting uncomfortably before reaching underneath the cushion to extract a pair of handcuffs. She raised an eyebrow at Selphie before placing them on the table with a loud thunk, conveniently gathering everyone's attention, "Okay, before I start, and some of you already know parts of what I'm going to say, but... it does not leave this room or the people in this room... I'm looking at you, Selphie."
"Selphie has a big mouth, but she knows when to keep it shut," Quistis offered. It was the truth, while Selphie was the biggest gossip on the planet, she did manage to keep Top Secret missile launch codes without any difficulty. She knew where to draw the line.
"Okay, well, you may have suspected, Sef, and... well other people may have," Mia sighed, "Wow, this is hard."
"Rinoa is her half-sister," Seifer interrupted, "Sorry, Mia, but we do not have all day here."
Mia glared in his direction, "Yes, thank you, now I remember why I invited you here. So yeah, Caraway is my dad. There, I said it." It occurred way less eventfully and dramatically than Mia had anticipated.
Quistis frowned, "Mia, I've known this for a long time and kept your secret, but honestly, why don't you just TELL Rinoa? Wouldn't it save a lot of complication?" Seifer and Selphie eyed Quistis carefully as she mentioned being privy to this knowledge for long before the rest of them.
Mia flicked ash from her cigarette into Seifer's cup of tea, "Yes, I know, but I guess I'm not exactly sure how to say, 'oh, hi, your Dad, the guy you hate? Yeah well he slept with a hooker 10 years before you were born and knocked her up, PS. I'm your sister'. That's not exactly a thrilling family reunion. Then I can follow it by the whole, 'oh yeah, he knew I existed by the way. You think he sucked as a dad to you? Compared to me, he was Dad of the year to you'. Again, not really seeing any warm and fuzzys occurring here."
Selphie slowly turned her eyes towards Mia, finally meeting her gaze, "Your cigarette case. Makes sense. The Caraway crest on the case, its your family crest too... oh god" Selphie paled, "Mia, I... I did something really stupid."
Mia took a long drag from her cigarette before rubbing her eyes forcefully in frustration, "Selphie, it doesn't matter. I have been less than honest with you anyway, and this whole thing is becoming a mess."
Selphie jumped across the coffee table, knocking over a collection of various liquids in the process before gluing herself to Mia in a deathgrip, "Mia, I KNEW, I figured, the whole hair comment at the ball, I know what Irvine was like and I get it... I was just hurt you didn't trust me enough to tell me... but, I did something stupid, I..." So, Selphie and Rinoa HAD heard that comment at the Festival, though neither of them had let on. The girls were not stupid and Selphie, despite appearance, was a world class military specialist. Like any cunning woman, they both had processed the information to be able to use it later. Reacting in emotion would have been a mistake, not only ruining the ball, but also showing their cards. It was actually quite conniving, and to someone like Mia it only spelled bonus points.
Mia blinked in surprise, bringing her arm around and squeezing Selphie gently, "Aw, Sef...but seriously, Quistis had a perm too, I don't know why we keep bringing up my red curly hair."
Before Mia had a chance to continue, Quistis had uncharacteristically latched herself to the girl as well, "Mia..." she didn't need to verbalize it, Mia understood, Quistis was worried, and for good reason.
With the two girls currently glomped onto her, Mia began to try to extract herself, "Ladies, I really don't feel like starting any more rumors about me and we certainly don't need to give Seifer anymore fantasies so.. um..." Mia finally wiggled free of the women's grasps and stood up quickly, "Look, Selphie, I messed up, but if it makes you feel better, Irvine was willing to try and take me on like an idiot because he wanted to protect you, so, all in all, he isn't a total loser. Quisty, look at my arms, no needles, promise, only some pills sometimes to sleep." Mia held up a pinky towards Quistis and winked, "Pinky swear, okay?"
Quistis opened her mouth before Mia's finger pressed her pinky against her lips, "I don't want to talk about any of this anymore. You know whats going on, you know why I'm here, I'm not sure how to tell Rinoa and I don't think I'm ready anyway, I needed us all on the same page, so...That's it. Oh, and Selph, tell Irvine to give me back my stash, I might be making ends meet, but no one wants to rock my psychological boat and I've gotta see this through," With that she left the room abruptly slamming the door behind her, leaving the occupants of the room startled in her wake.
Quistis finally broke the silence, "She talks like this is the end."
Seifer gently placed a hand on Quistis' shoulder, "Because it is. Mia's living on borrowed time. I felt the same way under Ultimecia... there was no choice, I was in too deep. Mia's in too deep, she has screwed over a lot of really powerful people; she's as good as dead, it's just a matter of when."
"Her last mission..." Quistis said softly, "But, given everything. I mean, should we trust her? She obviously is doing worse than I thought and now I - I'm not sure if her connection to Rinoa is good or bad."
Seifer shook his head, "Quistis. That girl saved your life more than once. She's killed for you. Hell, she seduced a prison guard to save MY sorry butt, and let me tell you, whenever she 'knows what someone likes'" Seifer shuddered, "let's just say, I can never look at a Cricket paddle again. But she did that, to save me. She's saved both of you. Selphie, she wrote your transfer letter to Balamb. Have some faith."
Quistis nodded and Selphie sniffled loudly, "Guys.. I did something really stupid... I- I was kind of upset and I, well I kindofmaybe suggested to Rinoa that maybesortof she might want to see if she could look at Mia's file."
Quistis looked up at the other woman, "Her SeeD file?"
Selphie poked her fingers together nervously, "ummmm" she mumbled, digging her toe into the ground, "And... I may have sort of maybe 'hinted' at how to help Squall get into some higher level files to.. um, so Rinoa couldkindofmaybe see them too."
Quistis facepalmed, "Selphie, *I* don't even know what's in there. For all I know, SeeD knows all about Caraway. Well, guess we better prepare for damage control."
Much Much Later
Rinoa heard voices. The distinct low hum of Squall's voice. She couldn't quite make out what he was saying, but she knew there were only two people in the room. She made out a woman's voice, it sounded like a cat purring.
She knew not to be jealous, I mean, so there was a girl in Squall's room. Talking. Really late at night. I mean, Squall would never... right? She swore she never would, but she tried, just a little, to reach out with her mind. She met nothing but a wall. Squall never had a wall around his mind. Granted, she did not know to what extent Squall realized her ability to draw out people's thought's went, but he certainly made no active effort to block her out. Both of the occupants of Squall's rooms were clammed up tight. At least she could somewhat hear their external voices.
"she... find out... Squall, please..."
"...over thinking... love... trust me."
Rinoa did not like what she was hearing and took a deep breath. Trust him, girl. She bit her lip and was trying to decide whether or not to break in there and show whatever tramp was in there a piece of her mind (and her magic) or walk away and convince herself to trust Squall and confront him later. She knew Squall loved her. She felt it from his kisses, saw it in his eyes, had heard it in his head. Deep down, Squall had character, it just simply wasn't in him to betray her. Hell, even Caraway would begrudgingly admit that Squall had character. She had convinced herself to trust her knight when she heard a laugh. Low, like a feline. She KNEW that laugh.
"I want..." She couldn't hear whatever the WOMAN wanted. Maybe seducing Squall was some messed up way of fulfilling whatever fantasy of Laguna she had. Rinoa's thoughts were running faster than she could process them.
At the same moment a piece of an image, undoubtedly she was seeing through Squall's eyes: skin, a tiny scrap of black cloth, the woman was bent in front of him and he had a very nice view of her cleavage, the image shut out as quickly as it came.
Rinoa was furious, furious and lost, she didn't know whether to be angry or destroyed. She wanted to cry and run, but confront and scream at the same time.
"Dammit, Mia!" A grunt. His.
She was not prepared for nor was she expecting what lay in store on the other side of the door. Slamming it open, her heart stopped.
A/N (hides) Come on, do you REALLY think I would make Squall cheat on Rinoa? (laughs evilly) No, seriously though, come on.
Re Mia, I'm sure a lot of you saw it coming, but obviously there is more to come.
Don't kill me! (hides)