A/N: This story is seriously depressing me. haha I'm sorry I've taken so long to update. I think I'm going to start the next chapter soon (as in right now). I meant this series to be so much shorter. The story has kind of taken on a life of it's own though. I honestly don't know how happy I am with this chapter, so I'll let you, the readers, be the judges. =) I hope you enjoy it.

Uncrossing then re-crossing her long, high heel clad legs; Quistis pushed the offensive word from her mind.
The stony faced blonde redirected her thoughts to the events that followed the verdict.

Seifer had seemed unsurprised by the outcome. So she was right; he had been expecting this all along. Quistis, on the other hand, was unable to keep the look of complete horror from her face. How could they consider him guilty of the same things they had found Edea innocent of? Her expression turned to one of outrage. Standing up, she slammed her palm against the thin bar that separated the crowd of observers from the official portion of the court room.
The judge gave her a warning glance as he excused himself to deliberate over which punishment to hand down to the convicted.

Seifer turned his empty gaze to his former instructor, carefully masking his surprise at her response. He gave a hollow attempt to recreate his trademark smirk. It was for her benefit, which wasn't something he would normally have cared about. Today wasn't a normal occasion.
Quistis had been one of a small handful to actually take the stand in his defense. Again, normally, he would have hated to necessity of any kind of assistance. He still hated it to an extent, but this situation was out of his hands. That very fact pissed him off more than he could ever begin to verbalize. It also left him feeling helpless. He wanted to sneer at himself, remind him that only that only weaklings should feel such emotions. He couldn't manage it.
Seifer Almasy was no god, despite all of the dark queen's whisperings. He was still able to feel things that any mortal man could.
Quistis' expression lost its edge as she observed him. It felt wrong to watch the typically prideful man act this way. There was no trace of his former ferocity in his countenance. Not even a hint of the boastfulness that she had come to expect from him. He wasn't a broken man, but he was pretty damn close.
Sneering, she leaned down, her face very close to his. "I don't know what the fuck it is that has you acting this way, but I'm not a fan of it." She hissed the words at him.
Seifer sighed, rolling his eyes half-heartedly.

"Yeah, well I don't know when you took up swearin' like a sailor, but I am a fan of it." She was unhappy to find that even his words held little of their old spark. Pressing her palm to her forehead, she sat back down, her eyes closed in frustration.

"Please, Seifer, don't change the subject." She glared up at him. "This isn't something you can just blow off, like detention." Quistis could remember, like it was yesterday, watching over detention classes that were always missing one repeat offender. No matter how many detentions she assigned, he almost never showed up. He had once tried to claim immunity because of his Disciplinary Committee title. That had not stood very well with her.

Frowning slightly, he leaned closer to her, his eyes tinged with something very close to anger. "You act like I don't fuckin' know that." He rushed to continue when he saw that she was about to retort with some kind of sassy come back. "I can't do shit about this, Trepe. But I'll be damned if I'm gonna sit here and sulk about it like Puberty Boy would."

"Hm. Funny. I thought that you were sulking. Basically." Quistis frowned heavily, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Hah hah, Instructor. To think, after all these years of believing you were just some serious, stuck up bitch I find out that you have a sense of humor. Even if it is drier than that black hole you call a vagina." His words actually had bite to them. Quistis felt strangely perverse for finding comfort in that fact. "I'm not sulking. I'm not fighting either. If I thought I had any kind of chance, and trust me, I mean any, I would be raising all kinds of hell." He jerked his thumb in the direction of the jury. "But most folks have a pretty biased opinion of me. Ya know, seeing as I've probably killed at least one member of their family; or at least a friend. Dunno if you know this or not, but I was kind of a bastard during the war." There was a faint sadness to his joke.

She grit her teeth and cast the jury a withering glance. "Edea did just as much as you did. If I understand things correctly, she may have even done more." Her voice grew sad as she whispered, "Had the sorceress come to you in any other form…" She chanced a glance at him, and found a strange mixture of anger and despair in his emerald eyes. "None of this would have happened." Quistis could never claim to be an expert on Seifer, but she knew this to be the truth.

"Maybe. Doesn't matter though. If it wasn't me, it woulda been somebody else." He was quiet, his eyes dark. There was something about his expression that made her sure that he was reliving some terrible memory.

"You're probably right." She hesitated a moment before tentatively reaching out and placing a hand on his shoulder. "It wasn't your fault. I think that any of us would have made the same choice." He almost instantly tensed under her touch.

"I don't believe you." His words came out in a harsh whisper. "You all had purposes. I was the only one of us without any kind of ties."

"That isn't true." She began to pull her hand away before he caught her by the wrist.

"I don't have time for your bullshit, Trepe. You had your precious teaching career. Everybody else was SeeD and had bigger an' better things to be doin'. I didn't have shit." Quistis balled her fist and seriously considered punching him in the jaw with her free hand. She also toyed with the idea of leaving so that she could cry away, from his judgmental eyes.

"I was already relieved of my duties as an instructor by the ball; before you even ran off to Timber." With that admittance, she yanked her hand from his grasp. "You weren't the only one without any real purpose, Seifer." She adverted her gaze as the judge entered the room.
Seifer stared at her, an unreadable look distorting his features slightly.

The judge announced, though Quistis tried her best to ignore it, the decided upon sentence. Somehow, despite her best efforts, she managed to catch the most important part of the judge's little spiel.

"He shall be put to death by lethal injection. God have mercy on your soul, young man." With that, he stood and walked away.
Quistis was unable to keep the panic from rising in her chest. "Death?" her words were barely audible.

Seifer had turned away from him, so she was unable to see how this news had affected him. Before she could utter a word to him, the guards were pulling him to a standing position. Quistis rose again, wanting to stop this. No matter what Seifer had said or done to her in the past, this was all too much.
He turned his head, a bitter smile twisting his lips in an unattractive way. "There is nothing they can do that I have not already done to myself." With that, he was ushered off to a holding cell to await transportation to the D-district prison.

She stared after him, horrified. Unshed tears began to sting her eyes.

Quistis bit her lower lip roughly, hating herself for feeling, once again, on the verge of tears. The part of this that upset her the most was the way that it felt like he was just giving up. He was going down without a fight. He didn't even have the decency to be scared or upset.

She dug her fingers into her palms, painfully. It was all she could do to keep from screaming. There was something, and she couldn't put her finger on exactly what, she was about to lose. It wasn't just Seifer. No, it was something more; something that was more important than her career. Even more important than all of her achievements.

Zell glanced over at Quistis, his eyes showing his concern. "Quisty? What's wrong?"
She turned her teary gaze to him. "It's nothing, Zell. I'm okay." It was immensely hard for her to utter those lies to such a loyal friend. By the look on his face, he didn't believe her, but he didn't attempt to pry. Either he was afraid of what she would say, or he sensed that he didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of getting an honest answer out of her.

When she turned back in her seat, she found a piercing emerald gaze focused on her. The force of the look alone was enough to knock the breath right out of her. Two fat tears slid down either cheek. She was no longer able to hold back the tears, though she was at least still capable of crying silently.

Seifer's face softened. He had given the entire crowd a once over, finding nothing but resentment and pity. That was until he looked to his ex instructor.
No. She was more than that. He didn't know if he could call her friend, but he sure as hell knew that she was the closest thing he had to comfort in his last weeks on this planet. As he sat down on the large T shaped medical bed, he found himself actually regretting this for the first time since he had been formally charged.

It had been easy to accept his fate when he thought that his death would only impact people in a positive way. Looking at Quistis, it was impossible to see how he was affecting her positively. He could almost swear that he could see tiny tendrils of blood seeping from where her nails were forced into the tender skin of her palms.
He couldn't stop himself from wishing that she had just stayed home. Honestly, he didn't need this right now. How was he supposed to die peacefully knowing that he was leaving behind the only person lonelier than himself? Closing his eyes, he muttered under his breath.

"I'm sorry, Quis."