Chapter Five: The Final Revelation
Prologue: Fade Away
I opened my eyes to a nightmare... Again.
Alone, again, alone.
The place wasn’t blood-red, and that eased down the sickness of it a little bit. The disturbing paintings were still on the walls. Our living room was crowded a lot. Quistis and Irvine, Zell and Elise. Brox Sulva, Fujin, Raijin. All with empty, accusing eyes, ready to rip me open with blame.
They carried the faces of my demons, of ghosts that whispered to me. I had put their wrists to razors, and they were unwilling to die after all.
“Squall, I’m glad you’re here...” Quistis said.
“Just in time to see me get Quistis!” Irvine added.
“But it wasn’t my fault, ya know!” Raijin exclaimed.
“RAGE!” Fujin screeched as she kicked him in the chin.
Brox and Elise didn’t speak.
Wiping the tears off my eyes, I turned to Zell.
“I’m sorry, Zell.” I said “I couldn’t prevent your death. But I was fighting my own war.”
“I know, man, I know.” Zell said “I understand. There are things you do only by yourself, y’knowwhatI’msayin, like solo stuff. That was one of those, I don’t blame ya.” And I watched him fade away.
“Quistis...” I said, forcing myself “I should’ve showed you more love. Or love that was the type you wanted. But I couldn’t. I appreciated your help to me... I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry, Squall.” Said Quistis, “I hadn’t been working for you, anyway. It was for Rinoa. No, we weren’t enemies as everyone thought and said, we were just friends.”
I watched Quistis fade away.
“Oh well, Irvine. I always thought you were some over-rated casanova cowboy. I’m sorry, for not giving you enough credit. But I didn’t kill any of them.”
“No worries. I’m a sharpshooter, the one with the bullet. Give me credit or not, that was who I am. And as for the casanova thing, well... It was a way of masking my softer side, and my feelings towards Selphie.”
I watched Irvine fade away.
“Fujin, Raijin, Brox Sulva. The Trio, as you’re known. I apologize, I killed you, yes. But you had killed my friends, Fujin, and Raijin, you had helped her!”
“No problem, ya know. It was exactly the way it was even before, ya know? We were still with Seifer, ya know?”
“APOLOGY.ACCEPTED!” Fujin screeched.
I watched Fujin and Raijin, a part of my life though I detested to confess it, fade away.
“Brox Sulva. I won’t aplogize from you, or Elise.” They faded away.
I went upstairs. I found the study room. The diary laid there open on today’s entry. Her pretty handwriting smiled at me.
Had a strange phone call today. Some whacko told me some stuff about Ultimecia. I tried to tell Squall, but he was running on a mission, that cute little smile of his flickering on his lips. I guess it was either a prank call or wrong number.
I should’ve told Squall this, but he was busy, and I couldn’t say anything, we have to earn Gil, after all. And we knew these ‘missions’ would be a part of our lives.
I sighed and closed the cover. And then, put my hand on our bedroom door’s doorknob. I turned it. An explosion was heard, but the door didn’t take me with it. I opened the door.
The peaceful, chilly breeze whipped my clothes. I looked inside. The windows were open, the sun I hadn’t seen for years was shining outside. Rinoa was there, in her usual clothes. A dead body was lying at my side, it was me. The killer had died.
I walked up to her. She glanced back at me, her eyes glistening with life. The explosion had left a slight tan on her soft and pale skin. She looked so beautiful.
She said “Squall, had a strange phone call today. Something about Ultimecia...”
I smiled and said “Rinoa, I gotta go to a mission in five minutes, but you can tell me all about it when I get back.”
“Good luck on the mission, Squall.” She said. I embraced her, wrapped my arms around her and hugged her so tight. I looked into her eyes, and she stared back at mine.
I woke up.
I noticed that I had been crying.
But my experssion had been fixed on a smile.
Part One: Never Trust Him
I remembered where I had been.
I had managed to hop on a train from Balamb to Dollet. I had gotten to the bar, gulping down cup after cup of black coffee which was a week old, and tasted like gunblade grease. I had only eaten sugary things like donuts or chocobolettes, chocobo-shaped, high-sugar chocolate bars. I had spent almost all of my money on drinks and stuff.
I felt grim as death.
I had forgotten what the sun looked like. There was a snow storm outside, the skies falling down, as if they were giving me a sign that told me to get a move on. My head felt heavy, my soul burdened with the weight of the truth. Everything was leaning on me.
I thought about the dream. The pain wasn’t about to recede, but the pain was welcomed by me. My heart still ached, but I had no choice but to move on to the next level.
I was wondering what to do, now that I knew what I wanted to know, and then the phone of the bar rang. I picked it up.
“Squall Leonhart?”
“Just know I am.”
“It’s me, NTH. Why did you burn Balamb Garden down?”
“None of your business.”
“Squall, you’re making me go heywire here. Meet me at Dollet garage in an hour, okay? Don’t get caught on the way, and come up with a plan.”
“Sure thing.” I said.
Then I hung up, and thought about it.
It seemed that everytime NTH told me to go somewhere, I had stepped into a trap. The most recent example was The Inner Circle. But I wasn’t totally sure if my dime-dropper was totally untrustable.
The more I thought about it, the more I got convinced he had sold me out. An informant not totally loyal to the clientelle... It wasn’t unheard of. Information was power, and informants had that power. They would wield it, they could use it, they could abuse it.
But no power could abuse me.
I got myself ready by splashing some cold water to my face. I gulped down another coffee, then emptied all the coffee I had drank. I then got my gunblade, the only trustable thing in my case, and got outside of the bar.
The snow was falling fast. The wind tore at my face and hands like sandpaper or razors. I buttoned up my trenchcoat, but still the wind made half of it fly in the air. I adjusted the collar and started to walk in the snow, thinking about the various times NTH had told me to do something or go somewhere. I had seen neither NTH nor Saladin, but Saladin seemed more trustable than my formal informant.
I walked around in the snow. The weather was colder than Diablos’ heart, and the clouds were trying to let it all out, for they had lots more in store. I hadn’t seen the sun since I had became a fugitive, and I wasn’t totally upset about that.
I arrived at the garage, and NTH would be waiting for me there. There was only one person underneath the snow and the cold, someone I knew.
Someone from another life... Or something. Someone I had known without intending to.
Laguna Loire was standing there, under the snow.
“Hello, Squall.” He said. He was wearing some Estharian-looking coat with a furry collar, his sandals replaced by military boots and his regular summer-type pants were nowhere to be seen. It was as if I had seen him going to a Death Claw hunt.
“What does NTH mean?” I asked “Never Trust Him?”
“Oh come on, don’t get all grouchy.” He said, he was calm, “I came here to tell you something.”
“Oh really? What is it this time? You’re gonna send me searching Seifer around Trabia Garden and I’ll get ambushed by tamed Death Claws and Snow Lions?”
“Now, chill.” Laguna said, “I am your informant, not your enemy. And you have no idea how complicated this is.”
“I think I have an idea. A really good one too.”
“Really? Let’s hear what you know- I’ll correct you if you’re wrong.”
“Here, you’re a double-crossing traitor who sold me out in every opportunity you got, and even have something to do with my frame-up job.”
His face got all serious. I had struck a chord and/or hit the nerve, but that didn’t make any difference.
“You still don’t understand.” Laguna said
“Then make me.”
“You can’t win it. There’s no glory. You’ll just fight and run... And then either get incarcarated or die. That’s it, no other choices.”
“Why don’t we finish this here and now? After all, you framed me.”
“Well, I think I can reveal it all.” Laguna said, pulling out his machine gun.
He pulled the trigger as I ducked down behind a car. The windows shattered into pieces with bullets, the car shook, tires on his side went down.
“I was supposed to take both of you out, knowing you would search for the truth.” He pulled the trigger again, digging holes in the car’s doors.
“What!?” I asked, trying to think a plan.
Before he could reply, I lunged at another car, and he pulled the trigger. Bullets shattered the front glass of the car, and dug some holes in the engine. I saw the danger barely in time and threw myself at the back of another car, as the previous one exploded.
“I put you in situations that noone else would come out alive! And yet you still live, to this day!”
“Why me!?” I asked.
“Why you? The ultimate love of the only sorceress? Imagine the catastrophe, imagine the public finding that out! All this because Rinoa wondered about that phone call!”
“The phone call!?”
“Yeah.” He replied as a shower of bullets landed on the car, “Someone in either C.O.N.C.E.A.L. or S.E.C.R.E.C.Y. called her and warned her! If not from them, you would both still be alive!”
He shot again. The car shook as the tires went down, and something fell into my left palm. It was a handgun. I considered myself lucky and got out of the car’s protection and shot him squarely on his right arm. He dropped his machine gun as I charged at him.
“No, wait!” he said “I can help you out-“ I didn’t listen. I was deafened by rage, blinded by fury. I barely felt the blow as my gunblade entered his chest.
He choked.
“Why did you frame me?” I asked, as a final question.
“Because...” Laguna said “You had to be... Taken out.”
“Why!?”
“You were my son... It was dangerous to have a family when... You were in C.O.N.C.E.A.L...” and then, he finally gave in. I pulled LionHeart out, and wiped the blood off it.
I felt absoluetly disgusted. So I had to live through a nightmare because I was his son!? He was my father!?
But the phone of the garage rang before my thoughts could reach any further. I picked it up.
“Squall Leonhart?”
“How may I help you?”
“I’m Saladin. Come to Dollet Communication Tower immidiately. I am expecting you.”
And then he hung up on me, leaving me in pure confusion.
Part Two:Unlock The Mysteries
It was raining as I went up to the Communication Tower.
The sky was almost pitch-black, the wind changing to whild storms and then breezes almost immidiately. Like the difference between Aero and Tornado spells, I could notice the change.
I walked up the hill, which seemed endless from my edge of the world. I tried not to cry, because after all, I was just a hardened ex-SeeD on the run, a fugitive, a murderer...
But I couldn’t believe it. I had found out Project SeeD and the reason behind Rinoa’s death. But that still didn’t explain why my other friends had to die, and why Elise had betrayed me, let alone Laguna.
My legs were tired of all the walking. My arms were tired of carrying LionHeart. My heart and soul were tired of everything that had happened to me. I had to pass a line somewhere, a regular, cliché point-of-no-return, but I couldn’t even recall what it looked like.
There was only one man standing at the entrance of the tower. He was wearing a long, furry coat, supposedly Estharian-looking.
I recognized him.
He was yet another ghost from my past, another painful memory for me.
Kiros was waiting for me.
“Squall...” he said “Glad you could make it.”
“You were Saladin?” I asked, straight away.
“Oh yes. Come inside, the rest of us are anxious about seeing you.”
“What rest of you?”
“Squall, you didn’t think I alone warned you, did you?”
“Well, I-“
Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t thought about that possibility. I didn’t care at all- hell, I was getting a warning at least. So why should I question my luck?
We walked straight inside, and Kiros led me to what looked like a control room. There were twelve chairs, ten of them was filled. Kiros sat at a chair, but I stood. If I sat down, then they would have to drag me with the chair. I was so tired that if I stopped for one second, I would pass out for weeks.
“Squall Leonhart,” Kiros said, his voice serious “Welcome to what we call ‘Saladin’.”
“Saladin was this... Group? And where is the eleventh member?”
Kiros smiled, apologetically, “That would be Elise Bret.”
An impact crushed down on me. Elise had been a member of Saladin, but still she had double-crossed me. Now I had this paranoid feeling inside me, what if Saladin wasn’t as ‘helpful’ as it seemed it was.
I knew what I knew and didn’t care about the rest that much. But these people showed me, that I knew nothing.
“Now, I think you have questions.” A man said. I immidiately recognized him. He was Marten, the old Hyne priest I had met in that corrupted church.
“I do.” I said.
“Which, we will be happy to provide answers to.” Kiros said, and then silence fell.
I asked my first question;”Why did you help me?”
“Because,” Kiros said, without hesitating “If we hadn’t helped you, who knew what would happen to you. In the hands of C.O.N.C.E.A.L. driven to madness?”
“Why do you even care?”
“I care... Coz I know you. And I care because, you’re the only one who knows so much. If I hadn’t helped you, then they would make you speak, and you would reveal a mysterious ‘Saladin’ has helped you, and that would connect C.O.N.C.E.A.L. to us.”
“Why?”
“Because Saladin is my codename, that’s why.” Said Kiros.
I let that pass quickly and switched to my next Question.
“Why did Zell Dincht, Quistis Trepe and Irvine Kinneas die?”
“Oh, I figured that might’ve been an issue.” Kiros said, “Well, think.”
“What?”
“Just think.” Marten said, absent-mindedly “About what you had lived through.”
“I don’t have time or tolerance for games!” I snapped.
“Well, Squall,” Kiros said, “You see, we helped you out, so did they. Who is left alive? Us. Why? Because we never contacted you in person.”
“What do you mean by that!?”
“That means,” Kiros sighed “That anyone you had contacted to in person was either killed by you, or killed by Fujin, a part of The Trio.”
“Why?”
“To explain that, I have to tell you some recent history of Saladin. The thing is, we exist beneath C.O.N.C.E.A.L. and S.E.C.R.E.C.Y., keeping information. We have been in Project SeeD before it was cancelled, and we knew exactly what Brox Sulva was doing. We formed Saladin as our group, knowing that sooner or later, someone would take Rinoa out.”
“How did you know that?”
“Simple logic. The only sorceress, unifinished project, duty of SeeD?” Kiros smiled “That’s enough. Now, C.O.N.C.E.A.L. had decided to label any and everyone who contacted with you by themselves, without any invitation by you, as a potential ‘source of help’. That would make them dangerous. Laguna was the leader of C.O.N.C.E.A.L., and imagine his son being captive. The world would fall straight in the hands of those who do that.”
“So they died because they contacted with me?”
“Yes.”
That had brightened my soul up. I had been suffering too much under the burden of one death that was my fault, but to deal with three deaths... That added up so much to my burden which I finally believed to be shifting...
“Okay, let’s say I buy this.” I said “That doesn’t explain why they framed me for Quistis’ death.”
“The Trio knew you would reach them, sooner or later, and they decided to keep you busy.” Marten said.
“That makes sense.” I said “So they framed me to keep me out. But they failed, I have put The Trio’s dues to my debt.”
I was just like a loan shark. Disobey and payment coming in late would result in one-way tickets to hell, free of charge.
“Oh, you haven’t.” Kiros said, “You took three people out. That didn’t mean they were The Trio.”
“What!?”
“You’ve taken two people out of The Trio, leaving the third member solo. You killed Fujin and Raijin-“
“And Brox Sulva!”
“Ah, but that was the flaw in your plan. Brox Sulva wasn’t the third member.”
“Then who was it? Was it my true enemy? The one behind all this!?”
“Think about it this way. S for Stealth, S for SeeD. S for Squall and S for-“
That had pushed the button. Galbadian Officers stormed inside and started their random act of shooting. I managed to hide somewhere, and when the smoke cleared out, I looked around.
There wasn’t a single member from Saladin that was still alive.
I had seen Saladin as the symbol of hope, the light of hope for me.
But now the light had gone out, leaving me to the arms of darkness.
Part Three: When All Else Fails
I don’t know for how long I walked in total numbness, thirty minutes or thirty weeks, but that made no difference to me.
I had seen Saladin as help. As hope. They had filled me in on all the mysteries I had in my head. I had almost all the answers. But I still had a few spare questions, hidden within the chamber of my gunblade.
I knew that I hadn’t killed Rinoa. I knew why I had been framed, why Zell, Quistis and Irvine had to die, why Laguna led me into traps, why Saladin helped me, why this or that happened.
But with all the answers, I still didn’t know who my true enemy was.
I hungered for revenge. I saw myself on a broken mirror once, I had a pale face and bags underneath my eyes. Tired eyes and shoulders, a tired soul. I looked so much like a ghost. And I knew what ghosts wanted, they hungered for revenge, for retaliations.
Retaliation.
My brain had gone numb of all the cold. I recalled ‘retaliation’ to be a significant thing, like the “Should’ve told Squall” sentence in Rinoa’s diary. I couldn’t put my finger on it, so I was wandering among the questions.
Who was my true enemy? Why had he gone into all of this trouble, and waited there for me to either turn up or die? Who would try so hard to retaliate? Who would have such scars?
The answer was out there... It was looking for me.
And it suddenly found me.
I saw flashes, all so fast. I was having an epilepshy, I was about to pass out. My head split open, my brain consumed within anger, hate, pain, sorrow.
I remembered the letter of Jack Bret: When he smirks at me, sayin “Let’s get down to business” it feels like they’re divouring the Diablos outta me!
I remembered what they called them, The Trio.
I remembered someone that would wanna retaliate on me.
Someone who’s so much like a ghost, like myself.
Someone that was just like me.
The Trio should’ve been replaced as The Posse...
I knew who my true enemy was.
Seifer Almasy.
The truth cracked my skull open, making me fall on my knees, and hang on to the magazine stand. Seifer was the one behind all this. Everything I had lived through, my wreck of a body, my pain... All because of him.
As sorrow and the realisation left me, another feeling began to fill me up. Filling the emptyness within me.
Rage.
A blind fury. It was like inferno inside, my rage consumed everything. But I concentrated on my pain instead, because if my rage went out now, I wouldn’tve found the strength to fight Seifer back.
I put one of my hands to my pocket, to warm it up. And I felt a piece of paper in my pocket. I took it out an examined it.
777 73 33 33
This was a phone number. Then I remembered, Zell saying, when all else fails, call this number.
I looked back and looked into now. All else had failed. And the phone wasn’t going to bite my head off my shoulders anyway.
I cruised around some more and found a phone. I inserted one of the few coin Gil I had left and dialled the number.
It rang three times. Four. Five. When it reached seven, someone picked it up.
“Hello?”
“Who is this?” I asked, though deep down, I knew who it was.
“Oooh, it’s you, isn’t it, Squall Leonhart!?” the person on the other side said, “Fantastic. So you did manage to get away from all the tests I’ve put in your path.
It made me sick. He had seen all the deaths, the violence, the pain as ‘tests’. If he wanted tests, I’d give him tests.
“Seifer.” I said, “Hope you’re doing okay.”
“Since when are you concerned about my health?”
“I want you in top condition when I kill you.” I replied, coldly.
“Now, straight to the heart of the matter, just like a SeeD.” Seifer mocked. He had imitated Laguna. And that gave me a little pain in my heart.
“Yeah. I used to be a SeeD, but I don’t bother nowdays. Set the place, set the time, and let’s clash.”
“Ooh, you’re fast. Nice... I wish you were this impatient on our field exam too! That chicken-wuss was more like me, sad to say.”
My clench on the stool tightened. He had killed Zell, and was still mocking him. He was soulless. He had sold it to Diablos, and hadn’t gotten it back. He never would, because I would send him to Diablos.
That was my plan, anyway.
“Yeah, I decided to be impatient about this.”
“Okay, then come to Esthar tomorrow. We will meet on the lift, and solve our differences there, okay? Just like old times, huh?”
“Whatever. You know, your arrogance hasn’t changed a bit, Seifer.”
“Thanks, old pal. Don’t mention it.”
Please insert another Gil for another five minutes.
I thought about putting in another Gil and let the argument carry on, and get some more rage, but I was so eager to consume my rage so fastly, and I couldn’t just do it, because I needed for afterwards.
I decided not to lengthen up the conversation.
I let it go. The phone stool was left hanging in mid-air, as the beeping sounds emerged from it.
Part Four: Showdown Of Suffering
The ghosts had joined my side.
I took my time. I didn’t have to hurry. The last train to Esthar that would reach there at night wasn’t departing, and I already had a ticket.
I had half an hour.
I walked around in the snow, my boots digging deep into the whiteness of the ground. I stared at the sky, it was snowing gently now. The clouds still blocked the sun, it was like an evening.
The longest night was about to end.
I knew who my true enemy was, and where he was too. I had set my goal. I still had fifteen minutes, and I decided to fill it in with something productive.
When the train departed, I had a bullet with a name carved on it:
Seifer Almasy.
I had six bullets with his name carved on it. All in their places, and one in the chamber, for you or for me. I had no illusions. For once in my whole life, I felt absolute sanity. My mind had never been more clear. It was as if I was a crack addict, and needed the drug to wash away the confusion and pain.
We were headed for a showdown. But it wouldn’t be the movie typa showdowns we all used to know. Not a showdown of glory. It would be a showdown of suffering.
Both of us knew we weren’t victors. We were losers. He had lost his dreams, his sorceresses, his pride, his opportunities. I had lost my smile, my dreams, my sleep, Rinoa, all my life. We both were losers and we perfectly knew it.
I glanced inside myself. It was empty inside. I didn’t have anything left but pain and suffering. I wondered for a moment, how Seifer felt.
He probably had felt the same.
His scars were as much as mine, thought the wounds didn’t go that deep as mine did. We were both suffering, and we would suffer while the other existed. I couldn’t destroy his existance, but I could just kill him.
I had slept for two hours when the train announcement sounded as “Next stop, Esthar. Next stop, Esthar.” And the train took off from Fisherman’s Horizon. It was moving to Esthar, my final destination.
I thought about it more. I forced myself to call upon my rage, and then keep it at bay to keep myself safe from comsuming it totally. I thought about my nightmares...
But that didn’t help, coz it brought me to the ending of my nightmares. I had saved Rinoa. But instead, I concentrated on a different possibility, which gave birth to another question within me.
If I had been faster, Rinoa would still be alive.
Why was I delayed? My cell phone had rang. And who had called? I hadn’t checked it. Oh yeah, I had, and the number turned out to be an unknown number. Hidden from me.
But I couldn’t end the questions, I just numbed it down and let myself to sleep some more. When I opened up my eyes, the announcement sounded as “We will be arriving to Esthar shortly. Please check the cabins for your personal belongings before you leave.”
When I got off the train, I noticed my hands were almost shaking with excietement. I walked casually to the lift-like platform that would take me to Esthar. I saw someone there. A blonde someone who wore a grey trenchcoat. Someone with a gunblade.
Seifer was there.
I got on the elevator. None of us had laid a finger on each other in the beginning. Seifer just turned to the other passangers and said, “Sorry, people, but this lift is full.”
“But wha-“ someone managed to ask, as Seifer pointed at him and said “Fire!”. A little sparkle of fire flashed on the man’s suit, and ignited it. I pointed at him and said “Water!” to extinguish it. And everyone had got the message.
We stared at each other like animals. We still hadn’t taken off. The elvator usually waited for a minute or two.
“Oh, Squall... I was getting worried. I could’ve called you.”
“Called me?”
Then, the last lock clicked into place in my head. The door opened for me.
“Yeah, but you’re bad enough when I hadn’t provoked you, even worse if I did, I figured, coz I’m kinda smarter.”
“You were the one that called me.” I said.
“Who else? I wasn’t high, that was just to freak you out. Poof, remember?”
With a wild war cry, I swung LionHeart at him.
That surprised him, he tried to bend his body backwards to avoid it, but his balance was distrupted, and he fell down on his back. The lift shook and started to move.
Seifer got back to his feet, quickly. I swung my gunblade from left to right, and he put up his own gunblade to block it. I suddenly, reached out for his head and grabbed it from the side, he reached out for my free hand with his free hand and held it. I swung LionHeart, and Hyperion stopped it. We both started to breathe like raged Mersmerize, but I had an altarnate plan. I put my right foor next to his left foot, and swung him sideways. He lost his balance, his head hit the tube hard. He fell down, but managed to throw a kick that threw me off my feet to the tube. My head crashed on the tube, but I didn’t even feel it.
He got up, so did I. We were nearing the end of the tunnel, the tubes were about to end. But we were still clashing like mad, our battle cries, moans, screams were echoing through the place. Seifer suddenly swung around himself and threw a kick at me. It got me off-guard, and I swung off my balance, crashing face-flat on the end of the tube, which bounced me off on my back. My nose wasn’t broken, but I had several minor cuts on my face, and both my nose and mouth were bleeding, maybe a teeth was broken. Blood was coming out of my scar, again.
Seifer lunged at me, swinging Hyperion downwards in a vertical slash. I rolled around to avoid it, and he hit some circuits. The lift stopped. We were in the middle of a cliff, hanging in mid-air clashing.
I charged. LionHeart’s impact with Hyperion sent sparks of fire on the lift floor, our swords were locked. Our eyes met. Mine were full of rage, I was looking Flame Sabers at him. His was full of... Joy. That mad me sick.
I tried to kick him, he lifted his own knee up. We met, and then sent each other backwards a little bit. We both stood.
And then a light came down on us. We both shielded our eyes with our hands, at the same time. Our trenchcoats were whipped by the wind, our gunblades’ tips pointing at the lift ground. I thought for a moment, seeing the blood coming from his scar, we were so much like each other.
“Drop your weapon!” came a familiar voice. Hostile the voice was, and yet so childish. It was Selphie. I could hear the engines of Ragnarok, and also, Cyborg Choppers were approaching, I could hear them.
The whole ‘air force’ was onto us.
I didn’t care. Now we had an auidence.
To watch this showdown of suffering.
Part Five: Leap Of Faith
I used the moment of interrupting.
I lunged at Seifer and swung my sword in a horizontal slash. Seifer lifted his own up, and stopped my move. We locked the swords, and then lunged at each other. Then, while we were pressing in, Hyperion broke, and LionHeart opened up a wound in Seifer’s left shoulder. He screamed in pain. I was about to kill him when the handle of Hyperion smashed on me stomach.
I bended, trying to inhale air. Seifer kicked me in the face, I fell down, LionHeart flying out of my hands. He came at me, and then climbed on top of me.
“Drop your weapon!!!” Selphie almost screamed, with growing impatience.
We were rolling on the ground like a couple of street fighters. Throwing punches. Suddenly, I said, “Firaga!” pointing at the edge of the lift floor. The fireball exploded, as Seifer was thrown to the edge of the lift, his trenchcoat almost melting. I was left kind of unharmed, my trenchcoat’s lowest side was a little torn. I got back to my feet when we got back to fighting. We threw punches, kicks. We hit, we got hit. It was as if we were dancing, not fighting. I dealt with an unexpected punch, and fell down. Seifer said “HA!” as he got on top of me.
I gripped the handle of LionHeart.
I swung the sword, and cut Seifer’s leg. He screamed in pain and fell down. I got up to my feet, bruised, but in my most exciting moment in my life.
Adrenaline was pumping to my brain, an over-rated stimulation. Seifer had started to beg. He was saying the keywords, like “please” and was trying to cut a deal. I had got my enemy begging. Selphie was there, to witness my glory.
I looked at Seifer, and reviewed the situation.
All the meaning was lost after her third “Drop your weapon!” warning.
He was there. Begging for his life. I had my gunblade’s tip on his throat, and I was leaning on the handle. He was still begging and trying to bribe me out of what I was about to do. He had no idea of what honor among warriors meant. There shouldn’tve been any bribing, begging or whatever. Two enters the arena, one exits, simple as that.
I ignored his calls for help. He was too late to get any help anyway. I could hear the engines of Ragnarok roaring near me, and the Estharian Cyborg Choppers were flying past me. Everything was a mess.
But I now knew that I was having illusions; everything was made of a huge mess. A mess noone was willing to clean up, unless they picked up a victim and make him clean it.
I couldn’t prove anything, I knew what I knew and didn’t care about the rest that much.
I didn’t slash through his throat. I let him get up. He lunged at me, but I had already seen that move. I swung the gunblade in a horizontal move, and it pierced through his stomach. The next slash opened up a gash on his chest, and his arm. He knew there was no escape in this. I knew. I kept pulling the trigger as I hit him, but his wounds would not prove fatal. I just pushed him off the edge as I held my gunblade close to my side. He tripped, and I said “Give my regards to Diablos.”.
Disbelief flashed in Seifer’s eyes, and he fell. I released my finger from the trigger as Selphie’s fourth “Drop your weapon!” warning sounded.
I let go of the handle of my gunblade, and it fell to the pit that seemed endless from this edge of the world. I opened my arms to the sides, as the light from the spaceship lighted up my face. I smiled and frowned at the same time, but from Selphie’s chocking face and voice, I could tell it wasn’t a pretty sight.
It was time for a leap of faith.