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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
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Thirty-Four - Seifer POV

We entered the next room, ready to do some serious damage. The brat Ultimecia had chosen to be my replacement was standing far too close to Adel’s Tomb, and he was gripping Rinoa by one arm and her hair, keeping her head yanked back so she couldn’t struggle without hurting herself. Her face was set in a determined grimace, dealing with the pain because she knew she had to. Her golden eyes locked onto mine, then slid to Squall’s. Squall gave her the barest of nods, then lifted Lion Heart and set himself into a stance that would allow him to react offensively or defensively, depending on what the situation needed. The others ranged around us, all clutching their weapons. I kept Hyperion still at my side, since my one handed grip allowed me the ability to move offensively at the same time I moved defensively. The one-handed style I’d learned was more off-balance than Squall’s two-handed style, since his center of gravity was more stable, but mine was more unpredictable, and I could move and strike anywhere.
“Rinoa and Adel!” shouted the replacement knight, leering with an ugly, wide-eyed, fanatic look on his face. It made me shudder, because that had been me, in Squall’s Before. “The sorceresses as one! Watch closely!”
Before any of us could react, the knight swung Rinoa as hard as he could toward the tomb. Rinoa took a few steps forward before she became overbalanced and fell to her hands and knees. She looked up, and her entire body froze. In any other situation, she probably would have screamed and tried to run, but the brave warrior Squall had forged her to be just got shakily to her feet as Adel shattered her bonds and reached toward her. She threw her arms up to shield her face as Adel’s hand closed around her.
The next thing I saw made me sick.
Rinoa was partially absorbed into Adel, sticking out of the sorceress’ chest. It was the grossest thing I had ever seen. It made me hate myself a little more because, Before, I had been the one to put her there. I gripped Hyperion’s hilt tighter, clenching my teeth.
Now isn’t the time for guilt. Ifrit said, sounding tired and hurt. He was nursing his wounds in a far corner of my mind, burned by the intense flames he’d stopped to save Squall and Ellone.
I’m not feeling guilty. I protested.
Ifrit looked at me, his eyes narrowed. You’re a terrible liar, Almasy.
Shut the hell up.
Selphie started toward Squall. “We have to save Rinoa!”
“Just go for Adel.” Squall ordered. “Send healing spells Rinoa’s way, but don’t summon any Guardian Forces and don’t use limit breaks. Anything that causes an area of effect will hurt Rinoa as much as it’ll hurt Adel.”
That being said, Squall launched himself toward Adel, thunder cracking as he pulled the trigger. Adel reeled from the slice of the blade and the impact of the bullet, and Rinoa let out a moan as Adel took revenge on Squall’s boldness by drawing health from the younger sorceress. I immediately understood why Squall had said to focus on healing Rinoa; every time we attacked and injured Adel, she would heal herself by drawing upon Rinoa’s life force. If we didn’t heal Rinoa, then she definitely was going to die.
That pissed me off so much.
And I understood why Squall had held out so long, refusing to tell me more details than the obvious.
Since Squall was handicapped because he couldn’t use Renzokuken, the fight took longer than it probably should have. We all helped out in our own ways - me, Irvine, and Zell focused on attacking when Squall needed to take a breather, and Selphie and Quistis focused on healing Rinoa rather than attacking, though they did take pot shots now and then when one of the boys needed to step back and take the opportunity to catch his breath or get healing himself. Adel was strong, stronger than anyone we’d ever faced. Only Squall seemed to still have the confidence that we would beat Adel and we would get Rinoa back. He kept going with a single-minded focus, giving the others the strength to keep going as well. I just let go and struck at Adel with one-handed strikes, cutting away into her flesh and bathing Hyperion in her blood. Those wounds didn’t last long, only because she was drawing upon Rinoa’s life to heal herself. It was enough to make anyone want to give up.
Except giving up would mean Rinoa’s death, and I wouldn’t have that.
Neither would Squall.
With a serious expression he kept battering at Adel, Lion Hart flashing this way and that, spraying blood with each swing. Even as Adel fought back and scored hits on him if he wasn’t fast enough to get out of the way, he refused to stop.
This was the man who was the Commander of SeeD. The man who inspired people to fight even if victory looked bleak. The man whose silent courage and refusal to give up gave the rest of us the strength and the belief to keep going.
No wonder he kicked my ass so many times Before. He wasn’t about to let anyone or anything stand in his way of doing what needed to be done. And now, he’s doing it to protect the rest of us.
Squall is very loyal. came Carbuncle’s voice, echoing inside my head. Before, he fought hard because he didn’t have much of a choice. It was SeeD’s duty to kill sorceresses and protect the world. But now, he doesn’t want to lose anyone else he cares about. He fights because he loves everyone, and he doesn’t want them to suffer like he did, like they did, Before.
He feels deeply. Ifrit added, rumbling lowly. He still sucks at showing it, though.
Despite myself, I grinned. Don’t I know it.
I rushed forward this time with Squall, coming abreast of him. He barely spared me a glance, trusting me to know what the hell I was doing. In tandem, we struck, twisting and dancing around each other as our gunblades bit into Adel’s body. Above us, Rinoa whimpered and moaned as the pain from our attacks translated into her life being slowly drained away. But Adel was starting to flag, her motions becoming more and more sluggish as we continued our relentless assault. And, just when I thought I was going to die of exhaustion, Rinoa wrenched her arm free of Adel’s chest. She reached out to me and I grabbed a tight hold on her forearm, clutching tight to her as she grabbed tightly to me. Squall continued his assault, wearing Adel down further until Rinoa was able to wrench her other arm free.
He grabbed her free hand, and together Squall and I pulled as hard as we could. Adel’s dying body refused to give Rinoa up for a few tense minutes, but at last the bitch sorceress’ flesh parted and Rinoa fell toward the two of us. Adel shrieked and writhed, but she was already dying. There wasn’t anything she could do to us now. Her narrowed, golden eyes focused on Rinoa, her ruined chest rising and falling with ragged breaths.
“Ready?” Squall asked Rinoa so softly I barely heard him.
She swallowed hard. “Y-yeah.”
He let her go. So did I. Rinoa held her arms out to her sides, palms up, fingers slightly curled toward them. She closed her eyes and tilted her head back slightly, looking completely relaxed. I tensed as Adel reached toward her, but Squall set a gentle yet firm restraining hand on my bicep to keep me from running forward. Rinoa almost began to glow with a sickly light, and I realized that she was beginning to absorb Adel’s powers.
“Right,” I whispered, mostly to myself rather than Squall, “a sorceress can’t die until she passes her powers on.”
Squall only nodded. He turned slightly to the side, his gaze on the doorway behind us. I turned as well, watching as Laguna and Ellone ran into the room, seemingly breathless. Ellone looked nervous, but Laguna only looked determined.
He spared a glance at Squall, then focused on Ellone. “Ellone!” he shouted at her. “Now’s your chance!”
Ellone nodded and raised her arms toward Rinoa and Adel. I didn’t see anything happen, but suddenly Rinoa’s eyes rolled up into her head and she collapsed to the ground. Squall still kept that restraining hand on me, his eyes focused on Rinoa.
“Okay, Ellone.” Laguna said, his voice calm and soothing. “Just get Rinoa back.”
Again, I didn’t see anything, but soon Rinoa began to stir. Her eyes fluttered open, honey-colored and kind, and she pushed herself upright. She shuddered, suddenly brushing at her arms as if she was trying to clear cobwebs off them.
“I...” Rinoa stopped. Swallowed hard and tried again. “I... was inside Adel. The young Adel...”
“Ultimecia’s inside Adel.” Laguna said. “Exactly as she wanted. Okay, this is the showdown folks!” He clapped his hand as he turned to face us. Everyone gathered around Squall and I. Laguna grinned at all of us. “Time compression is about to begin. ‘Love, friendship, and courage’! Show ‘em what you got!”
“Just get out of here.” Squall said, his voice soft. “You don’t want to get caught in it.”
Laguna flashed him a worried smile, then grabbed Ellone and hauled ass out of the room, just as it started to bubble and twist. Portions of the wall broke apart and became spherical, bouncing through the air like bubbles. The floor beneath us rippled and suddenly, we all dropped through into some kind of void that rippled and bubbled as if we were underwater. Which it seemed we were, since it felt as though we were in the ocean deeps.
“Where are we supposed to go!?” Quistis yelled, her voice filled with panic.
Squall, his voice as calm as ever, shouted back, “To Edea’s house!”
Rinoa shivered, her eyes tear-bright. “I’ll... probably disappear...”
Squall and I grabbed her at the same time, holding her steady between us. Squall cupped her chin and forced her to meet his stormy eyes. “You aren’t going to disappear. I won’t let that happen. Neither will Seifer. Just stay by our side.”
Rinoa sniffled a little bit, but nodded. I glanced at Squall. He gave a simple shoulder lift in response. Neither of us knew what Rinoa had seen during the time she was inside young Adel, but whatever it was, it had been enough to shatter that bravery she’d held onto all this time. There wasn’t time for us to say anything more, though, either to find out more or bolster her confidence or comfort her so she wouldn’t start crying in fear.
We fell out of the ocean and down through the sky. Our wild freefall continued, with none of us really knowing if we would go splat at the end of it all or if something else would happen. Squall, of course, was the only one who seemed calm. I didn’t think that was fair, considering he knew we were going to survive this Time Compression. I mean, I knew, too, because he’d told me, but watching the world quickly coming up to meet your face without any way of being able to stop yourself from being splattered into red goop could make even the bravest person shit his pants.
Thankfully, I didn’t do that. Because that would be incredibly embarrassing.
The sky began to twist and change then, becoming a vortex of swirling colors and images. At last, we landed in a room that had only blank walls and nothing else. Squall readied Lion Heart, prompting me to unsheathe Hyperion again, and then we were thrown into battle.
“A sorceress?” I gasped, startled to see the twisted visage of the woman standing before me, trying to end us with her power.
“She’s just a shade. One of many sorceresses throughout time.” Squall answered. “Past and future, perhaps. Don’t stop. Go through them.”
He accented his words by unleashing Renzokuken, the powerful limit break hacking our current opponent into a dozen pieces. There was no blood. There was no body when Squall stepped back. The sorceress just crumpled in on herself and vanished into darkness. The second one followed quickly after the first. Just when I thought we’d spend forever fighting sorceresses from the past and future, we arrived at the orphanage. Everything was normal. The stone was as I remembered it, broken but whole, welcoming. When Squall said to take a few minutes to catch our breath, we all sprawled out on the floor and tried to stop shaking. Squall went to stand by the door that would take us to the beach, staring out of it at the world we were about to enter.
I moved to stand beside him. “This is it, huh?”
He shook his head. “It’s almost it.”
“How much longer until we reach Ultimecia?”
“Hours.”
“What do we have to do?”
He looked up at me. His expression seemed worried. It wasn’t an expression I was used to seeing on his face.
“What is it?” I asked.
He looked away from me and back outside. “When we reach her castle,” he said softly, “all of our abilities become sealed. Everything.”
I felt the blood drain from my face. “Even...” I waved my hand toward my head.
Squall nodded. His fists clenched.
“Why didn’t you tell me that when you were explaining all this to me?”
His fists clenched harder and his shoulders became so tight I was amazed he didn’t tear something. “I forgot.”
“You for-“ I stopped and rubbed my temple. He looked down at his boots, growing tenser with each passing moment. “Okay, so you forgot. After all you’ve been through, I can’t blame you.”
He glanced up at me, his lips a thin line.
I smiled, hoping that it looked more cocky than I actually felt. “I’m pretty sure I can fend the bitch off this time. Yeah, I know we’ll be on her home turf, but I got me a new sorceress.” I jerked my thumb over my shoulder toward Rinoa. “She can control me if I start getting out of hand. I know she can.”
Squall’s expression didn’t change. He glanced at Rinoa, then back to me. “I hope so.”
I wanted to take him in my arms and hold him close and tight. I wanted to kiss him. I wanted to tell him that everything was going to be just fine, that we were going to be okay, that we were going to survive everything we threw ourselves at. I said nothing. I didn’t reach to touch him or pull him close. I just looked at him and offered a little smile. It took him a moment to return the smile, and then it vanished as he steeled himself for the next leg of our journey. He turned to look at the rest of the group, sweeping his eyes over them as critically as a general might inspect his troops.
Rinoa was the first to get up. Zell was quickly second, followed by Selphie, Quistis, and Irvine. No one said a word. We kept our weapons out and ready, even Squall, before we walked out of the orphanage and onto the beach.
“What the hell...” I breathed.
Before us was a battlefield, or what was left of one. In the distance, anchored to the beach by thick chains larger than a man, was a gigantic castle. Strewn on the ground around the chains were still bodies. Bodies in SeeD uniforms. Lots of them.
“...Future SeeDs...” Squall said, his voice tight and whisper-like. “We’re fighting across generations.”
“Fuck.” I cursed. I wasn’t the only one. The others let out expletives and gasps, the sight before us driving home the need to defeat Ultimecia and protect everything that was dear to us. I looked at Squall.
He didn’t look at me. He only started forward.
And the rest of us followed behind him, good little soldiers heading to the battle.
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One (Last) Chance