Operation: Mariposa

by Scarlet Fever

Seifer/Squall slash! Rated M for Graphic language, violence, sexual content and drug/alcohol use. What do you do when your whole world turns against you? Been a while since I posted a fic on here! Work In Progress!

19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

"Luchia's told me much of you, little Griever. It's hard to believe that such a run-down drunk will be the one to defeat me."

Squall couldn't reply because he'd lost his voice. How could he speak when he was looking at an impression of Ultimecia, here in the present. She flickered in and out, seeming more translucent, then more substantial. It was like he was watching her on a television, back when Adel's tomb left all cable lines a snowy mess. As she grew thicker and more opaque, Squall noticed that everything else around him flickered, too. The dilapidated winery began to seep away and flicker. He'd see the empty wine casks, then he'd see opulent candelabras. He'd see marbled floors and haunting atmosphere. He'd see a memory of something that hadn't even happened yet. The winery was changing into Ultimecia's castle.

"You don't have my former Knight with you. Pity," Ultimecia said, light blazing from where her face should have been. Luchia stood beside the projection, falling to one knee in reverence.

"Looks like you have a new Knight to replace him," Squall commented, his hands sweating inside his leather gloves. His mind was still trying to wrap around seeing Luchia there and subjugated to Ultimecia like that, but he couldn't dwell on it. He couldn't be distracted. Not in front of her.

"He was a fool and a failure anyways," Ultimecia's image said. If she'd had a face, Squall guessed she would have had an amused look on it, gauging his reaction to her little barb.

He showed none. He found that her comment made him calmer. All he had to do was think of Seifer, and how brave he was and how much he'd survived, and that bravery seemed to mentally rub off on Squall. The respect and love that welled in him caused Squall to smile in spite of himself. Ultimecia's body language showed confusion. Love was something she'd never be able to understand. Ultimecia grew more substantial again, and Squall really hoped that Irvine was driving a very fast car. The smell of sewage and rot also grew stronger. Squall didn't look away from Ultimecia's image, but he expanded his senses to look for Eden's presence.

"You're smiling now," Ultimecia's voice reverberated, cutting right into Squall's soul. "We'll see how you feel in a moment, little Griever." Ultimecia's spectral form moved and put her transparent hands on the kneeling Luchia's shoulders.

Squall got an ugly sense of déjà vu as he watched his former SeeD comrade rise to her feet. Looking at Luchia's angular, coldly beautiful face now made Squall taste bile. He'd gone to school with Luchia for a while, but they'd never been friends. She was so impassive, so impersonal and unemotional. So cold and unloving, and right now looking eerily familiar. The hands slid into Luchia's shoulders, merging with them, and Luchia's body seemed to be filled with light.

It was the first time that Squall had seen fear flicker in Luchia's electric blue eyes. He found it vindictively pleasurable. Ultimecia's hands dipped further into Luchia's body, now up to the elbows, and Luchia started screaming. Squall was unmoved as he listened to the hellish noise of her agony. It wasn't even close to what she deserved for her hand in what happened to Seifer. Is this how Seifer screamed? Keep screaming, bitch.

Squall held onto his bitterness, because it was better than the fear. Luchia kept screaming, magic being pushed into her torturously. The pain and stress on her aura caused her auburn hair to turn silver. The future projection of Ultimecia disappeared completely into Luchia, whose veins seemed bright blue against her pale skin. They bulged and rippled as too much magic was pushed into Luchia's body. She sunk to her knees without the spectral Sorceress to hold her up. She clawed at herself, her feet in her suede boots arching and flexing as she writhed on the ground. Her feet split out of the boots, now avian-like clawed things. Her fingers elongated, her nails fusing into the flesh and becoming claws which ripped at her flesh where she scratched at it.

The smell of rotten flowers grew stronger as Eden finally appeared, smiling its toothy grin with saliva bridging between the rusty nails that made up its teeth. Eden made almost a cooing sound and roiled around Luchia, half-forming into her human female form, half remaining in her black miasma of black, formless magic. When Eden's hands touched Luchia, she made an inhuman wail that echoed through the winery, which looked more and more like Ultimecia's castle now. Squall could even feel the cold air that had wafted from the future sea. He could hear the chains that had tethered Ultimecia's lair to the continent.

Squall gripped Lionheart's hilt tighter as coloured ink flowed against Luchia's visible skin. Eden looked up at Squall and hissed. Its form expanded towards him like a cresting tsunami, black and terrifying. He threw up a magical shield, but he may as well have just held up a piece of paper for all the good it did. The magical shockwave blew Squall backwards. He crashed into a wine cask, Lionheart flying out of his hand upon impact. Sharp pain radiated from his newly healed ribs when they took a large part of the impact. He tried not to show it, but a grunt of pain escaped him nonetheless. But it couldn't be heard over Luchia's screaming. Eden, however, heard it. Its nail-filled mouth split open in a pleasured grin. Much of her black miasma stayed around the wailing Luchia, but some started slithering towards Squall. He tasted vomit from Eden's sewage stench, and from the pain in his ribs.

He tried to struggle to his feet as the smoky tendrils moved towards him, but he spit up blood on his chest, his ribs definitely broken again. Tiernan was going to be so angry. As Eden's power moved to claim him, with Squall able to do fuck all about it, a blazing trail of matter moved between them and caused Eden to rear back and make a bone-chilling snarling noise. Squall was hit with the distinct aroma of machine oil and powerful toxins. He also felt the tingle of Shiva's energy returning to him. There had been a GF barrier set upon the old winery, and Squall wondered what caused the changed.

The streaming mass slowed enough that Squall saw the locomotive form of Doomtrain blocking him from Eden's attacks. They hissed at each other, and the stench of poison and rot grew so thick that Squall could taste it. He also felt the soothing warmth of healing magic being pressed into him by a tiny hand. With surprising strength for someone so petite, Selphie hoisted Squall to his feet.

"You okay?" She asked.

"What are you doing here?" He demanded. "How'd Doomtrain get past the barrier?"

Selphie put her hand to Squall's ribs again, pushing more magic into him. Because she was so strong with healing magic, she could often sense where injuries were before the person needed to tell her. "Irvine. Him and Fujin are in now. I could teleport in early because of Doomtrain. Looks like you needed the help!" She exclaimed as she thrust up a magical barrier against one of Eden's tendrils. "And don't worry. Seifer's being looked after."

Squall quickly scrambled for Lionheart, and called Shiva to him. Her cold presence calmed him, and she joined Doomtrain in trying to face off Eden. Squall tried not to think of Selphie's betrayal of their friendship at a time like this. In the distance, he heard gunfire, and the screech of a monster.

Luchia had stopped screaming, and both Selphie and Squall made a wide circle around Eden to try and get to her position. "What's happening?" Selphie demanded as a monster seemed to materialize from thin air, at least to her. To Squall and his heightened spiritual sense, he knew it came from Ultimecia's palace in the future.

"Some sort of... time spectre," Squall explained tersely as he cut through a mechanized sentry. The ground vibrated under their feet, and the winery started to shimmer around them. Even Selphie noticed it now, and her emerald green eyes widened in alarm when she caught a glimpse of Ultimecia's castle. "She used Azabaashe to bring her Eden, which gave her enough power to bring herself into our timescape. And she merged with Luchia."

At the mention of her name, Luchia let out a pained chuckle. Her now clawed hands dug at the floor as she struggled to right herself. Her formerly auburn hair had fallen out of its bun, and the now silver locks tumbled around her face. She still looked like Luchia, but now she definitely also looked like the Ultimecia that Squall and Selphie had first met, sitting on her throne and glaring at them with burning amber eyes, hourglasses for pupils. Those same eyes glared out at them now, in the present, from Luchia's face.

"We could debate whether this is a chicken or egg situation," Luchia said, her voice resonating now that she had Ultimecia within her. "But I think I'd rather just kill you before you can destroy me in the future."

"She just passed on her powers!" Selphie exclaimed in shock. "But Luchia's not a Sorceress..."

Squall grit his teeth and didn't reply. Luchia smirked at them, and he wondered how he'd never noticed Luchia's face before, why it had never clicked. True that the coloured tattoos and the different hair and eyes made her look different, but this was Ultimecia's face, no question. She'd been under his nose the whole time.

"Oh, your mind is trying to click it all in place, huh?" Luchia asked. Her voice didn't have the affected accent of future Ultimecia. It must have been something she picked up over time. "Maybe I only came back to take this body because you destroyed mine in the future. Perhaps Luchia is just an ancestor of mine. Perhaps she was always me. Time is fickle like that."

"Shut up," Squall hissed, hating her so fucking much. He rushed towards her, casting magic while he sliced at her with Lionheart. He wasn't nearly the swordsman he'd been back at his peak, but Ultimecia was also slow in her new body, so the magic caused her to stumble back, but she regained herself in time to avoid being dismembered. She must have sensed that she wasn't strong enough yet to fight Squall head-on, so Luchia, now Ultimecia, retreated and called forth one of her future, monstrous sentries - the Red Giant. Its large red bulk blocked her from Squall's view, and he had to jump backwards to avoid losing his head. The pain from the quick motion made him throw up in his mouth.

"This is pretty bad, huh?" Selphie asked, snapping out her nunchaku. She grinned wickedly. "My favourite kinds of odds."

Seifer looked up in surprise when the driver's side of the truck opened. He hoped to Hyne that Squall would shimmy in beside him and look kind of sheepish about wandering off so stupidly, and Seifer would be able to give him a really hard time about it. His mood sank when it wasn't his boyfriend, and the mood got even lower when he saw it was Zell Dincht.

"Um... 'sup, Seifer?" Zell asked awkwardly, giving a small little wave. "Irvine called me and Selphie after you called him for help," he said quickly after a long silence. "He told me to guard you or he'd kill me. He sounded pretty serious about it. Though, I think I'd be more worried about Squall. Irvine would just shoot me in the head if you got hurt again, but Squall would totally make it hurt," Zell rambled nervously.

Seifer just continued to stare at him.

"I guess you got your eyesight back, huh? That's pretty wicked" Zell looked into Seifer's eyes, but only briefly. His cheeks reddened, and he could only imagine what the taller blonde was thinking. Zell knew exactly what was going through his own mind, though. His eyes kept looking to Seifer's scars, and he knew he'd thrown away his childhood friends for Xu. He'd fucked the woman who orchestrated Seifer's torture. He'd fucked the woman who ruined Quistis's life.

"Aren't you going to yell at me?" Zell asked desperately, hating the silence on Seifer's end. He looked like a repaired statue, utterly handsome and cold with the crack marks where he'd been put back together. He didn't even blink. "Aren't you going to call me Chicken-Wuss and make fun of my hair, my height, my clothing sense or how I like hot dogs? Aren't you going to say something like 'I asked Irvine to send competent help'," he said, doing a pretty serviceable Seifer Almasy impression.

Again, silence.

"I'm sorry, okay?" Zell exclaimed desperately. He hated silence, especially from Seifer. He was more comfortable with even Squall's epic silences. "I shouldn't have trusted Xu over you guys. But I never thought she'd act that way to people she claimed to care about." Zell turned away because he didn't want Seifer to see the tears welling in his eyes. "I thought I loved her." He may have tried to hide the tears, but his voice gave him away. "I thought she loved me. I guess she only loves power." Zell wiped at his eyes, not able to hide the big snotty sniffle he let out.

He turned to Seifer, who still stared stone-faced at him. Even the fluffy moogle in Seifer's lap seemed quiet and distant. "We aren't the best of friends, and Hyne knows I wished harm on you hundreds of times, but not like this. I never wanted anything like this to happen to you." Zell was surprised at how much he meant that. No matter how much Seifer bullied him, he was still part of Matron's 'family'. "Goddammit, Seifer! Say something!"

"I like watching you paint yourself into a corner, Dincht."

Zell made an annoyed noise in the back of his throat, hands balling into fists. But his angry expression softened at the edges. Seifer had actually said that with a great measure of affection. It was quite disarming. "Can you forgive me?" Zell asked quietly, avoiding looking into Seifer's face when he said it.

"Only if you forgive me."

Zell did look up this time and saw humility in Seifer's eyes. He briefly wondered if Astor had lobotomized him somehow, but he supposed that you didn't go through that kind of torturous experience without taking stock of yourself. "We've never been best friends, but I never wished that on you."

"I know."

Zell looked away, then looked back. "You think... you think that Squall will ever forgive me?"

Seifer's eyes remained careful, guarded. "I don't know."

"Yes you do. Don't you and Squall have some kind of crazy mental connection?"

"We're not psychic, if that's what you mean," Seifer replied with a measure of his old taunting venom.

Zell opened his mouth to give back a scathing reply, but a loud explosion drowned out his voice and caused the ground to shake. Ifrit disjunctioned and raced forward to join Bahamut and Odin in watching the perimeter of the old winery. The air seemed displaced, then a giant dragon appeared out of nowhere. Serino let out a small peep of dismay.

"Shit, where'd that come from?" Zell asked as Ifrit sped across the windswept Abadan Plains.

Seifer didn't answer, but his heart was in his throat as he stared at Ifrit, Bahamut and Odin circling around Tiamat. If Tiamat was here, then Ultimecia... Seifer tasted bile. Oh Kitten, what's going on in there? He'd spent a lot of time and therapy trying to get over Ultimecia, and he had, but it was very tenuous. If she was in there, he didn't know how he'd react. It didn't make things easier to see that Bahamut, Ifrit and Odin were having a heck of a time against Tiamat's immediate Dark Flare attack. Because Tiamat was from the future and the she-dragon bent space and time, Odin's deathly powers were ineffective against her. He was still a superb swordsman, but the battle would be more intense.

"Shit..." Zell hissed under his breath. "Ifrit just told me that he lost Shiva's signature."

Seifer's heart leapt into his throat, and he opened the door of the truck and started to manipulate his leg to get out.

"Whoa, man!" Zell put a very strong hand on Seifer's shoulder and pinned him back against the seat. "I can't let you do that."

"Fuck you, Chicken-Wuss. Squall needs me."

Zell ignored the dreaded nickname. "Squall needs you to stay here and be safe. You can't fight. You can't even get out of a truck with a high cab."

Seifer glowered at Zell, hating that the shorter man was right. Hating that Squall was in there, possibly facing down Ultimecia. And Luchia would have Eden, too.

"Eden" Seifer trailed off.

"Yeah, Luchia stole it. So, you're thinking if Tiamat's here, then Ulti well, you know. You think she's here, too?"

Seifer was ignoring Zell, thoughts racing through his head with all the confusion of a nervous Cactuar. He thought of Eden, a thought growing in his head. Even before the idea completely formed, he was reaching into his pocket for his cell-phone, touching the screen to power it up, his fingers moving of their own accord.

In Esthar, Quistis and Jurgen were enjoying a quiet lunch together in the hospital cafeteria. He was allowed to leave his room, which he liked to do frequently because he was a very active man, but he wasn't really well enough yet to leave the hospital itself. The food was pretty bland, but the conversation was so stimulating that she didn't even notice the tasteless gravy over her meatloaf.

She and Jurgen were talking about various schools of magical theory when she let out a surprised little noise, feeling her cell vibrating in the left pocket of her pale pink hoodie. She grinned and held up a finger when she saw it was a call from Seifer.

"Hi, honey," she greeted when she picked up. "Where are you? You should come to the hospital cafeteria." She really wanted Seifer to officially meet Jurgen. The man across from her said nothing, but a look of worry passed across his lovely silver eyes, like he was being asked to meet a stern, imposing father. She ran the toe of her sneaker up the inner line of his calf. "I have some good news."

"That's nice, sweetie, but I have really bad news. Don't visually react to what I'm going to tell you."

Quistis's brow furrowed. "Why?"

"There's some trouble."

"It always seems to find you," Quistis said carefully. Obviously, Jurgen noticed something was wrong, but didn't react, bless him. It made Quistis even more confident in her choice to pursue him.

"Squall and I are out on the Abadan Plains. Something mental's going on with time, Quisty. Monsters from Ultimecia's castle are coming out around the old Penhorn Winery."

Quistis opened her mouth, but swallowed her response. She'd been about to shout some sort of horrid exclamation when Seifer mentioned Ultimecia's name. "I'll be there as soon as I can."

"No!" Seifer exclaimed before Quistis could hang up. "I need your brain right now. Would Garden have put any kind of sanctions on Eden?"

"Sanctions?" Quistis asked, gesturing for Jurgen to get up and follow her out of the cafeteria. "Like what?"

"I know that Garden like to put some sort of restraints on the GF that they capture. Like how they do with Ifrit so they can train SeeD candidates."

"Well yes, but no offence to Ifrit... Eden is a far more powerful Guardian Force, and it was man-made," Quistis pointed out when she found a quiet alcove.

"You can't tell me that Xu wouldn't have been paranoid enough not to put some sort of restraint on that thing."

In the car beside Seifer, Zell flinched at the exact same time that Quistis did in the Palace hospital at the mention of Xu's name.

"I suppose she could have..." Quistis trailed off. "Why?"

"Luchia stole Eden from Xu, right? I think she brought it here, and if these monsters from Ultimecia's castle are showing up, then some serious magical shit is happening, and Squall's in the fucking middle of it. I won't lose him. Not to Ultimecia."

Quistis briefly realized that Seifer had said Ultimecia's name several times without freaking out. "You think she might have used Eden's power to get stronger?"

"Maybe," Seifer said shortly. "Can you still get into Garden's computer systems? Can you see if there's record that she did anything?"

"Xu might not have documented it, Seifer. I would try if I weren't stuck here in Esthar. Last time I checked, I can't teleport."

"Get Rinoa to do it," Seifer said. She heard the fear in his voice. "Chicken-Wuss said that Ifrit lost the feeling of Shiva's aura..."

Quistis's heart fell into her stomach. What if Squall...? "I'll see what I can do." She hung up the phone and looked at Jurgen in mounting horror.

"What do you need?" He asked. Not 'is there anything wrong?' or 'Did something happen?'. Jurgen knew the look on her face.

"I need to access Garden databases to see if any restraints were put on Eden."

"Follow me," Jurgen said briskly, though his silver eyes darkened to gunmetal at the mention of the word Eden. "We can probably do it remotely from here."

"Your computers can hack into Garden's magical databases?" Quistis asked with an arched eyebrow.

"This is Esthar."

"How long has this been going on?" She asked a little incredulously. She then shook her head. "Never mind. I've got more important things to worry about." She felt a momentary thrill as Jurgen took her hand and led her towards a telepod station, but ignored it in the face of the mounting terror inside her. "How in the hell did Ultimecia come back, anyway?" She asked under her breath as she and Jurgen rode a telepod somewhere within the Palace. He seemed to know where he was going, so she let him lead.

"Some sort of time loop?" Jurgen guessed. "Just because you killed her the first time doesn't mean that she couldn't manipulate time in the same way, just picking a time slightly before she'd come here the first time."

"Don't remind me," Quistis muttered. A dark thought gnawed at her stomach. "I know my way around Garden files, and GF power dampening can be activated remotely, but... I don't know what Xu did to the system when she got into the Headmaster's office. She was paranoid enough to try and get me and Squall killed, so Hyne knows what she did to the system."

Jurgen said nothing and led her into a room with a small number of computer bays, none of them occupied. He left the chair for her and bowed over the keyboard, quickly inputting some numbers to log in. Quistis noticed that he held his hands in just a way that she wouldn't see exactly what he'd typed in.

"I would hide my keystrokes from you, but you already know how to get into Garden's system, huh?" She asked, a little sardonically.

He just grinned tightly, his silver eyes twinkling just a little, like distant stars bringing cold light from millions of light years away, mysterious in their beauty.

As Quistis began her task, fingers flying over the keyboard, emitting clacking so fast it resembled a machine gun, her heart sank. She slid deftly through folders and magical databases, all of this so familiar. As she did this, she opened up the document database, and multitasked between trying to hack into the servers and filling out the document. She realized, even through all the frustration and strain, that she did miss Garden, after all. But each time she was rejected in her search parameters for Eden, she got more of a dark feeling. When she found Eden's data and started to try and access it, it was like a jigsaw puzzle was being completed in her mind. Each new piece brought an image forward that she didn't want to see. Each time Garden's mainframes kicked her out, it hammered home the dark idea that grew in her by the second. That this was an impossible task. That there was only one way she was going to be able to stop Eden.

"Fuck." Quistis slammed her fingers against the home row keys in frustration and fear. "It's no good." She printed out the formal document she'd been working on, glaring daggers at it as if it were the cause of her failure to hack into the servers.

Jurgen looked at her profile as she lifted her glasses away from her cobalt eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose. He saw the tension in her shoulders and the growing paleness of her complexion. "Even by air, it would take us twenty minutes to gas up a craft to get to Fisherman's Horizon," he pointed out grimly.

Quistis looked at her new boyfriend out the corner of her eye, impressed that his mind went to the same awful place hers did.

"You think that Nida will know anything?"

"No," Quistis said darkly, reaching into the pouch pocket of her pink hoodie again, pulling out her cell phone. She didn't know if it was a good sign or not that there were no new messages from Seifer. She started searching through her contacts. "Xu would never tell Nida that, not even in the fucked-up wonderland she thought their romance was." Her fingers flew over the touch-screen keyboard.

"So, what then? I don't know if I can get a craft this quickly, and the light train will take a while, too."

"I have faster means of transportation." She only prayed that this method hadn't turned her cell phone off. She put the phone down beside the keyboard and waited, closing her eyes. She really hoped that she'd only have to see Xu at hearings, and then never again. If she had to go and ask her for a favour... Hyne, this was going to be brutal. The idea made Quistis want to throw up.

With her eyes still closed, she reached out a shaking hand for Jurgen, wanting to feel the warmth of his touch. When his fingers closed around hers, she concentrated on the strength in his fingers, tethering her to something good. The idea of seeing Xu made her think of Evan Phaighn, and all the humiliation Quistis had suffered. The laughing, the whispers behind her back, the accusation in her friends' eyes as they abandoned her, the growing chasm between her and Nida, the destruction of her career, her reputation, her life. She thought about Seifer and Squall, facing Hyne-knew-what out there. What if they'd survived all this bullshit, and Ultimecia...

Quistis opened her eyes when her phone beeped. She didn't let go of Jurgen's hand as she reached for it, checking the message. 'I'll be right there.' She sighed in relief, or what little relief she could find in this situation. Jurgen's other hand lightly ran through her loose ponytail, and she felt a stinging behind her eyes. She pulled their joined hands close to her face and rubbed her cheek against the back of his hand, affection warring with fear for Squall and Seifer. Couldn't they just be happy? Couldn't they just live in quiet and peace for even a few damned weeks? Couldn't the world just let them be?

"Quistis?"

The blonde looked up when she heard Rinoa's voice calling for her.

"Quistis? I feel her aura near here..."

"In here," she called.

"Quistis!" Rinoa exclaimed, the sound of her running footsteps announcing her. "I heard her in here... Oh!" Rinoa came into the room in a flurry. "What happened?"

"I don't know," Quistis answered. "I only know what Seifer told me, and he wouldn't pull my leg. Well, not about something like this." Quistis briefly noted, with raised eyebrows of surprise, that Rinoa looked like she'd dressed in a hurry. Her normally sleek black hair was mussed and flattened on one side, and she wore a very large hooded sweatshirt with the logo of some death metal band on the front. The sleeves hung well past her hands, and it made her look like a kid playing dress-up. Or a girl wearing her boyfriend's sweater. The obvious owner of the sweatshirt stood beside her, in the same sort of wardrobe disarray. Raijin's sweater was on inside out. On his left foot he wore a black cross-trainer, and on the left foot he wore a bright red canvas high top. They both had the air of people who'd recently been having sex.

"Jurgen!" Rinoa exclaimed, a grin spreading across her heart-shaped face. She opened her mouth to start gushing that she and Quistis both had interesting romantic news to talk about, but stopped herself. Now was so not the time.

"Is Seifer okay, ya know!" Raijin asked.

"I don't know," Quistis answered sadly. "I think he's being kept out of things, but Squall" She trailed off helplessly.

Raijin pulled out his phone immediately and started dialling as Rinoa crouched beside Quistis's chair. "How would she get here?"

"Time loop or something," Quistis guessed. "Rinoa, I need you to teleport me to Fisherman's Horizon."

"What...?" Comprehension dawned in her eyes. "No. Quistis, no. Why would you need to go see Xu?"

"Eden. She knows how to control its power."

"She's not going to help you, Quisty..."

"I have to try. If Ultimecia gets Eden..."

Rinoa blanched. She looked over her shoulder at Raijin, who looked just as pale as he lowered his cell phone. There was no answer on Seifer's end. "Quistis."

"Rinoa." It was such a sharp, quick utterance of her name. She'd gotten used to having military people around her and have them say it like that. How they didn't mean to be rude, but there was no time for pleasantries. Rinoa had always resented it in her father, and Hyne knew that she'd scratch Raijin silly if he ever said her name like that, but now she understood it a little more. "Please."

"I still object to this, okay?" Rinoa whispered, trying to wrestle against the tears she felt pressing against the backs of her eyes.

"I do, too." Quistis then waited expectantly for Rinoa, who stared back at the other young woman a few moments longer to see if she'd change her mind. Rinoa prayed that Quistis would change her mind. When it didn't look like that was ever going to happen, she started to slowly call magic into her.

She felt Raijin's hand come down on her shoulder, so gentle and warm. The touch thrilled her, and briefly filled her mind with falling asleep in Raijin's arms only a few hours before. She'd never just jumped into bed with a man, not even Squall, but it just felt right with Raijin. Rinoa pushed these thoughts out of her mind and concentrated on magic, on getting to Fisherman's Horizon. It was easy to travel to Fisherman's Horizon with four people. Even six months ago, it would have seemed impossible, but now it was like breathing. Her magic was part of her now.

Quistis furrowed her brow against the feeling of Rinoa's magic prickling into her, like she'd walked through a cloud of mosquitoes. She closed her eyes and reached out for Jurgen's hand, grasping empty air until his hand found hers. She squeezed it tightly as Rinoa's magic pushed fully into her and transported her away from Esthar towards Fisherman's Horizon, and Xu.

When the prickling buzz receded, Quistis kept her eyes closed. She heard the sloshing of water against bridge supports, and the high-pitched caw of seagulls mingling with buoys dinging and machinery in the distance. She stupidly wished that she could just keep her eyes closed, and she'd be back in Balamb Town, not having to face the woman who ruined her life. Back in Balamb... where she had no life. Where she'd life as she did now - still at odds with society's view of her. She'd still have no home, no Garden, and Xu would still be sitting here in Fisherman's Horizon, gloating over the fact that she'd ruined Quistis's life.

She opened her eyes and saw the other three looking at her with concern. It steeled her resolve. It made her think of how Seifer and Squall wouldn't look at her like that. It made her think of how they were in possibly fatal danger right now. Her fear about having to look in to Xu's eyes was nothing compared to that. How could she look into anyone's eyes if she didn't go in to face down Xu?

"We can't go in, ya know!" Raijin said quietly. "Cause we're not SeeD and all. You want us to wait here?"

"There's a small coffee shop down the street. You should go there. I don't know how long I'll be."

Rinoa stepped forward to say something as Quistis squared her shoulders and started striding confidently towards the Garden facility, but really couldn't think of anything to say. Jurgen followed behind her, not speaking.

Raijin put a hand on Rinoa's shoulder. "She'll be okay, ya know! Instructor Trepe is tough."

"I know," Rinoa whispered. "Sometimes the toughest ones feel it the deepest," she added. That was something she'd always thought of Squall - that he felt things more acutely than others, and that's why he always built those walls around himself. He and Quistis really were alike. Maybe it's why she'd believed for so long that there was something going on between them.

She smiled sadly, not wanting to think about her past relationship with Squall, especially not when she had something new and great with the man standing beside her, looking at Quistis's receding figure with concern.

"I totally know that. You think Seifer's the heartless asshole he projects?"

"You think they're okay?" She asked, covering Raijin's hand with her own. Her hand felt so small compared to his. She may not have wanted to think about her past relationship with Squall, but she was still concerned about his safety. He and Seifer just couldn't seem to find peace and happiness.

"I know it, ya know!" Raijin said confidently. So confidently, in fact, that Rinoa turned her head and looked up at him. He had a sure grin on his face. "I know it." He looked at her for a few moments, his eyes holding personal things. "You look cute in my sweatshirt. It's way too big, ya know!"

"It smells nice," she whispered, sighing as he kissed the top of her head.

"You should go to the coffee shop with Raijin and Rinoa," Quistis said to Jurgen without turning around to face him. She could feel his eyes on her back.

"I'm fine where I am."

"You can't come in."

"I know."

Quistis sighed, still not looking at him. She didn't want to, because then her resolve would falter. She wouldn't have to want to face her old life, and wouldn't want to have to think of it colliding with this life. She was ready to move on with Jurgen. But she knew she had to do this. She reached into her pocked and pulled out her phone. "Promise that you'll..." She didn't know how to form the awful thoughts into words.

"I'm sure Seifer and Squall are fine."

"Depends on your definition of the word." She walked towards the SeeD facility, feeling her scalp crawl. The SeeD on duty started upon seeing her, but then quickly saluted her. It seemed like a big joke - people wearing these same uniforms were hunting her down like a rabid dragon only a couple of months earlier. She didn't return the salute.

"I need to see Xu," Quistis demanded quietly of the young cadet working the administration desk within the facility. The building felt cold, and Quistis instinctively sniffed the air, wondering if the smell of Astor's blood still hung there. "And," Quistis added when she saw the young girl open her mouth to begin reaming off a list of protocols that Quistis was intensely familiar with. Hyne, she'd written half of them. This young face reminded her of all the students she'd taught in her brief tenure as Instructor. She felt a sudden, and rather surprising, pang of melancholy and longing. She actually missed teaching. The one thing that Xu hadn't taken away from her.

"And I don't care about getting official documentation from the Headmaster. Xu killed the real Headmaster. I don't care about Xu's legal rights - she's a prisoner of Garden and I'm a senior officer who, as of yet, has not been dismissed of her duties. You will give me the papers to sign, and I will see Xu."

The young cadet snapped her mouth shut. "Yes, ma'am." She pushed the clipboard towards Quistis, keeping her eyes downcast, but sneaking looks up at the infamous Quistis Trepe. She looked imposing and her eyes didn't broker argument.

Quistis signed her name without care and ushered to one of the other SeeD in the room that she was ready to proceed. In fact, it was one of her former students.

"Congratulations on graduating, Brahva," she said quietly as he led her through the facility's halls towards Xu's holding cell. "You must have improved your magical mathematics grades."

"Yes, Ma'am," he answered nervously, trying not to stare at her in the same way that the administrative clerk had tried. Quistis tried not to notice, but it was impossible. It made her wonder if other SeeD would always look at her, and Squall and Seifer, with that measure of fear, if they would be hounded by questions about how it felt to survive in the wilds and have everyone against them, either not noticing or not caring that they were opening up bad wounds. It made it hard to think of coming back to Garden anytime soon, even though she knew she had to.

When they arrived outside the outer door that would lead towards Xu's segregated cell, Quistis pushed all thoughts out of her head, aside from the task at hand. Xu knew here well enough to read her face, and she didn't want to give her former friend any weapons. Her one-time student opened the outer door for her, and she entered the silent antechamber.

"Leave us, please," Quistis instructed of the inner guard. Upon hearing the voice through the intercom, Xu's head snapped up. She briefly had a frightened look on her face, like she'd seen a ghost, but it disappeared quickly, until no emotion remained. A cold mask that gave away nothing.

"Yes, Ma'am." The SeeD saluted and quickly exited, leaving Quistis looking through the plexiglass that separated her from Xu. Quistis swallowed back rage, glad the barrier was between them. If they'd been bars instead, she would have reached through them to break the other woman's neck.

"To what do I owe this honor?" Xu asked. She looked cold and impassive, but her voice had an undercurrent of nervousness.

Quistis couldn't help the vindictive smile. Strength, Quisty. Think of Squall and Seifer. "You look surprised to see me. You thought I'd never come to look down my nose at you?" Quistis felt proud that she sounded a lot calmer than Xu did. Far cry from how she felt on the inside. "Maybe you could have escaped all this if Luchia hadn't screwed you over and stolen Eden."

Xu's brow furrowed. She didn't know where Quistis was going with this line of conversation. "How's Nida?" She asked, trying to throw Quistis off-balance.

"Addicted to heroin, thanks to you," the blonde answered stiffly. "If this is the way you treat people you claim to love, well... I would say I'd hate to see how you treat your enemies, but I saw the after-effects on Seifer's body."

Xu grinned wolfishly, and Quistis's eyes went nearly black with rage. "Why are you here?"

"Did you know you did it all for nothing?"

"Did what?"

"I was planning to refuse the seat of Headmaster. And Squall would have rather eaten glass than take the responsibility. I also never would have dated Nida. So, you're here for nothing."

"You have Nida now, though," Xu said bitterly.

"What kind of protections did you put on Eden?"

"Why?" Xu asked. "Ah. Is this the real reason you're here? Does precious little golden girl Quisty want something from her second banana?"

"Did you put some kind of restraint on Eden's powers?"

"Not until you tell me why."

"Will you give me an answer?"

"Of course."

"I know now how much of a fucking liar you are," Quistis said conversationally, reaching into her pocket and pulling out the rolled up document she'd been working on while trying to get into Garden's servers. "Here's a writ from the court, stating that your sentence will be lessened if you give up any information about Eden and how to gain control of it."

"Why?" Xu demanded, her eyes briefly flickering down to the white parchment in Quistis's lap with its official-looking seals.

"Your pal Luchia is now controlling that thing, and it's a bit of a mess."

"Hmmm." Xu cracked a grin. "Meaning that it's a mess for who? Squall and Seifer? You would have come in a more official capacity, surrounded by a team of SeeD and lawyers if it weren't them, and if you weren't up against some sort of clock." She leaned back in the cheap plastic chair she sat in.

"Indeed," Quistis said sharply. "Yes, Squall and Seifer are in trouble."

"Let them die." Xu spread her hands out. "What do I care? I tried to kill you all already. I ruined my life trying to do it. Why should it upset me if Luchia's going to use Eden to do it for me?"

"This writ is timed, Xu." Quistis held the document up to the glass so Xu could read it and see the stipulation that Xu had fifteen minutes to give up information, or else the immunity would expire. "You know as well as I do how dangerous Eden is. That's why I'm so desperate." She remained calm, but even talking about Eden's dangers made Quistis's stomach knot painfully. What if Squall and Seifer were already dead, and she was bargaining with this bitch who'd broken her heart for nothing?

"I notice it's not a full pardon..." Xu trailed off, crossing her legs casually. But Quistis didn't miss that she kept reading over the paper with desperate eyes. It made a trickle of sweat work its way down the nape of Quistis's neck.

"Of course its not. But a ten year term is better than a beheading. And Nida would still be alive, and available."

Xu's almond-shaped eyes narrowed to slits. "You're bargaining your precious boyfriend?"

"I already told you that he's not mine," Quistis said patiently. Hyne, how she wanted to look at her watch. "I have a new man. You could have had Nida all along. We could have still been friends. And now I'm extending you a courtesy out of a friendship that you pissed all over."

"And all I have to do is give you any information on Eden's magical restraints?"

"I know you, Xu. Well, I know most of you. I know you wouldn't have chanced junctioning Eden for so long without creating some sort of magical leash or icon item."

Xu looked at the contract again, and Quistis checked her watch. "Tick tock, Xu."

Silence.

"Okay." Quistis pulled the writ away from the window and began unfurling it.

"It's my zebra swallowtail." Xu said as Quistis stood to leave.

"Hmm?" Quistis tried not to show her hope.

"The icon item. It's my zebra swallowtail specimen. The one I had in my Garden office."

"It wasn't your office," Quistis said bitterly, though her heart soared. She only hoped she could get that damned shadowbox and butterfly before it was too late for Seifer and Squall. If either of them died because of Eden

"Give me that document."

"This?" Quistis held it tight in her fist, crumpling it. "Xu did you really forget that I'm pretty damned good at forging documents? Maybe it's something you should have considered."

"What?" The imprisoned woman demanded, standing so quickly that her uncomfortable plastic chair skidded out from under her and clattered against her metal bed frame.

Quistis laughed at the thunderstruck look on her face. "It's a fake, you stupid idiot. You think I would ever bargain to get you out of here? After what you and Astor did to Seifer? I only wish that they would make you feel all that Seifer felt before they cut off your head."

"You bitch!" Xu shouted as Quistis began walking out of the antechamber.

"I loved you, you know" Quistis said over her shoulder. She knew it would be the very last thing she would ever say to Xu. The SeeD guard came and opened the door for her. When he closed the door behind it her, it shut away Xu's curses. It shut away a lifetime a friendship, burned and twisted under terrible ambition and jealousy.

"Thanks," she said quietly to the SeeD, tearing off in a run to find Rinoa. She didn't have to go far. Rinoa and Raijin had gone to the nearby coffee shop, but had come right back with paper cups in their hands, and an extra for Jurgen, who ignored it and stood like a sentry, waiting for Quistis to come back.

"Hey, here she comes, ya know!" Raijin exclaimed, rising from where he sat on a low fencepost.

Jurgen took large strides towards her, touching the side of her face. "I can see it went well," he said at the minor relief in her eyes.

She patted the hand on her cheek. "Rinoa, can you teleport me to Garden? She made one of her butterflies an icon item to control Eden's power."

Without any further questions, Rinoa called magic forth to her. As they teleported away, Quistis threw the fake, crumpled immunity document into the nearest gutter.

"Kiros, seriously. This is wayyyyyyy too much paperwork." Laguna's eyes felt like they were going to fall out as he looked at a new stack of forms that were unceremoniously plunked down on his desk.

"This is what you get for putting it all off until the last minute."

"Will you do it for me?" Laguna asked in his sweetest tone.

"No."

"I'll let you sleep with me."

"Still no."

Laguna groaned and opened the folder on the top of the pile. He started attacking the documents with an almost violent fervor, so much so that Kiros had to admonish him not to rip through the page.

"Sir, there is a visitor out in the waiting area for you," one of Laguna's pages announced.

"He's busy," Kiros said at the same time as Laguna said "oh, thank Hyne! Send them in."

"You have to do this paperwork," Kiros said sternly.

"I'll do it later."

Kiros bit back a torrent of curse words and just exhaled slowly, head tilting towards the ceiling.

"Excuse me, President Loire?" A female voice asked, sounding unsure. "I'm very sorry to interrupt you. You look busy." Her voice moved like velvet through the room, lightly accented with a Winhill dialect.

"Oh, that's no... prob... uh..." Laguna found he couldn't find words when he looked up at this beautiful, dark-haired woman. After a few moments of trying not to stare at her curvaceous body, he recognized her face as Vanessa Guillonio, the singer. Laguna had always had a thing for her - he loved dark hair, and the Winhill accent transported him to a happier time, a time with Raine.

Vanessa smiled shyly. "I'm in the city on business and wanted to surprise Squall with a visit, but he hasn't answered my messages. I was told he might be in here with you."

Even Kiros was a little star-struck, though for different reasons. He recovered himself quickly and offered his hand to her free one. Vanessa's other hand was occupied by holder the hand of her young daughter, Bianca. Bianca was a cute, chubby girl with big, expressive dark eyes and the same dark hair as her mother. "I'm Kiros Murphy-Seagill, Laguna's Vice-President."

"Buhh..." Laguna murmured, trying to stand, but his old leg cramps started acting up, so he had to lean on the desk. "Uh..."

"Squall's not here, though. We haven't seen him all day. Frankly, I've been keeping Laguna locked up in here so he'd do some work for once."

Vanessa grinned, looking down at Bianca when she whispered something under her breath. When Kiros's eyes met hers, the girl turned her face into her mother's leg, but stole peeks back up at him with an impish grin.

"Really? Do you know where he might be? I've missed talking to him." Truth be told, now that Vanessa was back in the public eye, she started to feel the desire to float away from it all on a drug binge. She had her counsellor on speed-dial, but she thought maybe it would help to see Squall, and see if he were succeeding in his war against addiction.

"How do you know him?" Kiros asked, shooting a disgusted look to Laguna, who still clutched at his desk and stared at Vanessa inappropriately. 'Very smooth', he mouthed at his old friend.

"We were at rehab together in Timber. Squall never mentioned it?"

"He doesn't talk much about that. He's rather private. And he'd never speak of anyone else who was there."

"I wouldn't have blamed him," Vanessa said, a tad bitterly. "Everyone in the world who reads a tabloid knows about it anyway. Oh, forgive me," she said, ruffling Bianca's hair, her eyes studying Laguna's open, handsome face. "This is my daughter, Bianca."

"Hi there!" Laguna said, finding his voice. He crouched in front of the girl. "Travelling with your mom?" He asked, more in his element while talking to children.

"She's singing," Bianca said quietly.

"Yeah. She's a really good singer, huh? You gonna be like her when you grow up?"

Bianca nodded eagerly. "I'm gonna be a singer. And an astronaut firefighter doctor."

"Wow, an astronaut firefighter doctor? That's a really important job."

"I'll heal all the aliens!"

As Laguna said "I've been to space, you know..." and Bianca gasped in pleasure and started asking him a million questions about space and if he'd ever met PuPu the alien, Vanessa frowned slightly at Kiros. "I'm sure it's nothing, but I can't reach his cell phone. I know last time I texted him, he said if I were in town, he wanted me to meet his boyfriend. Maybe he just doesn't want to be bothered, like people in new relationships tend to."

"They aren't exactly in a new relationship, but Squall's very... passionate under his cold exterior."

"He's not much like his father."

"Maybe not in mannerisms," Kiros noted affectionately.

"I have to admit, I used my star status to kind of push my way past the guards. I don't do that anymore, well... I used to a lot when I was 'unwell', but I really did want to meet President Loire. He's very charming on TV." She chuckled, eyes sliding over to Laguna and holding there for a few moments. "Though, maybe a little more eloquent."

"That's all an act. He has speechwriters."

"Huh?" Laguna looked up from telling Bianca about Ragnarok, using as many sound effects as possible. "You're saying bad things about me again."

"Mummy, he's been to space!" Bianca exclaimed.

"You really make it too easy. Oh, excuse me" Kiros reached into his pocket when he felt his phone vibrating against his hip. He stepped back from the other three to answer it. "Yes?"

Laguna looked up from his crouched position at Kiros, seeing that his easy smile got a frozen edge to it, making it look grotesque. His caramel complexion also paled until he looked ghastly, the glimmering eye makeup he often wore standing out in stark contrast.

Laguna gently stroked the top of Bianca's hair as he rose to his feet. "Kiros... what?"

"There's a distress call from the Penhorn winery"

Laguna's blood immediately went cold. He knew all about what survivors like Tiernan had suffered there at the hands of Azabaashe. What they'd lost.

"Laguna..." Kiros trailed off, sounding helpless and afraid. "Squall's there."

"Oh Hyne..." Vanessa put a hand to her mouth. "We won't detain you any longer. Come on, Bianca."

"But, Mummy...!"

"Honey, something really important came up, okay?"

"But, Mummy!" Bianca protested angrily.

"One of the aides will take you guys to a room here. Stay here, okay. They'll bring you anything you need, and I'll contact you when I can to tell you if Squall's okay." Laguna crouched before Bianca. "Sorry, munchkin. But I have a munchkin, too. He's a little older than you, and he's in trouble. When I come back, I'll tell you about the time I fought a dragon, though."

"A dragon!" Bianca breathed.

"Come on, sweetie." Vanessa nodded at them both and led Bianca out of the office.

"Dammit, Kiros..." Laguna breathed out when they were alone. "Danger just seems to follow that damn kid wherever he goes. What's happening?" He asked desperately after Kiros hung up. "Is he okay?' His voice broke on the last word.

"The watch tower got out there got a spike in magical energy. They began monitoring it, and then they got a distress call from Zell Dincht. Squall and Seifer were seeing leaving the city for that direction. According to the city border guard, it was just to look around at animals. You know how Seifer is." Kiros was still deathly pale. He knew what had happened out there from what Tiernan had told him over the years. He knew that sometimes in the middle of the night, his husband still woke up in cold sweats and would lay stiff and fearful for hours afterwards. Kiros also knew that ugly magic like that had a memory, and if there was something going on at that old site

"You gonna tell Tiernan?"

"Yes. I'd rather he found out from me."

"I'm goin' out there," Laguna said firmly, quickly going over to his desk. He unlocked the bottom drawer and pulled out his old, trusted machine gun. He looked up in shock when Kiros didn't immediately protest. "You're not gonna stop me?"

"Would anything I say matter?" He asked dully, cell phone pressed against his mouth.

"What you say always matters to me."

"Laguna..." Kiros trailed off with a minor eye roll. "You're so cheesy."

Laguna crossed the room, machine gun still in one hand. He put his free one on Kiros's shoulder, feeling the other man shaking. That frightened him more than anything. Kiros had always been his rock. Perfectly calm and unflappable even in horrible situations. The only thing that had kept Laguna from passing out in terror in the face of Adel had been looking at Kiros's stoic, calm profile. He admired that quality greatly in his best friend, just like he admired it in his son. Hopefully Squall was staying calm now, under the face of whatever trouble he was in.

"Eden's there, Laguna."

"I'm goin'."

Kiros just nodded, playing all kinds of awful descriptions over and over in his mind. He remembered every word Tiernan had ever told him about what Azabaashe had done in Penhorn. Tiernan had been lucky physically, and hadn't suffered some of the torture some of the other townspeople had, but the mental imprint... He'd never get over it.

"I'm coming with you. Get a ship ready, and I'll meet you after I talk to my husband."

"Okay." Laguna squeezed his shoulder. "Hurry though," he said sympathetically before running out of his office.

Kiros composed himself and followed, going for a different telepod than Laguna, briefly stopping to contact Ward on his cell phone. The trip to Tiernan's office, normally something that still gave his stomach a little flutter after all these years of marriage, filled him with nothing but dread. He found Tiernan behind his desk, catching up on the never-ending paperwork of a doctor.

Tiernan briefly looked up over the rims of his tortoiseshell bifocals. "Why are you just hovering there?" He asked with a grin, closing a folder and pulling another one towards him.

Kiros went to him, and Tiernan absently wrapped his arm around Kiros's thin waist and turned his face, kissing him on the stomach through his shirt. Tiernan felt the stiffness, and looked up. "What?"

"There's magical interference in Penhorn. Squall and Seifer are out there, and... Eden."

Tiernan's face went white, and he bunched the fabric of Kiros's shirt. "Eden?" He slowly let out his breath when Kiros didn't refute. The necromantic magic Azabaashe had done there would leave a magical ghost, and because of Eden's immense and bastardized power, it could trigger magical aftershocks that would bring back any dormant energy that had once raised the dead.

"What will you need to be able to help anyone we bring back with injury?" Kiros asked as Tiernan pressed his cheek against his stomach.

Tiernan took a few large breaths, remembering breathing exercises his psychiatrist had told him so long ago. He breathed in the cinnamon-musky smell of Kiros and felt Kiros's arms holding him, tethering him like an anchor. He felt Kiros breathing against his cheek, and concentrated on that - the feeling of his husband, living and breathing.

"Is Azabaashe... is... is h-he...?"

"I don't know."

"I won't go if you need me here, Tiernan."

"Laguna left, didn't he?"

"He can take care of himself."

Tiernan looked up from Kiros's belly and gave him a look.

"Yeah, okay. He can't."

"I don't want you to leave," Tiernan murmured, rubbing his hands up and down Kiros's hips. "But you have to." His lips, whitened with tension, set in a straight, determined line. "And, I can get what I need to treat anybody. Don't worry."

"Of course I'm going to worry."

Tiernan let Kiros's long, thin braids run between his fingers. "Go."

Kiros put his fingers under his husband's chin and tilted his face up, giving him a kiss. He felt Tiernan's body shaking slightly with tension. "I'll see you soon."

"Mmm," Tiernan mused distractedly, thinking about his parents. He tried to think of them as they'd been - smiling and hard-working, not crawling along the floor, ravenous and inhuman, catching former friends and neighbours to give them over to Azabaashe. He didn't want to picture their fingers, hard with rigor, tearing into the flesh of screaming family members. "I love you," he whispered into Kiros's stomach.

Kiros repeated the sentiment, kissing Tiernan's sweating temple. After leaving Tiernan's office and collecting some weapons, he ran to the nearest telepod. What would happen if he and Laguna found Squall and Seifer... altered, like the Estharian guards had found the citizens of Penhorn. It had taken twenty years for anyone to be held accountable, because Adel had sanctioned Azabaashe's necromantic experiments, and quite relished in them.

He was surprised to find Laguna actually waiting for him at the private telepod that would leave for the airport. But, Ward's massive, calm and silent presence behind the much shorter man might have had something to do with it.

"Tiernan okay?" Laguna asked as he stuffed a few extra magazines into the pockets of his slacks.

Ward, of course, didn't speak, but his eyes showed concern, crow's feet deepening with it.

"No."

"Squall's gonna be okay," Laguna assured. "It's not going to be a repeat of last time."

Kiros couldn't help but give his oldest friend a lopsided grin. Nothing could dim his positive outlook.

"You know..." Laguna began as they boarded the small airship that waited for them. "I really should stop trying to count the times I almost lost having Squall in my life - either from crazy-ass Sorceresses or through my own neglect and bad parenting..."

"Laguna" Kiros interrupted.

"Don't," he replied, as seriously as he'd said almost anything in his life.

"Well, at least you make Squall proud when you try to flirt with women."

"I was not flirting with her!" Laguna protested seriously. "I was just surprised. It's not every day you meet a famous singer like Vanessa."

"You should go for it."

"Pssh." Laguna blew up into some loose locks of salt-and-pepper hair to get it out of his eyes. "So what, you think she liked me?" He hadn't been with a woman in a while, but he was pretty sure Raine would think it was okay, after all this time. She'd never been the kind to hold grudges. Neither was he, so he had no idea where Squall got it from.

When he thought of his son, a sharp pang attacked his stomach. What if...? No. Laguna had never been a pessimist. He wouldn't be one now. Squall and Seifer would be okay. Squall would admonish him for coming in to rescue, and bristle at Laguna throwing his arms around him. Panic ate away at him as they neared their destination. Hyne, please protect him. I'm not exactly the most holy guy in the world, but I would really appreciate it.

"Laguna, whatever happens, you can't just jump in, guns blazing. You have not only a country that needs you, but a daughter, too."

"And, what about you?" Laguna asked quietly. "You think that people don't care if you're the one sacrificing yourself? You have a country that needs you, too. I can't run Esthar without you. Hell, Kiros. I can't run my life without you. And Tiernan..."

"I'm a little more level-headed when I go into a battle than you are." Kiros said it seriously, but there was strain around his eyes. "And don't worry about Vanessa Guillonio. She couldn't take her eyes off you. Women never can. Quite a few men, too."

"Like you?" Laguna asked, trying to joke and not dwell on the fact he might just be going to pick up Squall's corpse. Ward raised his eyebrows and let out a breathy, quiet chuckle.

"Sir, we're approaching magical disturbance in the air. It may get a little turbulent," their pilot's voice said over the intercom.

Kiros lowered his sinewy body down in front of one of the terminals and looked through the ship's scopes at the scene ahead of them. "I see something in the distance, Laguna. A dragon..." Kiros narrowed his eyes. "Shit. Shit, shit, shit. Brace for impact."

"Wha? What's going on, Kiros? Don't start cursing like that. You know it gives me the heeb-" Laguna couldn't finish his rambling sentence because the airship was then blasted by the aftershock of what Kiros had been swearing about - Tiamat's dark flare. Kiros reacted instinctively, and leapt out of his terminal towards Laguna, using himself as a human shield to protect him from any injury from projectiles or broken glass. He felt something slice across his upper back, the sting instantaneous. He was then slammed into from behind, hard enough that it knocked the wind out of him in a painful shunt.

Warning bells and buzzers from the airships computerized systems blared in an annoying, deafening cacophony. Wind whipped around them from the cracks in the glass, and the pilot's voice shouted something at them over all the noise, but neither man could hear him. They slowed to a crawl, the airship limping towards landing. They were jostled and slammed, Kiros's elbow jamming into Laguna's side. He could hear his best friend's heartbeat slamming quickly and loudly against his ear, and then felt Ward's huge embrace around the both of them. The noise lessened, until they were only left with the whines and beeps of the airship's electronics, and the sound of Kiros's heartbeat.

"You okay?" Kiros asked.

"You're asking me?" Laguna asked, a little angry, and definitely a little frightened. He reached up and wiped some blood off Kiros's face. "You're hurt."

"I'm fine," Kiros rasped, slowly rising to his feet, panting heavily to get his air back. "Come on." Kiros pulled out his katal blades, and when his coat gaped open, Laguna saw more blades strapped to his lean chest. Leave it to Kiros to always be prepared. "You okay?" He asked Ward.

Their friend nodded, going to check on the pilot.

When they stepped out of the airship, the pilot and Ward staying behind to try and get the thing back up and running in case they needed a quick take-off, they immediately felt the dark power. The bastardization of space and time. Tiamat cast another dark flare, and the aftershock caused both Kiros and Laguna to stumble to their knees. Laguna swallowed back bile, and Kiros turned his head to retch, glad he hadn't eaten much that morning. Kiros immediately summoned Quetzacoatl to him, the thunder bird soaring towards Tiamat, who faced against Bahamut, Ifrit and Odin.

Laguna summoned Shiva, but the ice goddess didn't immediately go to follow her fellow Guardian Force. She stayed behind and regarded Laguna with sad, immortal eyes. "Ultimecia's in there with him," she told the father of one of her other masters. "He lost connection with me."

Laguna's heart stopped for a few beats. "Help the other GF, 'kay?" He found that rare spot of focus within him. He couldn't break down. Squall needed him. He couldn't get distracted. Ellone needed him. "Get Tiamat out of the way so we can get inside the building."

"No," Kiros said firmly. "There's no fucking way you're going in there." He started running towards the old winery.

"And it's okay if you do?" Laguna shouted. "Kiros!" He shouted at his retreating friend. "Well, you better come back in one piece, because Tiernan will blame me if you don't, and he knows how to do autopsies!" Laguna pulled out his machine gun. "Shit." He stumbled when there was another wave of black, unnatural magic from Tiamat. He felt Shiva take a blow from it, but kept going. He saw an Estharian truck sitting on the plain, and made his way towards it.

Inside the truck, Laguna found a very angry and tense looking Seifer, sitting with Serino in his lap, and Zell behind the wheel. Seifer kept checking his phone, but the magical interference blocked any kind of transmission.

"Laguna?" Zell exclaimed in surprise.

"Thank Hyne you're safe," Laguna breathed, leaning against the window as Seifer rolled it down. His tension was obvious in his pale, drawn face. His healing scars stood out in stark, red contrast. Laguna reached into the car and touched the side of Seifer's face affectionately, the same way he would with either Squall or Ellone. "You okay? Where's Squall? What's going on?"

"Can I answer the first question?" Seifer asked in a very passable homage to Kiros. "No, I'm not fucking okay, President Loire. Squall is in there alone, probably against Ultimecia, and that fucking asshole won't let me go to him."

"I'm sitting right here!" Zell huffed. "I don't give a fuck if you lose your leg, but Squall probably does, so you can stop being such a prick." He didn't mean it, but it was so hard to stay civil when Seifer was being a jerk.

"None of that President Loire stuff. It's Laguna, okay? And, did you try to use your dragon power on that thing?"

Seifer would have scoffed at the description of 'dragon power', but he'd been too shit-scared of the possibility of Ultimecia coming back, and if Squall was okay, that he hadn't thought of his dragoon blood at all. The shame of something so obvious made his cheeks colour in embarrassment.

"Don't feel bad. It's not like there's a ton of dragons around to make you remember. I do have good ideas sometimes."

Seifer stared up at Tiamat, a dark and bastardized version of Bahamut. Could he even try to communicate with a dragon from another time and plane?

"Listen, guys..." Laguna trailed off, looking uncharacteristically grim. "Some really bad shit happened in this area when Adel and Azabaashe were running things. That kind of magic..."

"It has a memory," Zell finished. "You think Ultimecia messing with time could disturb things? I mean, I read about the stuff... the experiments that Azabaashe and Adel were doing out here. Ultimecia's bending space-time could trigger a reverse replay. It's happened before. Back before Adel, in the third Deling-Esthar war."

"Hyne, just shut up," Seifer whispered, eyes closed. He tried to shut out all noise, especially Zell's inane blather. He tried to focus on Tiamat's energy. Now that he really paid attention to it, and focused beyond Bahamut's now familiar warmth and largesse, he felt her dark magic, but it was distant and muted. Was the she-dragon really here, or just a projection? Could Seifer reach her mind? He tried not to think that his mysterious, and by all counts amazing, mother could have probably done it easily. But he wasn't her. He was an orphaned, failed Knight with a bum leg and a failed military career. The feeling faded as he doubted himself. Instead of thinking about a mother he never knew, who seemed almost more of a heroic novel character than a real woman, he thought of Squall. His Kitten. The man who infuriated him like nobody else could. The man who made his heart skip and made him ache with joy. The man who could be dead right now.

Squall, I just want to go home with you. No more world-saving adventures. No more almost getting killed on a daily basis. No more fucking up my life with thinking I'm only good enough to be an assassin. No more fucking up your life with trying to be anybody but yourself. I want to have a boring life with you. I wanna dance with you someday. I want to catch you singing in the shower. I wanna marry you and get old and lazy and kiss you every night before bed.

Thinking of Squall, and a boring and ordinary life with him, gave Seifer focus. When Tiamat used her draconic magic, it was like a knife in his stomach, because it didn't feel natural. This was a dragon who'd been warped and corrupted through centuries of magical abuse, ruined under Ultimecia's tutelage. But, still a dragon nonetheless. He felt a kinship with Tiamat. Both licking at Ultimecia's bootheels, contorted to her whims until they were something unrecognizable to the thing they'd been before she ever got them in her bony clutches. Maybe Tiamat had gone willingly, just like Seifer.

Were you an outcast, too? Did you have lofty dreams of glory, Tiamat? Did you feel abandoned?

He asked. He felt a shudder, and knew that Tiamat had heard him, or felt his questions on some level. Did all your dreams turn into an awful nightmare?

What do you know of it? A resonate voice vibrated in Seifer's skull.

"More than I'd like to," Seifer whispered, not even realizing he'd started talking out loud. However, he spoke so quietly that even Zell and Laguna didn't hear him. "I thought I was doing the right thing, being some fucking hero." He grinned at his own stupidity.

Zell and Laguna shared curious glances. Neither knew what they'd really expected. Fireworks? That Seifer would start speaking in some kind of other language and sprout scales and wings? He just kept whispering under his breath, the frown creasing his brow and his humourless grins showing discomfort with the subject matter. What they did notice, though, was a lessening of tension in the air.

Seifer remained silent for a while, waiting to see if Tiamat would respond again. Have you ever lost someone you loved?

"That's all my life seemed to be until recently."

He felt Tiamat's magic flare again, ugly and black. She's my mistress...

Seifer let out his breath like he'd been punched in the gut as Tiamat was assaulted by the combined magic of Odin, Ifrit, Shiva and Bahamut. He felt her pain through their connection, and saw a sheet of red over his vision.

"Seifer!" Laguna exclaimed, gripping the younger man's shoulder when he saw his eyes roll into the back of his head, whites visible under half-closed lids. He started sweating, and a trickle of blood ran from his left eye. "Seifer, stop! Stop doing... whatever!" He shook Seifer vigorously, concern mounting.

"Shit." Zell briefly closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He always liked punching Seifer Almasy, because the bastard usually deserved it, but he felt like a complete asshole when he slammed his fist into Seifer's bad knee.

Laguna gasped and jerked as Seifer let out a strangled scream, eyes fluttering. He bowed forward in pain, blinded by it. Laguna shot Zell a murderous glare and cast a light cure spell on Squall's boyfriend. "I'm shit with cure magic, but that should dull the pain."

Seifer panted, clutching his knee. It seared like Astor was breaking it all over again. He shot Zell a sidelong glare and quickly punched him in the cheek. Zell's head snapped to the side and he groaned in pain. He was glad he could take a punch, because Seifer always hit him like a wrecking ball. At least he wasn't at peak physical condition, so he'd only have a bruised face instead of a broken cheekbone.

"You okay?" Laguna asked, lightly rubbing circles on Seifer's back.

"Tiamat's not going to listen to me," Seifer ground out hoarsely.

"You tried your best."

Seifer looked up at Laguna. The words, coupled with the touch on his back... so, this is what it must have felt like to have a father. He probably should have been very envious of Squall and Ellone at that moment, for having Laguna as their father, for having any father. But he wasn't. Because in that moment, it kind of felt like Laguna was his father, too.

Laguna cursed and immediately brought his gun up to a firing position when there was a quick flash of light near them. About fifty paces from the truck, a group of four people appeared, Rinoa in the center. Her translucent wings stood out in bright contrast, and left white spots in Seifer, Zell and Laguna's visions. Quistis and Jurgen immediately broke away and started running towards the winery building. She only briefly turned around, a flapping of blonde hair and a blur of the colour of her hoodie. They locked eyes for a heartbeat, and blew Seifer a kiss. Then she was gone, running straight away from him. Vanishing from him, just like Squall. Is this how they'd felt when he'd pushed them off that bluff in the Kashkabald?

"Seifer!" Raijin exclaimed, rushing towards the truck. He did a double-take when he saw Zell sitting behind the steering wheel, and his jovial face became dark and threatening.

"I don't mean any trouble, Raijin..." Zell murmured, putting his hands up in what he hoped was a passive gesture. He knew he could take Raijin in a fight - eventually. He'd get tired and banged up all to hell, though.

"You okay?" Rinoa asked, dipping her head into the car beside Laguna, peering closely at Seifer's face. "You look like you're in pain."

"Just my leg," Seifer ground out, glaring at Zell. "What are you doing here?"

Rinoa cast some quick healing magic on her teenage crush. "You should have seen Quistis..." She trailed off when the ground shook because of the GF battle. Alexander disjunctioned himself and joined the fray. "She was so clever!" Rinoa opened the truck door and shimmied into the cramped back seat. "She tricked Xu into revealing what she'd used as an icon item to control Eden."

Seifer's face broke into a wide grin. "I love a story that winds up with Xu being made an asshole of. But... can Eden even be controlled?" The fact that Rinoa was wearing a sweatshirt he'd seen Raijin wearing dozens of times wasn't lost on the blonde man. Neither was the fact that Raijin didn't remain more than five feet away from her, and that their fingers brushed together across the window frame.

"But isn't Eden really seductive?" Laguna pondered. He scanned the horizon and watched the GF fight. He seemed a lot more nervous than someone as carefree as he normally was should have been. It worried Seifer. After all, he knew a lot more about the things that Adel and her third Knight had done. "I know it warps the perspectives of people who try to control it. Adel made it that way - since she was so bastardized herself, she was unaffected, but she didn't want anyone else to steal her new toy. Not even another Sorceress."

"Quistis can do it," Rinoa urged quietly.

The others looked dubious, knowing Quistis's penchant for self-doubt. Seifer looked over his shoulder at the novice Sorceress, and the two of them shared a long look. One of faith.

"You know, I think this is going really badly," Irvine commented conversationally just before firing another round from his sawed-off shotgun.

"UNDERSTATEMENT," Fujin grit, sweating profusely from all the magic she'd spent. She was almost out of junctioned spells, and these apparitions from Ultimecia's future weren't carrying any. Soon, she wouldn't even be magically strong enough to maintain her junctioned connection with Pandemona.

"If it means Squall's okay, it's worth it, right? He's a dick, but I adore that about him."

"SEIFER," Fujin simply answered. Sure, she didn't wish Squall dead, but she did this more for Seifer. Anything for him. Anything to see him happy.

"That looks like the last of them," Irvine grinned as he blew through the last of the futuristic iron giants.

"Famous last words," Fujin said with dark humour as the air around them grew oppressive and think again, like they were in the belly of a great beast.

"Aw, come on. Fucking seriously?"

"You'd be a pretty poor assassin if you grew tired of killing," a voice commented lightly from within the winery's gloom.

The short, twin barrels of Irvine's gun whipped around to the source of the words. Large blades glinted in the light from the fading magic, also gently illuminating the face of Kiros. Even though Irvine recognized him as an ally, he didn't lower the gun. After all, how much of an ally could the Vice President of Esthar be to the leader of an international assassins ring?

"You don't seem surprised that I know, Sol."

"I know you're not stupid, and that you're not as mild-mannered as you seem. There's a lot of stories in the Galbadian army about you being a real cold-blooded badass."

"We can keep having a pissing contest, or we can try to save Squall's life." Kiros stepped more into the light, his face grim and serious.

"So, why haven't you arrested me?" Irvine asked, lowering the gun only a little.

"You leave so little proof of any dealings in Esthar. My political reach only goes so far. Though, my physical reach is unparalleled, and if you don't lower that gun, I can slice off your genitals from here. I know how much you prize them."

Irvine chuckled. "You just turned me on." He fully lowered his gun, face turning serious. "I haven't seen Squall in a while. We've been too busy fighting these things."

"Is it Ultimecia?" Kiros asked, body taut with tension.

"NATURALLY," Fujin scoffed. "WHO ELSE?"

"Seifer's safe. Well, as safe as anyone can be in the area right now. Zell and Laguna are out there with him, and the GF are fighting Tiamat. I know it's a distraction from Eden, though."

"You have a plan?"

"Unfortunately, not really." It pained Kiros to admit that.

"TIME SHIFT," Fujin warned when she felt that pulling tightness in the air again. It blurred their vision and made them feel vertigo. Armies of futuristic Forbiddens and iron giants materialized from the shadows amidst the cobwebs and gloom. The monsters that came forth were led by a massive Red Giant, its alizarin coloured armour looking near black in the shadows. Its eyes glowed malevolent green. Not only did this gargantuan servant to Ultimecia materialize, but he also brought with him a foul odour of sewage and rotten flowers. Within the shadows cast by the massive metallic knight, the small figure of Eden's human guise appeared. Though the stench was overpowering and the black feeling of her magic left Irvine, Kiros and Fujin's nerves tingling, this was only a fraction of her magic.

"Take the Red Giant," Kiros commanded. "I'll deal with Eden."

"You know, we were doing just fine without you," Irvine snarked, shooting a fist-sized hole into the skull of one of the Forbiddens. "And, you're like, a million years old."

Kiros now ignored Irvine and Fujin, looking into the hellish red eyes of Eden's human guise. He knew this was only a fraction of the manufactured GF's power, but that fraction was still more deadly than most enemies, magical, monstrous or otherwise, had ever been. He set his jaw, and parried a quick thrust from a smoky blade that appeared from nowhere, borne of shadows. The stench from Eden nearly overwhelmed Kiros, but he continued to focus, Katal blades flashing like lightning in the dim light, making loud, ugly scraping sounds against Eden's unearthly weapon.

Kiros arched back as Eden's blade slipped past his left Katal and nearly cut the side of his face off. Twenty years ago, even Eden wouldn't have been able to land that hit on him, but he was older now, and didn't get to fight or practice as much anymore, so he felt the sting across his cheek, and the hot stickiness of blood immediately dripping down his neck and into the leather breastplate he wore under his shirt. Eden knocked against his left Katal again, and the bracer that connected it to his wrist snapped. With one motion, Kiros flung the blade away and flicked out a surgically sharp dagger from a hidden sheath underneath the larger blade. It was an Odine weapon, so when it landed and sunk through Eden's side, black blood and twisting smoke exploded from the wound.

Eden shrieked, a sound of ill-tuned violins and broken glass. Spittle and black blood stringed between her nail teeth as the blade dug through her human guise's lung. A new blade appeared in Eden's hand, forged from shadows. It actually appeared to be a gunblade, eerily similar to Squall's, with the griever emblem etched on the wide flat of the blade. Kiros parried and spun to Eden's back as she thrust the blade downward, and drove his remaining Katal into her back. She yelped, but the gunblade arced again, and Kiros felt it slice through his leather breastplate like it was made of paper. Kiros grunted when he felt it cut through his stomach muscles, but his reflexes saved any further damage.

Irvine and Fujin cut their way through the seemingly endless wave of apparitions from Ultimecia's realm, both getting distracted by watching Eden and Kiros. It was pretty dangerous, because the Red Giant was a formidable enemy, but Eden and Kiros moved together like water. His fighting was a thing of beauty, and she a thing of horrors and they mirrored each other with a dark elegance. However, Kiros wasn't as fast as he'd once been, and even if he were, Eden wasn't human. Though the Odine blades hurt her, she could make parts of her body become shadows, and just reform them. Irvine would have tried to get some buckshot pelted into her, but he would have hit Kiros.

Kiros cried out with pain and surprise when Eden's shadowy arms extended unnaturally, and the bastardized gunblade ran him through, poking through the right side of his abdomen. Kiros fell to one knee, hissing in pain as Eden screeched in laughter. Kiros's whole, lean body shuddered with the pain, but pushed towards Eden, the blade sinking deeper into him. He tasted blood in his mouth - first just a drop, then more and more. The gunblade had pierced a lung. He disregarded the hot, tangy flavour of metal that was choking him, and sliced up with his Odine blade, going through Eden's shoulder like it was butter. The movement caused him undeniable agony, but Eden's screeching gave him satisfaction. The arm grew back, like writhing, shadowy snakes, but the monstrosity's aura seemed diminished. However, Eden was now also a lot angrier.

Kiros fell to his knees from the pain, feeling toxic fire moving through his veins. He slashed out again, this time cutting off Eden's right leg at the hip joint. The sudden toppling of her body caused the gunblade to cut down through his side and into his liver and kidneys. Kiros sure as hell didn't want to die, not when Laguna couldn't function without him, not when Squall was still in so much danger, and especially not when he had Tiernan to come home to, but he knew he'd die anyway if he didn't do something. So he grit through the horrible, blinding pain and continued to hack and slash at Eden, cutting off limbs that just grew back like some kind of perverted hydra.

Not only could Kiros feel the fiery pain of the blade through his vital organs, but he felt something else. Something dark and venomous. Some sort of toxin that seeped into him from within Eden's smoky shadows. He reared his head back when she snapped her nail teeth at his face, her breath hot, muggy and rank against his face. He bit back a scream when the nail mouth then dug into his shoulder, dozens of little rusty daggers piercing him. Kiros tossed away his other Katal so he could get a better grip on the Odine daggers, and he jammed them into Eden's belly, giving her a death-glare, not flinching as his eyes stared into the hot, burning red pits of her eye sockets.

Suddenly, the gunblade exited him, and he slumped forward from the immediate extraction. The blade hadn't been pulled out. It just disappeared. His ears rang from the pain, and the sounds of Fujin and Irvine fighting the Red Giant seemed like they were under water. He shuddered and blinked, seeing Quistis's face suddenly in front of him, her eyes looking so blue and human compared to Eden's stare. "Quistis...?" He whispered, blood dribbling from between his lips.

"Shush," she commanded, casting some magic on him. "You didn't hear me calling you?" She asked, peering into his eyes. Kiros hadn't realized it, but he'd blacked out briefly from the pain and the force of Eden's magic. "Eden's under control. Hyne... you're a mess." Quistis forced Kiros to meet her gaze. He seemed lucid, but was obviously in a lot of pain, and his eyes got glassier and farther away with each passing second. His cinnamon complexion turned pale and grey, and the blood coming from his mouth and nose got thicker and blacker, even in the limited light.

She touched her ear, where there was a headset she'd picked up at Garden. "Rinoa? Kiros is hurt. Hurry." She knew the Sorceress would be able to use stronger magic, and Quistis didn't have much time. She had to find Squall... "Stay with him," Quistis commanded to Jurgen before running deeper into the winery. She didn't look back to see if he'd done it, because she trusted he would. She trusted that he would trust her. She trusted him. Period. It felt good to feel it about someone aside from Seifer and Squall. "Please... baby, please be okay," she whispered to herself, the zebra swallowtail shadowbox hot in her hands from Eden's power.

Squall groaned in pain, unable to see straight, but unable to give up. One of his eyes was swelling shut, and he knew he'd have a hell of a shiner if he survived this mess. Usually, it was thoughts of Seifer and Quisty that kept Squall going, but this time he didn't even think of them. He thought of Ultimecia, and fucking her over. Ultimecia, or Luchia, stumbled in the wake of her transformation, but as time ticked on, she got stronger. It was still kind of hard for Squall's brain to reconcile that he was looking at Ultimecia, and not Luchia Blackwell. Hyne, how many fucking times had he stood beside Luchia when she'd been completely defenceless! He could have killed her a thousand times over. But, would Ultimecia have just found another body?

It didn't matter, in the end. What mattered was that he kept moving. He kept parrying and slicing at her with Lionheart. It mattered that the black, rancid smoke that made up Eden had suddenly vanished. It mattered that he could no longer smell raw sewage choking him. It mattered that Squall knew if Ultimecia didn't kill him now, she'd never get another chance. All this fucking around with time had put her in a time loop she couldn't really escape from. Even if Squall died today, his past self would still destroy her. Even if she won, she'd still go into the past to kill Squall. She had to, because her past self had already decided it. Squall had no fathomable clue what she'd tried to do with Azabaashe. Did she need his necromancy in order to use Luchia's body? Was she herself dying in the future, and needed that energy in order to gain a new body? Was it the exact time in the future that they'd all travelled to right now? If Ultimecia lost here, would she throw herself back into the past to possess Adel and set all the pieces in motion to bring them to this day?

Thinking about it made Squall's head hurt, and it distracted him, enough so that he was slammed in the chest by a large barrage of magic. When he hit the nearest wall, blinding red pain shot across the vision from his one good eye. He wouldn't be surprised if his ribs were in a hundred different pieces. He was barely even aware of Selphie or Doomtrain, or even Shiva, anymore. Ultimecia was all he saw. His gunblade had been knocked out of his hand, but that didn't stop Squall. He went to the same cold, dark place he'd gone to when he fought Astor. He just wanted to rip this bitch apart with his bare hands. He and Ultimecia shared magical blows, and he put his whole weight into a shoulder-check, jamming her in the belly with his elbow. She uppercut him in the ribs, and it caused Squall to drop like a bag of bricks. He would have vomited if there were anything left in his stomach to puke up.

Squall then felt like Doomtrain had crashed right into the side of his head. In fact, it had been Ultimecia's clawed, almost avian, foot slamming into the side of his face. He felt one of her sharp toenails dig into his temple, and the whole world flipped around. He immediately felt sick and knew she'd given him a pretty bad concussion. When he tried to move, it was like the floor became something out of a carnival funhouse, and colours smeared together until he became so nauseated that he dry-heaved violently.

He tried to stand up, but Ultimecia got him around the neck with one of her clawed hands. The nails dug into him and cut off his air. He stared into Ultimecia's eyes, now completely golden. None of Luchia's electric blue remained. Her eyes looked irritated and bloodshot, just like his own. She suffered from the effects of Doomtrain's toxins, just the same as him. Squall looked into those eyes, and realized that he was going to lose. He wasn't going to get out of this like he'd got out of his fight with Astor. Was this how she'd felt, in the end? When all her tricks had failed and Squall had ended her life? He refused to close his eyes, though. He wouldn't show her his fear and sorrow, not even as his vision smeared from lack of oxygen. He wouldn't give Ultimecia the satisfaction of seeing his heartbreak at not being able to finish the life with Seifer he'd started. He refused to show her that, but the tears still fell from his eyes, even as he stared Ultimecia down defiantly. He'd never press his cheek to the warmth of the side of Seifer's neck again. He'd never get called 'Kitten'. He'd never get to buy a house with Seifer, or fall asleep with him every night, or have a fight with him, or spar with him.

Squall suddenly felt like the floor had given out from under him. Air swelled back into his lungs, stinking of toxic gas and rancid flowers. He sank to the floor and tried desperately not to black out. Squall attempted to raise himself with Lionheart, but stumbled and fell back against the wall. His head felt like one giant bruise, and each breath was agony. Unfortunately, he was getting used to the latter feeling. He looked up through sore, squinted eyes when the shadow of a person came into his smeary vision. He raised his gunblade in front of him, but it was gently knocked away as if it were a toy.

The figure crouched in front of him, and Squall sighed a sigh of relief that turned into a groan of pain when he stared into Quistis's familiar, loving cobalt eyes. The sound of Diablos's bats circling around her and screeching with their sonar made him feel like his brains were oozing out his ears, but he'd never been so happy to see her.

Eden's power, under Quistis's control, hit Ultimecia hard. She'd been so magically drained from her transformation within Luchia's body that she had no magical defences to counter such an attack. Quistis slammed her eyes shut against the blinding light of Eden's standard magical attack, feeling unclean. She knew that junctioning Eden was grossly dangerous, but Squall's life was more important than that. She focused on him, and the laboured sound of his breathing, instead of focusing on Eden's whispers within her own head.

Quistis's concentration faltered when she looked down into the now kneeling Ultimecia's face. Her mouth opened, and she almost whispered 'Luchia', but the name got stuck somewhere in her throat. Her whole mouth burned from junctioning Eden, and her skin felt itchy and clammy. Her hesitation caused Ultimecia to regain some of her composure, and Quistis was flung back against the wall by a wave of magic. She kept the butterfly shadowbox clutched tight in her hands, and heard the display glass crack. She ignored Eden's sultry whisperings and intoxicating promises and called more of the bastardized power to her. Ultimecia shrieked, and sounded more like Luchia. She screamed and cursed, digging her claws into the dirt floor.

"Damned SeeD," she hissed, her foothold in the past faltering under Eden's magic. She knew that if she teleported back, she'd only face another defeat at the hands of these upstart little urchins, but if she stayed here, death was completely certain. She hissed, illegible and enraged, under her breath before giving up her connection to this time, vanishing in a cloud of glittering magic and black feathers.

The oppressive feeling in the air immediately vanished, and it was like they'd been underwater for hours, and had finally breached the surface. Ultimecia's creatures withered away until they were alone in the winery with the echoing sound of Squall's pained breathing, and the sound of their own heartbeats.

Quistis waited a few tense moments before she disjunctioned Eden. She then crouched beside Squall and cupped his bruised and swollen face between her hands, inspecting his eyes. "Can you hear me?"

"Yes," he replied, taciturn and annoyed. "My name is Squall Leonhart. I'm the son of the Estharian President, in love with Seifer Almasy, and an alcoholic. Satisfied?"

Quistis ruefully shook her head, and gave him a kiss. "Can you stand?"

Squall gripped Quistis's hands between his own and groaned as they both struggled to pull him to his feet. When he felt Selphie's hand on his arm, trying to help as well, he shrugged her away. In truth, he'd forgotten that she was there. True, he probably would have died without Selphie's help, but he had a long memory, and his penchant for grudges made his anger at her still rise in him like lava.

"Is..."

"Seifer's okay," Quistis answered, knowing exactly what Squall was going to ask. Squall leaned heavily on her when he finally got to his feet. "I wish I could say the same for you. Or Kiros." She bit her lip.

"Kiros...?"

Selphie's head jerked up, eyes darting back and forth as she listened to Doomtrain talking in her head. "Guys... Um, I think we should jet."

"Why?" Quistis asked. "Okay, honey... one foot in front of the other," she said lowly to Squall.

"Doomtrain's sensing some sort of weird magical disturbance that's totally not Ultimecia."

Quistis bit the inside of her cheek so hard that she tasted blood. She'd read stories about what happened here during Adel's reign of Esthar. "Squall, baby you have to move."

Squall slammed his eyes shut as a wave of nausea debilitated him. He felt the ground rumble underneath of him with the dark energy of something that definitely wasn't an earthquake.

"Hurry!" Selphie urged, flapping her arms like she was a matador. "Hurry, hurry."

Quistis leapt back when the ground in front of her blew upwards in a cloud of dust and grit. She put herself in front of Squall to shield him, but the ground was breaking apart all around them. There was an awful moment of pure silence, where they couldn't even hear their own breathing or heartbeats. And then the screaming started.