Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Iron roses ❯ Time ( Chapter 4 )

What's ahead?: Hetero love (yep! decided to keep the lemon for my next fic, where it fits better!), cussing, bloody blood, and a bit a yaoi (finally made my mind!)

Pairing: Mainly Quistis/Seifer

Disclaimer: I don't own and I really regret it :)

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Chapter 4: Time

Seifer sighed, crashing his aching body down a stair in Deling City's train

station. Morning had caught him sleeping a few meters from there, on the grassy

area near the train dock. Much to his surprise, he had simply dozed off after

sitting there for a while, the night before, waiting for his tired feet to get

less swollen and resume his investigations of the place. When he had woken up,

the sun was high in the sky, indicating he had probably spent the last twleve

hours rolling over in the grass. And he was covered in the pennies people had

thrown at him, thinking he was a poor homeless drunk dozing off his numerous

cheap beers. Seifer sneered a bit then picked up the money, throwing it in his

pockets. Might be useful to fill his starved stomach a bit. Since he had found

the first trace of Quistis, two days ago, he hadn't allowed his body to rest,

not a single minute, until he found himself sprawled in the muddy-grassy area

this morning.

Slowly, Seifer stretched his sore body, then creaked his neck and back. He felt

sick, and certainly dirty. He knew he smelled awful and would soon have to find

a hole to wash out and buy new clothes before people begin to see him as just

another lost drunk and stop answering his questions.

"At least, I know you were here, Trepe..." He mumbled to himself, scratching a

bruise on his left arm. The morning before, a very classy-looking middle aged

lady told him she had seen Quistis about six days ago. According to her, the

former instructor have been sitting in that very station, early in the morning,

and was reading a book while she seemed to wait for her train. She told him she

was aboslutely certain it was Quistis and no-one else. She had her pure

honey-blonde hair combed exactly the same way she used to have in her instructor

days, and wore an outfit Seifer knew she owned. Now he knew Quistis have been there,

but hadn't boarded the train, since her name wasn't in the station's database. Thanks to

the lady's interest in fashion, he finally had a path to lead on. A tiny one, but better than nothing.

He sighed wearily. A very loud noise rang throught his ear when the train bonded

for Balamb screeched his way out of Deling City. For the countless time, Seifer

thought about going back to his home. He was so tired. So desperate. After he

called Squall, right after waking up, the sheer ridiculousness of his situation

hit him. Here he was, a newly promoted blue SeeD ready for action, and soaking

his clothes in the dirt and rain, waiting for the miracle that would tell him

where Quistis was. Hilarious. SO fucking hilarious.

Squall had been a little comfort in his day. The boy was still trapped in

Garden, and kept under tight control by a very worried Cid. The former Hero was

highly pissed at the situation, and ready to kill Rinoa who had proceeded to

announce the whole place that Squall and herself were madly in love and going to

marry someday. Squall was now flooded with best wishes and dirty jokes. Seifer

promised he would help him bury the body as soon as he was back at Balamb and

hung up, ready to resume the investigation.

That's when the boy caught up his attention.

He was very young. Maybe thirteen years old, and certainly not over fifteen. His

head was shaved to the skin, and showing a nasty reddened scar that separated in

three distinct branches. The traces of stitches, big stitches, still laid across

the swollen skin. He had huge grey eyes which ate half of his face, and a little

pink cherub mouth he constantly licked over, nervously. His hands were folded in

the pockets of a huge green oat, obviously not made for him, and swearing with

the disgusting dirty brown baggy pants that licked over his feet to the ground,

soaked with all the shit it swept. That boy was simply pityful. But, Seifer

noticed, he wasn't begging around the place for money, like most other street

kids did. Nor did he wandered around the shops in hope of stealing stuff. He

simply walked back and forth, stopping from times to times to fix a very intense

gaze on random travelers. He didn't seem to follow a special pattern.

Seifer eyed him between two sips of the coffee he had just bought from a tiny

shop, along with a muffin. His own dirty clothes seemed to protect him from the

boy's insistant stare: He only had eyes for the well-dressed travelers that

periodically gathered around the trains. Althought they didn't even noticed him

when he eyed them.

Pouring danger. Althought normal eyes maybe wouldn't notice it.

Seifer shrugged his coat off his body, gathering the smelly material over his

right arm. The sun was getting hot and it would be nothing but an annoyment

while he stalked the badl kid. He only wore a no-longer-white tight shirt under

it. He was surprised to see brownish marks all over the worn out white. Dried

blood? Touching over the fabric, Seifer winced in pain and realized he had

probably been sleeping in grass, mud, pennies AND broken bottles. there was

probably glass shards embedded all over him now.

At least it helped not to blow his identity this time, as the first flow of

travelers crashed down the main stairway and used the insane amount of stressed

people to make his way toward the suspicious young character. He was still

walking his little way through the crowd. His already huge eyes stared without

blinking. He seemed very busy.

Then he vanished.

Seifer was pretty sure he had been there a second before. He had seen the bald

scarred head popping out of the crowd once, twice, then nothing. Swallowed by

the Earth, the air. something.

Seifer snarled in rage. This boy has to be the most suspicious character he had

ever seen. And he was a few meters away from the place Quistis have been seen

for the last time. It has to be linked somewhere. Seifer ran to the nearest

public phone and snatched it so quickly he almost ripped it off the wall. Then

composed Squall's number, hoping he was not mindlessly making out with Rinoa,

phone unplugged.

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*flashback*

Quistis opened her eyes, blinking slowly at the painful light directed to her

face. All she could see what that huge lightbulb tearing apart her eyeballs but

she knew someone was behind it, as a rough hand pressed to the side of her neck,

then grabbed her wrist, a tumb pressed to her pulse.

I am alive...

She couldn't believe she actually survived Time Compression. Her last memory

before the unconscience was falling directly into a huge black hole. Swirling

with greyish lights. She could remember how calm she had felt when she jumped

from the cliff down the hole.

How on Earth could she have missed? Why?

No reasons found. She had lost sight of everyone during time compression. She

thought everything was gone, nothing mattered anymore. Not that things had

mattered that much lately.

It happened just after she had lost her license, the night of the SeeD ball.

Quistis had never really thought about her life away from teaching. She was a

totally dedicated, hard-working educator. She had no life outside of it, every

minute of her life was melted into the Instructor Trepe character. Outside of

it, there was nothing left. Nothing.

Losing her teaching position, losing Squall to Rinoa, losing Seifer to a

Sorceress...

What was left for her? Nothing. And now the world was back around her, and she

had missed her only chance to disappear quietly and never be found. Silently,

she cursed herself for chosing the hole. She could have slit her throat open

with a knife and it would have been all over. But feared the contact of the cold

blade on her. Feared the pain, the feeling of having her life removed from her

body drop by drop. She had chose the coward way and now was her punishment.

Having to start all over again.

The person's voice-a deep, virile voice betraying a mature age-asked her if she

was okay, and she nodded, sniffing back a desperate sob. A large, callused hand

brushed her forehead, searching for fever, and pushed at her lower jaw to check

her tongue before shoving a thermometer almost down her throat. Quistis

whimpered and tried to squirm her way out of the man's reach, but the bed was

little a framed by high wooden borders. Besides, she was litterally covered in

painful bruises and cuts, which would crack open and bleed at her every

movements. The man pushed the lamp away from her face, revealing the sight of a

large, modern hospital room with deep blue walls and a single, huge window

pouring sunlight in every corner of the room. The place strongly smelled of

disinfectant, with a hint of roses. A bunch of them was piled up on the bedside

table, and a bigger bunch near the open window. Roses of all size, all colours,

slowly dying in their pots and giving off their last breath into a sweet

perfume. Sweet sad perfume.

"Okay?" She heard the man's voice finish his sentence but didn't caught anything

from it except that last word.

"Pardon me?" She mumbled past the thermometer, not even recognizing her own

voice. Raspy, almost inaudible.

The man sighed. "I was just telling you who I am and why you are there. Nothing

important, really."

She appreciated the sarcasm, the annoyed tone. For the first time she looked at

him with a faint interest. He was around his fifties, a bit overweight, balding

on his forehead. The rest of his head was covered in thin silver hair, ruffled

and pointing in all directions. His sympathetic face, marked by two round and

red cheeks, was almost hidden behind thick glasses, black-circled and apparently

pretty heavy since he had to push them up his nose bridge every 5 seconds or so.

The man responded to her shy smile, and pulled the thermometer out of her mouth,

distantly checking it before setting it in his shirt pocket. He then helped her

to sit up and gathered pillows behind her back. Quistis felt the pain of the

countless wounds on her body screaming as she stretched them. As much as she

tried to bear with it, a painful yelp escaped her sore throat. The man instantly

put a hand on her arm and she felt a familiar feeling, of energy and strenght

mixed together, and sent spinning through her veins like a running chocobo. It

felt good, really good. Curaga.

"Thanks" She murmured.

"You're welcome." He quickly answered. "As I said earlier in your deaf ear, my

name is Shiron Delves. I am the responsble doctor of this floor of Deling City

hospital. You have been brought here three weeks ago and immediatly put in

artificial rest dues to the severity of your state."

"Three weeks??" She yelped, not believing it a single bit.

"Hard to believe eh? Your wounds have been Hell and beyond to heal. Even with

Curaga, they kept coming back, we had to transfuse blood in your body four

times. Apparently it's a side effect of the time compression. Your body kept

coming back and forth from its wounded state to the healed one. I've never seen

anything like that in thirty years of practicing. The scariest thing on Earth, I

tell you..."

The doctor stopped talking a for a short while, frowning at the memories of the

unconscious woman bleeding herself to death, eyes glazy and emotionless.

"Anyway," he finally resumed. "Your mates are on this floor too, and they've

been waiting to see you for days, shall I go get them now?"

"My mates?" Quistis asked, puzzled. "Who do you mean?"

"Well, there's the new world hero, Squall Leonhart, and his girlfriend Rinoa

Heartilly...some others were sent here for a couple of days, just to make sure

Time Compression was finally out of their systems, but they've been sent back to

your Garden very quickly. So, do you wish to see them?"

Quistis caughed, and quickly accepted the glass of water Shiron handed her.

Gulping it, she motionned at the roses.

"Who are they from?" She asked when she had finished the glass.

"From you Balamb friends, and the Headmaster...and his wife, the former

sorceress Edea. But you're not going to change the subject you know."

The young woman sighed. "Okay, I do not wish to see them right now. I do not

wish to see anyone, in fact. I'd like to regain my senses alone. And I'm hungry.

I'd wish to make a human back of myself before..."

"Hey, no problem. I understand. I'll have food delivered to your room in, say,

fifteen minutes. Nothing too hard to digest for now. Soup and ice cream. Sounds

good?"

She nodded.

"Great, because you had no choice anyway." The pratician winked at her, and was

pleased to hear her laugh, just for a second, very lightly, but laugh. "I'll

check on you tomorrow, the nurse is going to come and give you a nice bath later

tonight. You have the buzzer if anything's wrong. Okay?"

"Okay..." She whispered.

"Good."

With that, he was out and the door clicked behind him. Leaving her alone, in her

misery. For a short while Quistis thought about ripping all those damned needles

and tubes out of her body and hang herself with them. Then she noticed the tiny

switch attached at the end of each tube, and the little red lights, currently

off, above each switch. The alarm that would wake the whole nurse quarter up if

she dared to take anything off. She cursed loughly and crashed down to her bed,

staring blankly at the ceiling through teary eyes. How she had wished never to

wake up. How she wanted to escape right now, before anyone from her past could

see her and pull her forward in the present. How she wanted it all to end.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~xXXx~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Squall crashed the phone back on its receipt and swore. Swore again. Swore

another time. And again. Finally let out a full chapter of very graphic words

which seemed to free his mind a bit and made him feel incredibly light. Until he

noticed Zell's wide-eyes stare and Rinoa's hand which seconds before held a mug

of coffee, which was now shattered on the floor. Zell instantly ran for a towel

and a sweeper to clean the glass mess before someone gets hurt, but Rinoa seemed

lost forever in shock. Not that Squall minded, actually, it was the least of his

problem.

Zell moved the sweeper over the wet area on the floor and gathered the remains

of the mug in a little pile. He then threw the rags he had found in the kitchen

over the puddle on the floor and started cleaning it, unaware of Squall and

Rinoa having a staring contest above him. Squall growled low in his throat as he

grabbed the papers on the table-Seifer's first report after having found out

that Quistis has reall been in Deling City's Train station, and the added papers

about the suspicious boy which he thought may have been linked to her

disappearance. With that, Squall had thought he would be able to draw Cid's

attention and get the needed help. But Cid still wasn't convinced at all,

althought he had promised to help if Quistis wasn't back after a couple of days.

Apparently Seifer's decision to use his blue SeeD rank just a couple hours

before receiving it had somewhat irritated the Headmaster, and he was now

absolutely stuck in the idea he had been messed with. So no SeeDs. And no

release from his death grip for Squall. He still wasn't allowed to fly to Deling

City and help Seifer. He still had been served the same threat. Expelled from

Garden. Restricting order against him if he would ever try to set a foot back to

Garden. No referral letters from Garden to help him find a new job, even thought

he devoted the biggest part of his life to this place, saved the world in it's

name and ended up in pain in a hospital in Deling City. Cid, you fucking...

"What on Earth did the Headmaster said?" Rinoa's soft voice called.

"What on Earth do you think the old bastard said? Nothing can be done. I'm out

of here."

Squall quickly crossed the short distance to the door and left, making sure the

door crashed behind him with a sound that would have woken up Hyne himself.

Rinoa stared blankly at the door, mouth open in a perfect O. Zell cursed loudly

while standing up, and threw the dirty rag on Rinoa's laps, which still went

unnoticed, the young sorceress apparently frozen in her surprised state. Without

a word to her, he followed his High Commander. The door crashed again.

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It`s not that I got lazy, I swear, but having to wake up at 5 am each morning to go to work until 4 pm isn't good for inspiration. BUT! Here comes a whole week of vacations, and I am going to seriously work on this fic and my other, Dragonfly. And that lil idea that popped out of my mind lately might come to life...we`ll see! Thanks for reading and * reviewiewing * people! (hint hint!) lol hey I'm human too!