Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Lightning. ❯ Chapter, the Thirty-Eighth: In Which Seifer Makes Demands. ( Chapter 38 )

Eoko: Okay, me here. I’m like 4 hours from my comp, but with compy access I have decided to bring you the next chapter without the supported ANs from Kitty. Thanks everyone for the reviews. Delta brought up a good point. The base story line is pretty much just filling in before the next big conflict occurs. And trust me. It is a big conflict to deal with. The story is really going to start getting face paced. Enjoy what we have for you this week.

Chapter, The Thirty-Eighth: In Which Seifer Makes Demands

Squall frowned down at his latest request for SeeDs. He was going about the simple, but lengthy task of sorting the many requests into their respective piles: easy, which allowed for a mid-rank SeeD leader and a team of lower-rank; medium, which required a high-rank leader and a mid-rank team; hard, which was what the “hero-rank” persons got sent on; and lastly, the ‘don’t waste our Garden’s time’ pile.

As he went through them he made notes of their “popularity” level. Some missions were just likeable and some were the type even a SeeD would try to call in sick to avoid. Difficult to call in sick when you live in the same huge building as all your superiors.

There was one specific to-be-mission that was falling into the ‘kill me before he assigns me to that mission’ section. In cases such as these, Cid had suggested making up a draft of the mission to post on the school forums as well as the main message board and on the newly made ‘Missions Board’, all confidential information removed, of course.

This was done in hopes of someone volunteering for the crappier of the missions, which ensured that at least one, or a few people on it at least wanted to be there for some reason, whether it was actual desire to work, increase their rank or get more gil, it didn’t matter. No one in the higher-ups had to worry about the SeeDs getting pissed right off for being forced into a mission they didn’t want to go on.

Now, what made this one mission so terrible was the fact that it was a Trabian mission, out in the middle of nowhere, tracking an unknown-most-likely-time-compression-mutation-of-a-normal monster, with a minimal number of SeeDs.

Squall groaned. It was definitely going up on the boards and forums. There was no way he, Xu or Cid were going to condemn two SeeDs to stick closer than glue in the freezing, snow and ice covered tundra of Trabia, while they tracked some stupid Snow Lion, Blue Dragon, or hyne forbid, a super-charged Mesmerize.

The next half hour was spent making up a very general briefing about the mission, keeping all the real information confidential until someone was assigned to it. Can’t just go around printing whatever you damn well please, you know.

After the mission from hell- frozen over -was printed off and ready to be stuck on the board, and two copies were posted onto the school network, Squall got back to the tedious task of sorting. He wasn’t going to walk all the way down to the Missions Board just to stick up one lousy mission. The secretary or some random junior classman could do that just fine.

- - -

That afternoon Seifer was milling around the halls of Garden, giving people unhappy and sometimes down right pissed off glares. That’s right boys and girls, Zell Dincht was once again with Irvine Kinneas, leaving Seifer Almasy in a very grumpy mood… like… usually… lately…

Just when he was right in the middle of a pretty decent “what are you looking at” glare his attention was caught by a rushing, dark haired girl. She whizzed by him, a piece of paper flapping back and forth in her hand.

He cocked a brow at her as she stopped in front of the new, decorated by Selphie- no, she was not asked to decorate it- Missions Board and pinned up the now bent and creased page, trying to flatten it a little as she stabbed thumb tacks into its four corners.

Several of the SeeDs that were passing by or hanging out in the area went over to take a look at the latest mission. It was pretty much habit to check it, whether you were looking to take a job or not.

“Pft, yea right,” a young man said, tossing his head to the side lightly as he ran his finger through shoulder-length burgundy hair.

“No way in hell,” a woman about the same age said, one hand resting gently on her hip.

“Hell would be a much nicer place to go than there,” joked a SeeD Seifer actually knew, vaguely, named Artos Dir-something.

“It might be interesting,” said a boy that was even shorted than Zell, by about two inches.

“How would it be interesting?” the girl at least eight inches taller then the boy she stood next to asked.

“Well, it’s not a normal monster, right? It doesn’t say directly, but it kind of hints that it’s a mutation,” he stated, standing on his tip toes and peering closer at the piece of paper as if that would force more information out of it.

“Yea, so?” questioned a slightly older boy, taller than the girl and looked pretty much like Raijin’s little brother. Might have been Raijin’s little brother. Seifer wasn’t paying that much attention to the gathering and retreating mobs of SeeDs anymore.

The shortest of the three thwacked the tallest in the arm. “What do you think mutated it? Green Jello?”

“I don’t know, man.”

“You think it might be…?” the girl ventured.

“Time compression, mhmm. I bet it has something to do with it.”

“Hey man, I don’t want nothing to do with no evil ice monster from the future.”

The girl cocked a brow. “Don’t, nothing, no. Wow, Taejin, you actually used so many negatives you still said you didn’t want to go on the mission.” She smirked at him as he looked up in thought for a moment.

“Come on Reesha, Taejin, that mission’s not for us anyway,” the short boy started bounding off.

“You sure seemed interested, Xelar,” Reesha called, grabbing Taejin by the arm and following after their energetic leader.

Xelar…? That was just cruel. Short little kid with blond hair and Zell starting his name. Hyne was having a gay ol’ time fucking up Seifer’s mood these days. And that was Raijin’s little brother. When did he make SeeD? When was the last fucking time he spoke to Fu and Rai? Damn Zell taking up all his thoughts and time.

Buuut, the conversation over the mission, that so far no one wanted to even think about going for, was starting to pique Seifer’s interests, or at least his curiosity. With his arms still crossed he pushed himself off the wall he was currently leaning against and headed over to the board.

It was pretty easy to see why everyone was declining: Trabia meant cold; Minimal Team Members meant close quarters, utter dependency and trust, etc, etc; and Unknown Creature equaled “so, will that be five or six pieces of scattered SeeDs to be picked up on Monday?”

Sounded like a sneaky way to get Zell- a right good mission to prove to Squall he was a deserving and capable SeeD!- into bed. Seifer had a delightful time imagining snuggling up against Zell, stark as the day is long, under one of those thermal blankets. Uh… the threat of freezing to death was the glorious thing indeed.

Just as another wave of people came to see what the newest mission was, Seifer reached up and tore it from its pinned place. A quick glare to silence the protests from the other SeeDs and he was off en route to Squall/Xu’s office.

He burst through the doors much like he always did. This time Squall was not able to ignore him however, because he had been looking up and caught sight of the blond right away.

“What do you want, Seifer?” he asked, then went back to whatever he was occupying himself with now.

“I’d like to volunteer for this mission,” he stated, striding forward and slapping the now torn, bent and creased page on the commander’s desk.

Squall arched a brow at the tattered document. He had certainly not had anything to do with its current state. “You didn’t need to kill the paper, Seifer.”

“I didn’t “kill” the paper, Squall. That girl that posted it did. I just tore it down.”

“You’re suppose to leave it up, incase other SeeDs want to volunteer as well,” Squall said as he smoothed out the paper on his desk.

The older gunbladist scoffed. “No one’s going to take that mission on their own free will.”

“You just volunteered on you own free will,” Squall stated rather matter-of-factly, looking back up at his “guest”.

“Well, I’m not a no one, am I, Squall? Besides, I want a more difficult mission than ‘Bite Bugs are terrorizing my tomatoes’,” he grumbled, feigning a high voice for the tomato-grower.

“Seifer,” Squall began. “I don’t doubt your ability to handle the mission. Your fighting skill rivals that of myself, Zell and the others. Not only that, but to this mission your past doesn’t even matter. In fact, it could help. So could your bond with Ifrit, since you won’t let anyone unjunction him from you.”

Zell used Ifrit all through the Neo-Sorceress War… I definitely won’t give him up now… “If you want some ice melted, we’re the ones for the job.”

“It isn’t a solo mission, Seifer. I can’t let you go alone.” He sat back in his chair and pondered a moment. “You’ll go with Zell again, him as leader, and I want him to equip Quezacotl, and you both to equip as many GFs as you need to gain full elemental and status-changing defense.”

That was definitely not standard procedure. First, more GFs, especially those that a person didn’t know, or didn’t equip often, caused memory pathway disruption. Not only that, but it also left the Garden with fewer to use for other missions or in case of an emergency.

Seifer cocked a brow. “You have no idea what it is.” It wasn’t a question and Squall knew it.

“No,” he said simply. “I’m very tempted to send someone else on the mission as well, even go myself-” he paused at Seifer’s eye rolling and other face making at the proposition. “But we all know the only other person you’d work with this closely is Selphie, and she’s assigned somewhere else in a week.” Squall gave his own little smirk and his eyes did a very creepy, un-Squall-like, little knowing sparkle.

“Besides,” he continued, making some notes on a piece of paper. “You and Zell do work so well together.” Was there suggestive emphasis on that innocent little ‘so’? Had Squall noticed something?? Did he suspect Seifer’s motives behind being paired with Zell?!

Mm, paired with Zell, on my bed…the cowboy can rot. Seifer blinked then crossed his arms over his chest. “Yes, yes we do. We’re best friends, what do you expect?”

The brunet snorted as he placed the page he’d been writing on to the side. “Friends…” he said quietly.

Okay, Squall was starting to get annoying. What the fuck was he trying to do/say, huh? “Excuse me?” Seifer asked pointedly.

Storm grey-blue eyes looked up slowly to regard him, then that little Squall-smirk spread secretly across his lips. “You want to fuck him.”

Seifer actually stumbled backwards. What the fuck indeed! The blond gunbladist glanced left and right, then straightened and regained his composure. He stared at Squall and could only repeat his previous question. “Excuse me?!”

Squall’s smirk just grew slightly wider. Holy crap… who would have guessed. Well, he wasn’t exactly being subtle anymore. But still, Fearless Leader noticed something before the one he was actually pressing his hard on against when they cuddled. Sometimes Zell really could be blond. No, dear, that isn’t how I’m naturally built.

“What am I, your entertainment?!” Seifer fumed and stormed out of the office, tossing a shout of ‘send me on that fucking mission’ over his shoulder.

- - -

Zell tossed Irvine onto his bed and crawled over him, moving like a hungry tiger. He presses his lips to the cowboy’s, pushing him down onto the mattress.

Irvine grinned into the kiss and wrapped his arms around the fighter’s shoulders. “Zell, we just got back.” He arched his neck when Zell’s lips started attacking it.

“Mmm, I know. Can’t keep my hands off you.”

Irvine chuckled lightly. “I think most of Garden knows that, Zell.” He reached up and ran his fingers through the blond’s hair. “You sure don’t, like, keep your hands off me in public either.”

Zell just smirked and continued nipping and sucking at Irvine’s neck. So what? No one was going to come up and say anything to them, especially since they didn’t do anything that a straight couple wouldn’t do. And, Zell could kick their homophobic arses anyway.

“Zell Dincht, please report to Headmaster Cid’s office. Zell Dincht to Headmaster Cid’s office.”

Zell lifted his head, frown on his face, and cocked a brow at the little intercom in his room. Okay, so it wasn’t night or anything, but come on! He was busy here!

Irvine squirmed up under him, propping himself up on his elbows. “Guess you gotta go, huh?” He leaned forward and kissed the blond gently. “We can finish this later.”

“Damn right we can.” Zell kissed him once more, hard and passionate, before sliding off his sexy cowboy and pulling on his jacket. “Always has to be at the worst time. Must have cameras all over the place.” He leaned over to tie up his shoes.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Kink.” Irvine chuckled and snuggled against Zell’s pillows. “Hurry back,” he said, grinning as he stretched out his body on the bed.

Zell licked his lips and grinned. “Back in a flash, baby.” With that he zipped out of the room and practically ran all the way to Cid’s office. The faster he got there, the faster he could leave. And boy did he want to leave and get back to his sexy auburn-haired lover.

The feisty fighter walked out of the elevator and through the almost always open doors of Cid’s office. Tamitha Rapture stood to the left of the seated, smiling Headmaster.

“We have a mission for you, Mr. Dincht,” Cid said, arms loosely crossed over the top of his desk.

“Not more bite bugs, is it? That was lame, Cid, really lame.” Zell crossed one foot over the other, resting a hand on a cocked hip. Oh yea, that was straight and professional… or neither.

Cid chuckled lightly. “No, nothing like that. This one is actually worthy of your skill.”

Zell beamed. He’d been waiting for a good mission for a long time. “Then let’s hear it,” he said cheerily.

Miss Rapture stepped forward, closer to the edge of the desk. “The mission is code name Alpha-Tango-Iceland-Omega. Number of members, two: Zell Dincht as Leader, Seifer Almasy as support. Location is Trabia, Sorbald Snowfields. The enemy is an unknown monster. It is large and malformed. We suspect it is an abnormality caused or from Time Compression. The goal is to locate and destroy this monster, and to collect specimens for research. The length of the mission is at present time undetermined, and requires a report to Garden at the end of every second day. If there is no report, a search party will be assembled and will head out at dawn of the next day. Please refrain from requiring assistance on a day a transmission is not expected,” she gave a teasing little grin and continued. “If an emergency does occur, a transmission as short as ‘Help!’ will be plenty of information as your transmitter will be on its own signal channel and is equip with a position transmitter.”

“Easy there, Tammy, I remember all that. Two other transmitters on each of the mission members which can be activated manually in case one or both of the transmitters is dysfunctional or broken, yada yada yada.”

She smiled at him. They’d been on a couple missions together and she knew how capable and knowledgeable he was. “Of course, Zell. It’s just my job and all.” She smiled at his unique grin and went on to explain the rest of the mission essentials: required gear, clothing, GF and magic junctions, etc, etc.

“I want Bahamut, Quetzacotl, Diablo, and Cerberus then. I know Seifer’s keeping Ifrit, so give him Doomtrain, Alexander and Carbuncle. That should be plenty of buffs for both of us. And I’m sure the junction specialists can pick out all the best magic for us to use.” He turned his eyes to Cid. “Kudos on the “Magic Library” missions. Fucking great idea, man.”

Cid raised an eyebrow but nodded with a smile on his face. When there was enough gil to pay for it, missions to collect full lots of magic had turned out to be not only popular, but practical. Not only could SeeDs have a full array to use when starting a mission, but it also allowed for the best possible defenses when junctioning.

Tamitha wrote down the names of the GFs Zell had requested. “I will have to double check those, Zell, just to make sure they are adequate. I’m sure they are though.” She made a mental note that Zell requested more of the strong, dark guardians and for Seifer he had chosen the white knight, Alexander, and that oddly glowing squirrel, Carbuncle, for crying out loud. He probably would have suggested Siren if she had more to offer and Selphie would let her go without screaming so loud even her GF couldn’t quiet her (1).

“Okay!” Zell said, smiling back at Tamitha. “I’ll assume the official documents will be all made up and delivered to Seifer’s and my rooms?”

“That’s right, Mr. Dincht. We’re not positive on the departure time, but we’re looking at something in the next few days. The write up should be in your room by this evening.”

When all business was done and dealt with, Zell and Tamitha were dismissed and the excited blond could go tell Seifer about the mission!... Oh, no wait, he couldn’t. Irvine was still waiting on his bed for him… mmm, Irvine… Right, so back to his room then!

- - - - - Evil Fucking GF and Magic Mission Info - - - - -

Zell:
- Str-J, HP-J, Vit-J, Mag-J, Spr-J, Spd-J, Hit-J
- Elem-Atk-J, Elem-Def-J, Elem-Defx2 (Elem Guard - GF learns Elem-Defx4), ST-Atk-J, ST-Def-J, ST-Def-Jx2, ST-Def-Jx4
- Ablitityx3, Abilityx4, Expendx2-1 (Because of the x3 and x4, I’m going to cheat and have them be able to equip… EIGHT abilities.)
-Card, Darkside, Mug, Enc-Half, Enc-None, Auto-Protect, Mov HP-Up, Rare Item, Auto-Haste, Alert
- Mag+20%, Mag +40%, Mag+60%, HP+20%, HP+40%, HP+80%, Str+60%, Spd+40% (Zell on Auto-Haste, Speed 40%+ and as high of magic bonus we can get on with 100 Hastes…. Wow… won’t be able to see the pissant moving)
- T Mag-RF, Mid Mag-RF, Card Mod, Time Mag-RF, ST Mag-RF, Forbid Med-RF

Elemental Magic Attack: Holy x100 (100% Holy)

Elemental Magic Defense: Ultima x100 (100% to all), Full-Life x100 (40% to all), Shell x100 (20% to all), Flare x100 (80% to Fire, Ice and Lightning)Totals: 160% to all except Fire, Ice and Lightning. 200% to Fire, Ice and Lightning.

Status Magic Defense: Pain x100 (100% to Poison, Silence, Darkness, Curse), Reflect x100 (25% to Petrify, Berserk, Sleep, Slow, Stop, Confuse), Esuna x100 (20% to Petrify, Berserk, Sleep, Slow, Stop, Confuse), Life (30% to Death)
Totals: Poison 100%, Silence 100%, Darkness 100%, Curse 100%, Death 30%, Petrify 45%, Berserk 45%, Sleep 45%, Slow 45%, Stop 45%, Confuse 45%

Seifer:
- HP-J, Vit-J, Mag-J, Spr-J, Str-J
- Elem-Atk-J, Elem-Defx2, Elem-Defx4, ST-Atk-J, ST-Def-J, ST-Defx2, ST-Def-Jx4
- Abilityx3, Abilityx3
- Counter, Vit Bonus, Auto-Reflect, Str Bonus, Revive, Auto-Shell, Darkside, Absorb, Initiative, Mad Rush
- Vit+40%, HP+40%, Str+20%, Str+40%, Spd+20%, Spd+40%, Mag+40%
- F Mag-RF, Ammo-RF, Recov Med-RF, Med LV Up, Med Data, High Mag-RF, Junk Shop, Forbid Med-RF

Status Magic Attack: Death x100 (100% Death doesn’t always hit)

Elemental Magic Defense: Ultima x100 (100% to all), Full-Life x100 (40% to all), Shell x100 (20% to all), Flare x100 (80% to Fire, Ice and Lightning)Totals: 160% to all except Fire, Ice and Lightning. 200% to Fire, Ice and Lightning.

Status Magic Defense: Pain x100 (100% to Poison, Silence, Darkness, Curse), Reflect x100 (25% to Petrify, Berserk, Sleep, Slow, Stop, Confuse), Esuna x100 (20% to Petrify, Berserk, Sleep, Slow, Stop, Confuse), Holy (40% to Death, Berserk, Zombie, Sleep, Confuse, Drain)
Totals: Poison 100%, Silence 100%, Darkness 100%, Curse 100%, Death 40%, Petrify 45%, Berserk 85%, Sleep 85%, Slow 45%, Stop 45%, Confuse 85%, Zombie 40%, Drain 40%

1. In the RP Kitty and I are in, we each got to pick one GF to go with our character. The funniest thing was, before Kit and I even knew each other, I asked the RP-Creator for Bahamut or Leviathan, and Kit asked for Leviathan or Bahamut (this is in e-mails so we didn’t figure this out til ages later) and the RP-Creator told me that someone was interested in Levi, and told Kit someone was interested in Bahamut. So we each settled with the other ones we had, which were ferking opposites.

So yes, even before we said hi, we were already picked the same freaking 2 GFs out of all 16 of them. O.O Freaky, huh? I did have a point though. In this it looks very much like the RP idea got carried over, and unless there is a desperate need for a certain GF, they are left with a single host. List as I see/know it:
Irvine – LeviathanZell – Bahamut
Seifer – Ifrit
Squall – Shiva (der)
Quistis – Quetzacolt (I don’t LIKE Q-Bird with Zell! I NEVER EVER gave her to him! She always went between Quistis and Irvine)
Selphie – Siren (Hate Siren, hate her so much. She’s a crap version of Levi with a silence on the side. But I think the quiet sea nymph and the loud brunette would actually get along.)
Rinoa – Carbuncle (Rinoa isn’t in the fic, nor will she be other than brief mentions of past horror. Gave her Carby in the first round of the game, didn’t use her much at all in the second run through. Carby casts magic, she’s a sorceress bitch, he’s cuddly and cute, she’s incapable of true fighting spirit. Good match in my opinion. Hope to have fun giving him to Seifer.) ((I’m on Carbuncle in FFXI WOOO!))

Uuuuuuuummmmmmm… Yea. I really am so anal retentive I sat down with my game and equipped /unequipped all the spells and looked into all the GF abilities and functions and stats… Just so I was completely aware of what was going on… It’s not like there is going to be a great deal of reference back to these abilities, GF functions etc…. So… yea.