I'm trying to write the story I had originally intended.
I don't own any of the Final Fantasy 8 characters, but the newbies are mine.
To warn you, this is starting to get gory. There are also slight hints of couples developing, but they're so slight as to almost not exist. This might change later. I say again, this is gory, or at least getting really violent.
The Rinoa bashing is revving into overdrive. I promise it's unintentional. Or at least, it started that way...
Back from a long break and hoping to get this finished before the next one, I'm also making sure everyone knows that I'm only just ahead of you as to what's going on in this story. I learn it as I type it.
~
Chapter 19
With sore arms and ears, Seifer listened to Rinoa until he couldn't take it any more.
"D'you mind if I put my arms back at my sides?"
Jerked to a dead stop in her outraged monologue, Rinoa paused, "Um, sure. Why don't we sit and make this a kind of social call, like it was supposed to be?"
Seifer blinked. ~She goes from sweet to psycho and back in the blink of an eye. We are so totally-~
"Were you listening?" Rinoa glared mildly and pointed to the seat across from where she now sat, holding out a cup of coffee.
"Er," Seifer struggled for a response, "Sure, just a minute."
Before sitting, Seifer waved his arms a bit, to restore the feeling that had drained out of them. Then he flopped into the heavily cushioned chair.
"Really," Rinoa shook her head, "If you drop into that any harder, you'll break it. Now I know for certain that the children in Esthar Garden will need my teaching to get good manners. Between you being a rude little monster, Squally being anti-social, and that strange boy insulting his betters, they'll get it into their heads that they're mercenaries or something."
Seifer blinked again, feeling that it was becoming a painful habit, "What do you mean, Garden ~is~ training them to be mercenaries."
"Not any more," Rinoa smiled primly, "Now those rambunctious little children will be trained properly in the service of something right. They'll serve my father in a military fashion in his efforts to see me protected from the world. After all, no one can do anything about my powers anymore. Not with the Guardians dispersed, or in his control."
"Wait," Seifer leaned forward, "your powers?"
"Oh yes," Rinoa looked up from her coffee cup, a daintily decorated little pink thing, "I didn't tell you all. I put my powers into that silly little rock, but this sweet girl, Aura, gave them back. She told me that we would fix time this way."
"What do you mean, 'fix time?' That's really kind of strange, don't you think?" Seifer started to feel a slow panic rising in his stomach, "I mean, isn't that what you guys did before? With beating me to a pulp and taking out Sorceress Ultimecia?"
Rinoa looked at Seifer with shock, "That was fixing time? Oh, no, that was just mending something else that was broken. This will fix it so that my father will get the Guardians like he wants, and I can have what I want."
"And just what is that?" Seifer snorted, "Your Squally-poo back?"
Rinoa giggled, "Oh no, I never liked him like that. It wouldn't have worked out anyway. He's taken. Or at least, that's what Aura told me. I'll just believe her for now. But what I really want is to free Timber."
Seifer wished he could have been standing so he could actually fall down in shock, "You're helping your father take over four Gardens, murder how many SeeDs, ruin the lives of how many children and adults, all so you can FREE TIMBER??"
Rinoa nodded, pouting, "You don't have to be so loud."
"With Deling dead," Seifer continued to yell, "Timber is ALREADY free! You KNOW that! You were at the ceremony where the damn city formally declared its freedom from Galbadia, and called itself a separately governed political base! How can you have forgotten that they're already free?"
Rinoa blinked, her eyes glazing over, "What did you say?"
Seifer choked, "Timber. Is. Free. What part of that don't you understand?"
The tiny pink coffee cup shattered, its shards flew outward, lodging into the walls and narrowly missed giving Seifer new scars, and not just on his face. Rinoa's eyes had darkened from their normal chocolate brown to a deeper shade, all the way to a shade that weren't distinguishable from her pupils. She raised her hands to her face, and stared at them. Then she touched her face lightly and began to laugh. Rather than the light laugh Rinoa had driven everyone else mad with, which sounded like bells that were almost above human hearing, the laughter was tinnier, or at least sounded far off. Rinoa stood, and glared at Seifer.
"You really aren't Rinoa," Seifer backed into the wall as the Sorceress crouched low to the ground to pick up one of the nearer shards, "Are you?"
~
"So what do we do?" Selphie started bouncing with a new level of energy.
"We wait for word from the others," Quistis shook her head, "I can't think of anything else."
Maria snorted, "Like hell. I've never known SeeDs to back down from a fight before, not even the Trabians. Especially not the Balambites. So we don't just sit and wait, we fight back! Who are here?"
"SeeDs," Selphie started to warm up to the idea.
"And SeeD trainees," Quistis glared mildly at Maria, "How do you intend we deal with their lack of experience?"
Maria snorted again, "Just because the Balamb trainees don't see battle until after they've graduated doesn't mean that the Galbadians don't have a few under their belt. Irvine's a prime example of that. And that's not even including the experience gained when the Gardens were used to ram into one another."
"But how do we keep from alerting the soldiers?" Selphie pointed at the doors, "They are occupying the Garden, you know."
Maria grinned, "But they don't know their way around the Garden like the students, faculty and staff do. And since I'm native, we can get out of here, and enlist the aid of the more rebellious students and Instructors."
Quistis sighed, "I still say it's too big a risk."
"I heard a saying once that said something like, 'risk nothing, and lose nothing, but then again you have nothing to gain.' I do believe it applies," Maria tugged on Quistis' arm, "besides, don't you want to find out for certain what's going on?"
"Come on Quisty," Selphie tugged on her other arm.
Quistis looked skyward, as if asking for help, a decision or for patience. She got no answer, "Fine. Just don't complain later about-"
"Let's get going, pessimist," Maria rushed to the back of the room, tapped several tiles on a decorative table and walked through the door revealed.
"Wow!" Selphie crowed in a hoarse whisper.
Looking at the closed door, Quistis whispered hoarsely, "What about if the soldiers check on us?"
~
I'm either building up to another plot twist or to the climax... but I'm not sure which. It's certainly not going to be a case of the helpless little girls waiting to be rescued.
But perhaps they should have waited.
I don't own any of the Final Fantasy 8 characters, but the newbies are mine.
To warn you, this is starting to get gory. There are also slight hints of couples developing, but they're so slight as to almost not exist. This might change later. I say again, this is gory, or at least getting really violent.
The Rinoa bashing is revving into overdrive. I promise it's unintentional. Or at least, it started that way...
Back from a long break and hoping to get this finished before the next one, I'm also making sure everyone knows that I'm only just ahead of you as to what's going on in this story. I learn it as I type it.
~
Chapter 19
With sore arms and ears, Seifer listened to Rinoa until he couldn't take it any more.
"D'you mind if I put my arms back at my sides?"
Jerked to a dead stop in her outraged monologue, Rinoa paused, "Um, sure. Why don't we sit and make this a kind of social call, like it was supposed to be?"
Seifer blinked. ~She goes from sweet to psycho and back in the blink of an eye. We are so totally-~
"Were you listening?" Rinoa glared mildly and pointed to the seat across from where she now sat, holding out a cup of coffee.
"Er," Seifer struggled for a response, "Sure, just a minute."
Before sitting, Seifer waved his arms a bit, to restore the feeling that had drained out of them. Then he flopped into the heavily cushioned chair.
"Really," Rinoa shook her head, "If you drop into that any harder, you'll break it. Now I know for certain that the children in Esthar Garden will need my teaching to get good manners. Between you being a rude little monster, Squally being anti-social, and that strange boy insulting his betters, they'll get it into their heads that they're mercenaries or something."
Seifer blinked again, feeling that it was becoming a painful habit, "What do you mean, Garden ~is~ training them to be mercenaries."
"Not any more," Rinoa smiled primly, "Now those rambunctious little children will be trained properly in the service of something right. They'll serve my father in a military fashion in his efforts to see me protected from the world. After all, no one can do anything about my powers anymore. Not with the Guardians dispersed, or in his control."
"Wait," Seifer leaned forward, "your powers?"
"Oh yes," Rinoa looked up from her coffee cup, a daintily decorated little pink thing, "I didn't tell you all. I put my powers into that silly little rock, but this sweet girl, Aura, gave them back. She told me that we would fix time this way."
"What do you mean, 'fix time?' That's really kind of strange, don't you think?" Seifer started to feel a slow panic rising in his stomach, "I mean, isn't that what you guys did before? With beating me to a pulp and taking out Sorceress Ultimecia?"
Rinoa looked at Seifer with shock, "That was fixing time? Oh, no, that was just mending something else that was broken. This will fix it so that my father will get the Guardians like he wants, and I can have what I want."
"And just what is that?" Seifer snorted, "Your Squally-poo back?"
Rinoa giggled, "Oh no, I never liked him like that. It wouldn't have worked out anyway. He's taken. Or at least, that's what Aura told me. I'll just believe her for now. But what I really want is to free Timber."
Seifer wished he could have been standing so he could actually fall down in shock, "You're helping your father take over four Gardens, murder how many SeeDs, ruin the lives of how many children and adults, all so you can FREE TIMBER??"
Rinoa nodded, pouting, "You don't have to be so loud."
"With Deling dead," Seifer continued to yell, "Timber is ALREADY free! You KNOW that! You were at the ceremony where the damn city formally declared its freedom from Galbadia, and called itself a separately governed political base! How can you have forgotten that they're already free?"
Rinoa blinked, her eyes glazing over, "What did you say?"
Seifer choked, "Timber. Is. Free. What part of that don't you understand?"
The tiny pink coffee cup shattered, its shards flew outward, lodging into the walls and narrowly missed giving Seifer new scars, and not just on his face. Rinoa's eyes had darkened from their normal chocolate brown to a deeper shade, all the way to a shade that weren't distinguishable from her pupils. She raised her hands to her face, and stared at them. Then she touched her face lightly and began to laugh. Rather than the light laugh Rinoa had driven everyone else mad with, which sounded like bells that were almost above human hearing, the laughter was tinnier, or at least sounded far off. Rinoa stood, and glared at Seifer.
"You really aren't Rinoa," Seifer backed into the wall as the Sorceress crouched low to the ground to pick up one of the nearer shards, "Are you?"
~
"So what do we do?" Selphie started bouncing with a new level of energy.
"We wait for word from the others," Quistis shook her head, "I can't think of anything else."
Maria snorted, "Like hell. I've never known SeeDs to back down from a fight before, not even the Trabians. Especially not the Balambites. So we don't just sit and wait, we fight back! Who are here?"
"SeeDs," Selphie started to warm up to the idea.
"And SeeD trainees," Quistis glared mildly at Maria, "How do you intend we deal with their lack of experience?"
Maria snorted again, "Just because the Balamb trainees don't see battle until after they've graduated doesn't mean that the Galbadians don't have a few under their belt. Irvine's a prime example of that. And that's not even including the experience gained when the Gardens were used to ram into one another."
"But how do we keep from alerting the soldiers?" Selphie pointed at the doors, "They are occupying the Garden, you know."
Maria grinned, "But they don't know their way around the Garden like the students, faculty and staff do. And since I'm native, we can get out of here, and enlist the aid of the more rebellious students and Instructors."
Quistis sighed, "I still say it's too big a risk."
"I heard a saying once that said something like, 'risk nothing, and lose nothing, but then again you have nothing to gain.' I do believe it applies," Maria tugged on Quistis' arm, "besides, don't you want to find out for certain what's going on?"
"Come on Quisty," Selphie tugged on her other arm.
Quistis looked skyward, as if asking for help, a decision or for patience. She got no answer, "Fine. Just don't complain later about-"
"Let's get going, pessimist," Maria rushed to the back of the room, tapped several tiles on a decorative table and walked through the door revealed.
"Wow!" Selphie crowed in a hoarse whisper.
Looking at the closed door, Quistis whispered hoarsely, "What about if the soldiers check on us?"
~
I'm either building up to another plot twist or to the climax... but I'm not sure which. It's certainly not going to be a case of the helpless little girls waiting to be rescued.
But perhaps they should have waited.