Adult-FanFiction.org : Final Fantasy

One (Last) Chance	By : RotSeele Category: Final Fantasy VIII > Yaoi - Male/Male > Seifer/Squall Views: 3719 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy 8. I do not make any money from this story.

Chapter List
- 23
- 24
- 25
Twenty-Four - Seifer POV

The second the two Gardens collided, I felt the rumble of machinery failing beneath my feet. I followed the others straight into the mouth of the beast then, Hyperion held low and held ready. Squall’s words danced around in my head, echoing and reechoing. I didn’t doubt that he’d made a similar speech Before. He didn’t talk much, but when he did... Looking at the kids fighting all around me, I knew Squall had inspired in them something I could never do.
That’s what Squall does. Ifrit said. He inspires. He makes people want to do better.
He’s good like that. I responded.
The fire Guardian Force laughed, but it was humorless. Even Before, he fought to try and make you realize that. That he wanted you to be better than a slave.
I grimaced. Rub it in, why don’t you?
This time Ifrit really did laugh with full humor and subsided to the edge of my consciousness. I shook my head and caught up with the others. Just before we went into Galbadia Garden, I turned around, squinting as I looked up toward the sky, seeking any sign of Squall and Rinoa. I didn’t see shit, except for fighting everywhere. The smell of blood was thick in the air, mingling with the scents of gunpowder and fire. Even if I did see them, what good would I be able to do? I’d probably get myself killed if I tried to get close. Grinding my teeth at my impotence, I stomped into Galbadia Garden and vented my frustration on the Galbadian soldiers that came up against us. Since I was spoiling for a fight, the small fry we faced only increased my frustration because they didn’t last long enough for me to vent my aggression.
Then, we settled in to wait.
Squall and Rinoa showed up about twenty minutes later, looking windblown. Squall seemed to be sporting a few new bruises, but when I arched my brow he only shook his head. He refused to let me get close enough to get a good look, too, which pissed me off. I hated to see him hurt needlessly, especially since he knew when and how something was going to happen and could defend himself accordingly.
As one large group, we headed through the Garden, dispatching enemies as they came at us. I watched Squall most of all, watching the tenseness of his body increase with each step we took deeper into Galbadia Garden. He was preparing himself, physically, mentally, for the fight we were going to face soon. He was also preparing himself to be the catalyst for Rinoa’s fate, which, if I had to be honest, was making me a little tense as well. Squall had described it to me, sure, but that didn’t mean shit. I was going to witness it, firsthand. I was going to watch the sweet girl I knew become the vessel for a bloodthirsty bitch. I wanted to stop it. I wanted to protect her. But I couldn’t. I had to let it happen, and that was what was bothering Squall twice as much as it was bothering me.
At last we made it to the center of the Garden. Squall seemed so still now, but I wondered if he’d shatter if I just reached out and poked his shoulder. He fell back to the rear of the group and met my gaze. I fell back as well, allowing the others to pass me. As soon as they were out of sight, I reached to grasp Squall’s shoulder, pulled him close, and kissed him. He grasped at my coat, his knuckles no doubt white under the black leather of his gloves, and returned it. Then he pulled back and pressed his head against my chest, letting me see the pale expanse of the back of his neck.
“You all right?” I asked.
His shoulders lifted and fell.
“Well, I’d hate to see the other guy then.”
A snort escaped him and he looked up at me, allowing me a better look at the bruises. They weren’t as bad as I originally thought they would be. Squall brushed the bruise along his jaw with a featherlight touch. “I defended myself better this time.” he said.
“I’m glad.” And I meant it. Squall’s eyes flicked down the hallway, as if he were counting the minutes before someone returned. “I noticed you gave Rinoa your ring.”
“Griever, yeah.” Squall blew out a sigh. “Zell asked me for it. For her. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Gives her a big dose of courage. She keeps touching it.”
“I know.”
“You’re not going to take it back?”
“Not yet.”
“I’m guessing there’s a reason for that?”
Squall looked up at me and tilted his head to one side. He didn’t say a word. He pulled back from me, but he didn’t go so far as to break the hold I had on him. He nodded slowly and reached up to take my hand in his, holding it tight.
I returned the grip, maybe a little tighter than I should have. He met my eyes again, searching my face for something. I grinned at him, bravado and sass driving it. There was a little twitch at the corners of his mouth, and there was a short-lived smile. Then he released my hand and pulled away from me. He gave me one last look, then headed down the hallway after the others. I followed, but my steps were heavy and my grip around Hyperion was tighter than before. I focused on Squall’s backside, noting how his legs propelled him along only because he had to go forward to see this through.
The room we found ourselves was austere. It was done in soft pastels and draped with sheer cloth. A young man stood before a throne of sorts, bouncing a saber against his shoulder as he watched us approach. Behind him sat the sorceress Edea, our Matron, the woman who cared for us when we were little and let us go so we could be trained to kill women like her, sorceresses who had fallen from grace. I didn’t recognize the kid, but Irvine seemed to, judging by the soft intake of breath. Perhaps it was some kid he knew from his school days here, I don’t know. All I knew was that Ultimecia had found a new sap to become her knight, and he was standing where I would have, had not Squall force-junctioned Carbuncle to me. I was seeing this fight from Squall’s perspective, seeing what he had seen. And I didn’t like it.
Squall moved first. He burst into battle with a grace and skill others could only dream of having. The kid didn’t stand a chance against Leonhart, and we all knew it. Selphie joined Squall in battle to act as his healer, and Zell added his brute force to the fight when Squall had to disengage in order to catch his breath. I stayed close to Rinoa, feeling a tight twisting in my stomach. Anticipation, fear, whatever else it was, it was gathering in a tight ball somewhere between my chest and my belly. I watched, because I couldn’t make myself look away. This is what my fate had been. This is what I had faced, in Squall’s past. I had been standing where that kid was. I was the one taking hit after hit from Lion Heart and Zell’s fists. I was the one bleeding all over the floor and the one growing weaker and weaker as my former friends gave everything they had, praying this would be the last battle they would have to face.
I hadn’t had a prayer in the world of surviving. Neither did the kid.
I remembered how to breathe. Rinoa gripped my arm, looking at me with concerned eyes. I shook my head and focused on Squall. It was him who delivered the final blow to the sorceress’ knight, and the moment the kid collapsed, he stepped back and steeled himself to face Edea.
Edea’s gaze swept over all of us and focused on me. Her lip curled slightly, and I felt a sudden pounding in my head. I fought to keep from reaching up to clutch my head, refusing to give her the satisfaction of seeing me flinch.
Get out! Carbuncle yelled suddenly, his fur on end and his ears back. Get out of here! He doesn’t belong to you! Get out!
The pounding increased almost twofold and for a minute, I thought that Carbuncle was going to fail. Instead, the little GF gave an impressive growl and stood on four little paws, two sizes larger because of how puffed his fur was. A ripple went along his body and his little eyes narrowed.
He doesn’t belong to you! He is not your knight! Go away!
I focused on Edea, and for the first time, saw the sorceress Ultimecia behind those once-kind eyes. I bared my teeth and growled myself. I felt Rinoa’s hands tighten around my arm and I drew strength from her touch.
Get out of my head! I screamed at the pressure bearing down on me. I’m not your knight! I never was your knight! Leave me alone!
The pressure vanished after that, and the contemptuous curl to Edea’s lips increased. I felt Carbuncle collapse in my mind, and for a heart-stopping second, I thought the barrier he’d created around my thoughts had shattered. I felt Ifrit and the other GF’s in my mind gathering around Carbuncle, worried about their friend. Carbuncle lifted his head and gave me a little furry smile, raising his paw as if he was trying to give me a thumb’s up.
“Worthless child.” Edea hissed. I looked toward her in time to see her sink through the floor.
Squall whirled to focus on me, his eyes slightly wide. I smirked at him and pulled away from Rinoa to stand under my own power. Rinoa glanced at Squall then back to me, looking even more worried. Squall started toward me and lightly brushed his fingers over the back of my arm. I nodded slightly, trying to convey to him that I was all right. I didn’t know what my own reflection looked like, even though I could see myself reflected in his eyes. I doubted I looked good. The kids were quiet all around, as if they knew something had happened but couldn’t figure out what, exactly. And none of them wanted to tempt fate with Squall.
Squall’s gaze softened as he regarded me and he nodded in return. Then, without word, he left the room. I headed after him, with the others trailing behind me. We headed down to the auditorium then, but when we arrived, we were the only ones in the large room. It was too quiet and too still. I saw Squall hesitate for a second before he led the way down toward the podium. His shoulders grew tight. His step became more measured. And I knew, somehow, that this was the moment everything changed. I looked toward Rinoa, who was busy looking around the room with a confused kitten look on her face. I couldn’t help the smile that blossomed on my face, only because, even after all she’d been through, Rinoa still seemed so innocent.
The sorceress crashed through the ceiling then, and landed on the podium, staring down at all of us.
“So,” Edea breathed, her voice cold and cruel, “the time has come. You’re the legendary SeeD destined to face me?”
I looked at Squall. His face remained impassive. He knows this is his fault. Everything he’s done up to this point is all because of the choices he’s made. And despite that, he’s still going forward.
“I must say that I am impressed.” Edea/Ultimecia swept her arms wide. “...An impressive nuisance. Your life ends here, SeeD.”
I heard soft gasps as the kid we’d defeated upstairs shambled up to Edea’s side, looking half-dead and determined to fulfill the role the sorceress had granted him. I didn’t want to look at him and know that, Before, that had been me standing there. That had been me looking that beat up and pathetic. Squall said he had wanted to rescue me for selfish reasons, and now I understood what another one of those reasons were: he didn’t want me to become a shadow of myself, a pathetic used-up piece of man with nothing left except a dark legacy behind him and no future ahead of him. The kid probably wouldn’t even remember what had happened to him when all of this was over, and the world would never know who he was. He wouldn’t have the black cloud of being a sorceress’ knight hanging over him, and even if he did, no one would blame him. I hadn’t had that luxury, Squall had said. My face was everywhere. The world knew my name. This time around, he had saved me from all that, but in turn created a whole new unknown future.
Edea’s eyes slid to her knight, and that contemptuous look spread across her face again. “Worthless fool.”
I growled despite myself, brandishing Hyperion. That movement alone seemed to draw her attention to me, and that was when Squall moved.
He engaged in battle with her so swiftly that the kid didn’t have a chance to get in between them and stop Squall’s advance. He was still wounded from the first battle, and didn’t last long in this second one. Squall didn’t even seem to need any backup as he flew into a Renzokuken, his limit break destroying the knight before the kid even knew that death was knocking on his door. When the kid collapsed on the ground, unmoving, Squall turned his rage onto Edea. She wasn’t Matron to him. She wasn’t even Edea. She was Ultimecia, a sorceress from the future, who was hellbent on destroying our world and was determined to use everything she could to do it. She was nothing but an obstacle before him, something that had to be taken down in order for him to be able to move forward.
Between the rest of us adding in backup whenever Squall needed time to recover, Edea didn’t last long. I was almost afraid we truly had killed her when she started moaning and groaning and writhing around like she was having some sort of epileptic fit. Her body arched backwards so violently then that I swore her spine snapped, and a huge cloud of gas exploded out of her before she collapsed. I saw Squall throw his arm up over his face, but it didn’t seem to do him any good.
Didn’t do the rest of us any good either.
My body became incredibly heavy. I spat out a colorful curse - or tried to. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t move. The others collapsed one by one, unable to move, unable to do anything. I fell to my knees, stubbornly staying upright even though the weight was unbearable. Squall was also on his knees, a look of pure determination on his face. His eyes weren’t focused on Edea, though. They were focused on Rinoa.
Even though he had told me, had prepared me for it in his own way, it still shook me to the core to see Rinoa weaving drunkenly away from us and toward the kid that lay incredibly still on the floor in front of us. I watched as Rinoa knelt beside his body and lifted him up, cradling him gently. I watched in shocked horror as her head bowed and their lips met. The kid’s eyes fluttered open, and he pushed himself upright, away from Rinoa. I caught a glimpse of Rinoa’s face then, as she watched the kid, her knight, walk away, saw the cruel smile upon her lips, saw the bright gold hue of her eyes burning with hate. It lasted only a few seconds, but I knew we had succeeded. That Squall had succeeded. Rinoa was now a sorceress. She was now the vessel for Ultimecia. I turned my eyes toward Squall, and as much as I loved him, I hated him so much in that moment. Not even a second later, the weight bearing down on all of us vanished and Rinoa collapsed to the side.
Quistis was the first to Rinoa’s side, followed by the others. I barely listened to what they said to her, barely listened to her responses, if she made any. Squall stepped past the group, ignoring Rinoa and her plight, and instead moved toward Edea’s side, kneeling down to help the woman sit up. Edea looked shocked to see Squall so close to her, steadying her as she sought to gain her feet.
“Squall,” Edea breathed. Her head turned to take in her surroundings, spotting the rest of us as she did so. “Quistis, Selphie. Irvine. Zell. Seifer. You’ve all grown so much... and become so strong... I have waited for this day to come. And also feared this day would come. Is today a joyous day? Or an odious day?” She turned to Squall suddenly, gripping his shoulders as she seemed to sag. “Where is Ellone!? Have I protected Ellone!?”
I watched Squall bend his head to Edea’s ear and whispered something. Edea’s eyes widened, then filled with tears, and she turned into Squall, hugging him tightly. Squall looked up at me then, meeting my eyes. His expression was carefully blank as he regarded me. I wasn’t sure what kind of expression was on my face, and I really wasn’t sure what I was feeling, anyway.
“Squall!” Quistis cried, leaning back from the unconscious form of Rinoa on the floor. “It’s Rinoa...”
- 23
- 24
- 25
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

One (Last) Chance