Chapter 6

Consequence

"Where is she?" Squall demanded of the guard as he lifted him and pushed him fiercely against the wall outside of the infirmary.

"Edea… took her, dragged her… I tried, Squall I'm so sorry! She was too strong!"

"Squall! Dude!" Zell yelled, running towards them. "Dude, where is she?"

"Seifer and… and Edea. They took her."

"Sorceress Edea?" Zell asked, his expression widening in shock, fear and awe.

"Yes, Sorceress Edea, Zell. I have to go get them… who knows what they'll do to her!" Squall began to walk away when he realised that Zell was frantically trying to keep up.

"Woah there, Squall. You can't do it alone, I'm helping. Do you think we have enough time to round up the others?" Squall shot Zell a thanking smile.

"No time for that. Let's go!" They pounded to the exit of the garden where they were stopped by a voice.

"Squall, Zell, where do you two think you're going?" Instructor Trepe demanded, standing at the top of the stairs to the elevator, next to Xu and Headmaster Cid who were both staring at them with vacant expressions.

"We're going to save her, instructor!" Zell called back, clearly excited by their upcoming voyage. The headmaster frowned and Xu opened her mouth in shock.

"You can't!" The instructor called. "You two are going to risk your lives for someone you've know a few days?"

"Yes, instructor. No seeDs will be able to get as close to her as us and she already trusts Squall." The instructor snorted bitterly.

"That's a bit of an understatement!" Zell looked like he was going to ask but the headmaster interrupted.

"Go to Deiling City, find General Caraway. He will be able to help you." It was the headmaster's voice and Squall was shocked for a second, hastening to recover himself in order to not lose time.

"Thank you, headmaster." Squall called, tugging on Zell's sleeve to get him to move. As they raced down the steps, Squall realised that he hadn't junctioned any Guardian Forces yet but he could always do that on the way.

-x Rinoa's P.O.V

Rinoa lay still, pretending she was unconscious was obviously her best bet of survival. Seifer was close; she could feel his hand stroking her hair. It took all of Rinoa's perseverance to not jump away in repulsion. Then, there was that evil sorceress lurking somewhere nearby too. A confrontation with her could be deadly.

Flashback

After Squall and Instructor Trepe had left, the girl named Fujin came into Rinoa's room. As was characteristic of the girl, she only spoke in single word sentences.

"Dressed!" She had ordered. Rinoa played dumb, pretending she didn't know what she was meant to do. However, Fujin picked up Rinoa's clean set of clothes and threw them at her, repeating her command. "DRESSED! Now!" Fujin turned around and Rinoa obediently did as she was told, fearing what would happen if she didn't. They might hurt her… or Squall.

When the duster cascaded down her back, Rinoa looked desperately for her weapon. She eventually found it in a nearby drawer and quickly attached it to her wrist, prepared to fight her way back to Squall. Fujin turned around and her gaze darted between Rinoa's face and the raised weapon with its threateningly sharp blade which could cut through most things with complete ease - Fujin's skinny form would be no hassle at all. Reading Rinoa's intentions from her mind and stance, Fujin somehow managed to move fast enough to steal the blade before Rinoa could even think to defend herself or her poor, dismembered weapon.

"Hey! Give me that back! What do you want from me?" Rinoa demanded, raising her fist as an empty threat and hoping that Fujin didn't see through the façade.

"You know you can't fight like that. Put your fist down…" Seifer stepped into view. "…Rin." His eyes blazed with triumph and there was a small amount of blood smudged on his fist. Squall…

"Seifer." He stepped past Fujin and wrapped his arms around her body, trapping the limbs in his adamantine embrace. His voice was sickening to her and the new lease of helplessness reminded her of the night before when he had tried to… no! Rinoa, don't think about that!

"Yeah, babe. You ready to meet my new friend?"

"…huh?" Seifer moved so he was behind her, keeping Rinoa's arms bound in his 'hug'. Wind whipped around the room, starting as a mild breeze and roaring into a tempest. Rinoa looked away, fearing the power and the owner of the spell. Someone was trying to make a powerful impression. The wind tore through Rinoa's senses; all she could hear was the vortex, all she could smell was the clogging stench of sea water in her nose making breathing through it difficult. From around the corner appeared a strange woman, her clothes clinging and her hair fashioned in an unusual style.

"Sorceress Edea!" Seifer called and Rinoa's breath caught in her throat. The most powerful woman in the world was staring at her right now – her penetrating eyes ripping apart the shreds of her personality.

"Rinoa Heartilly, a pleasure to meet you at last. My knight has told me so much about you." Her eyes snapped to Seifer. "We leave now. Find me transport." Her smile deteriorated into a smirk of contempt.

"Raijin is doing it now, sorceress. We just need to get to the car park."
"I don't like being left waiting. We leave now."

-x Squall's P.O.V

It only occurred to Squall that they should have taken a car when they were halfway to Balamb that they should have taken a car. However, that would have meant buying car fuel. Their destination was Balamb town; they'd withdraw some money from Squall's account and board a train to Deiling City. Zell hadn't stopped talking for the entire two mile journey.

His incessant chatter had gotten on all of Squall's sensitive and already tense nerves.

"What are we going to do anyway? Knock on General Caraway's door and tell him we've lost his daughter?" Squall tuned back in enough to realise that his response was required.

"I don't know, Zell. I don't know but we'll figure it out on the way there. Hopefully someone will have seen something and we won't have to go to Deiling at all." Zell looked doubtful but finally shut up. The rest of the journey passed in silence and Squall vehemently blaming himself for what had happened to Rinoa. How could he have left her with only two guards? How could he have left her alone when she was clearly so worried and vulnerable? Why didn't he take her with him? She must hate him, loathe him for what had happened due to his actions and he couldn't blame her.

At the gates of Balamb, Squall and Zell split up – Squall drawing sufficient money while Zell warned his mother about their impending journey. Their meeting point was the train station and it was only ten minutes before the train departed before Zell finally showed up, his arms full of bags and packs of hotdog sausage and buns. Resisting the need to scream at his so-called 'friend', Squall led Zell to the platform and it wasn't long before the train chugged to a stop. While Squall had been buying the tickets, he had asked the lady that had served him whether she remembered anyone who matched Seifer or Rinoa's descriptions. His answer was an apologetic 'no' before she kindly wished him luck in his endeavour. Sitting in their own compartment, Zell finally shut up and fell asleep, leaving Squall to his thoughts though whether that was a good or a bad thing was open for debate – his thoughts were haunted with what Seifer could be doing to his precious princess at exactly that moment.

"Squall. You don't need to worry about General Caraway… I'll be there with you, man." This was Zell's way of showing his support.

"Thanks… Zell. Get some sleep; I doubt we'll get much chance in the near future."

"Okay, you too. Thinking too much won't help." Squall waited until he heard Zell's breathing even out before he closed his own eyes.

"Rin…"

The girl lay on the floor, Seifer bearing down upon her. As much as she kicked and screamed, she couldn't get Seifer off of her. Squall was forced to watch – he couldn't move or shout. He felt utterly hopeless, what could he do? Her head turned towards him and her eyes bore into his, both pleading and blaming. He HAD to keep her safe… somehow.

He had to just reach out and strike Seifer off of her… but he couldn't move enough. His limbs were eclipsed in lethargy, there was no way that he'd be able to save her, he'd have to watch as Seifer destroyed this girl with her staring deep into his eyes, hers a lovely chocolate brown…

-x Rinoa's P.O.V (An hour or so after departing Balamb, they board a private train and Seifer and Rinoa are locked in the same room.)

Rinoa felt Seifer lift her chin and was immediately completely awake.

"Morning beautiful." She tried to look away but he wouldn't let her. She didn't know what time it was but it sure wasn't morning. "Scream for me." He whispered into her ear again.

"I won't scream." He growled, just before she had passed out again he had expressed his wish for her to scream, particularly that he wanted her to scream his name.

"You'll do what I want you to, you little whore. Sorceress Edea allowed me to collect you so that I wouldn't get bored without a toy." Rinoa felt sick – to him she was just a toy, a plaything. She was disposable as soon as he'd had his satisfaction with her and the thought of being used as such made her skin crawl awfully.

"You make me sick, Seifer. I won't scream for you and Squall is going to kill you." She spat back, completely confident in the fact that Squall was fond enough of her to protect her. After all, he had promised her, hadn't he? Then again… maybe he thought that she wasn't worth the effort, maybe he didn't care that much… no! She couldn't think that way about the first person she had ever felt truly comfortable with completely. She knew that even if Squall didn't take the initiative, then Selphie would suggest it and they'd make their way towards her. The only daunting thought was what would happen when they got there. Seifer was a force to be reckoned with. That and he had a SORCERESS on his side, what would happen if Sorceress Edea stepped in to help Seifer? Surely it wouldn't do them any favours at all.

Suddenly, Seifer's flat palm made contact with her cheek, knocking her out of her reverie.

"You'll pay attention when you're with me from now on. Dear, dear. Now I have to punish you." He muttered, moving even closer and continuing to slap her. She took a total of six more intense hits before the slap turned into a fist, punching her straight in the face. It only took two more hits before she was out, welcomed to oblivion by unconsciousness.

A/N: Sorry for my delays in posting but I've been stuck with all of my A Level work and have just finished another story on this site so I'm trying to catch up due to me stupidly starting many multi-chapter stories at once. Thank you all for your patience,
Peace,
Rie x