Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Until the End of Eternity, and Longer ❯ Chapter Thirty-Six ( Chapter 37 )

Aison: Welcome back! Man, you were my primary supporter for this story for so long, so I'm really glad to see you again. I'm sorry you're confused, but it serves you right for skipping parts in one of my stories. ;-p Haven't you learned that my longer works are complex and involving yet? I can't unconfuse you without more detail on why you're confused though. …

Ariennye: I'm sorry about the less frequent updates, but what're ya gonna do? It can't be helped. As far as the knee, that's my bad for not explaining properly. See, I tend to write chapters in one sitting, not reread, and I don't have a beta, so sometimes I think I explain things better than I do. In the end, what happens is that you all end up reading the equivalent of a first draft that never gets any further than that. But coming from someone who has pretty shot knees, I speak from experience when I say, when you can't bend the knee, you just sort of drag it along behind you as best you can. It's far from pleasant and it hurts like hell sometimes, but it's not impossible to move that way. Jynx is more "dragging her leg along" as quickly as she can than running, but I used running for lack of a better word so I could get the chapter out, and well, forgot to go back and change it once the inspiration left me. Uhm…oops? I'd tell you I'll reread before posting from now on…but…I probably won't, because I'm lazy.

LunaticPandora1: Yes! On with the happiness! And you are correct about Ruvie. I feel bad about it being such a build-up and something so simple and sort of stupid and cliché is the result, but the important thing, I think is that Jynx blames the GF, no matter what happened to Ruvie. I guess that's a bit of a cop-out, but that's how I felt when I was writing it. In case we missed it, Jynx isn't really the mentally stable type. Meh, no worries.

Well, I still don't own FF8, but I do own Jynx…and she can kick your ass, so there!

I know that it's been a few weeks since I updated, but I've been busy..and…my computer hates me. I wrote half of this chapter, then my pc died and I had to start over, and then, it happened again. The jerk. So, now I have to start over for the third time, and I remember all of nothing that I wrote, since it's been a few weeks, and I've been obsessed with an Astelbania fanfic I've been writing for my message board, and brainstorming a few new ideas for my original stories….uh, yeah, like I said, busy… *blushes* Plus, I've been sketching out a basic outline of certain things to come in this story. I really just needed to step away from it for a little while to get back some perspective, I think. Anyway, I'm back though, and here's another chapter of "Until the End of Eternity, and Longer"…

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"Until the End of Eternity, and Longer"

by: Banshee Puppet

Chapter Thirty-Six

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*Tick-tock. Tick-tock. Tick-tock. The irritating sound of a wall clock breaking the silence. Jynx, slowly, opened her eyes. The lights were out, but light coming through the window told her the most important thing: Day.

Day, and she had no idea how she got here, or where here was. Tick-tock. Tick-tock. Tick-tock. A crème-colored ceiling with a tiny ridge of border around the edges, separating it from wallpaper…crème with flowers, garish roses of mauve and burgundy that reminded her of the floral pattern of an old woman's dress, or her mother's apron. The smell of daisies. Tick-tock. Tick-tock. Tick-tock. Where the hell was she? The last thing she could remember…was snow.

A cane leaned against a mahagony nightstand beneath the window. She blinked back the bright light, squeezing her eyes uncomfortably against the light, slowly, she brought her hand up to her eyes. A cast there. It surprised her. Ah, that was right, her arm was broken, one of the bones in the forearm, a few in the wrist, but not so much damage that she couldn't bend the elbow. Ow. Though it wasn't exactly pleasant to do so. Her fingers were asleep. Again-ow. She dropped the arm back down to her side, tried to sit up. Tick-tock. Tick-tock. Tick-tock.

"Don't push yourself so hard," a voice to her right said, her head shot in its direction and she blinked. An old man sat in a chair there, looking up over a pair of narrow reading glasses at her from a book he'd been reading. He removed the spectacles and placed them into the breast pocket of the linen shirt he was wearing. "You've been asleep for weeks, Yuki, you shouldn't try to do so much at once," he said, closing his book and standing.

"Where…?" Jynx tried, her voice hoarse.

He walked over to her, lifted her head to give her a sip of water. He was a very old man, but well for his age, fit. And she was too exhausted to fight his efforts. Besides that, the water felt good going down.

When he laid her head back against the pillow, he leaned against the wall beside the window and said. "The men found you out in the snow, half-dead, they'll be glad to see that you've pulled through. I guess you have a strong reason to live."

"Where is…here?" she asked, just trying to grasp everything through the fog in her brain.

"You're in my home, in Caergen. About forty miles west of Balamb. We're mostly loggers here, but when someone's hurt, they always end up here, right in this room. So just take your time recovering. You shouldn't try walking yet. I operated on your leg, but you probably won't be able to walk at all for a few weeks at least. When you think you're ready, there's a cane here for you to get started with. You must be hungry, Yuki. I'll get you something to eat."

"Why…do you keep calling me that, my name is…"

The old man raised his hand to silence her. "You've come from SeeD, right? I recognize the insignia on your weapons. So it's better that we don't know. Until you're ready to decide where you're going, it's better that we don't know anything about it. We'll just call you Yuki for now. It means snow."

"Who are you?"

"My name is David. Now relax. And take your time. Stay for as long as you need."*

%%%

Jynx opened her eyes and stared out the front window of the black jeep. "How far?" she asked blandly.

"Hundred miles from Esthar, and still a ways to go," he answered.

"Fine. Then keep driving."

%%%

Oli groaned awake. His head was killing him. What the hell had just…oh no. Shit!

He hit his com. "Mr. Seagill. Mr. Seagill, are you there sir?!?"

"What is it?" Kiros asked.

"We've got trouble sir," Oli said as he stood up, catching the wall against the woozy, nauseous feeling.

"Spit it out, Lieutenant."

"It's Jynx, sir…and Mr. Kinneas. They've escaped." …

%%%

"Well, that's it, Quisty, we're headin' out," Irvine said, tipping his hat at the blonde woman from where she sat beside Seifer's bed.

Quistis looked up from her book. "Go ahead. We'll be right here, waiting for you three to come back. Just be careful."

Squall gave a curt nod. "He ought to stay near the ones most important to him anyway," he said, meaning Seifer, saying no more, before leaving.

Laguna wanted to say something too, really wanted to say something-anything, but the words just wouldn't come to him, it was just vague shadows of words, nothing he could touch, nothing he could grasp. So he just followed his son and nephew out the door with a "see ya soon. Try to stay out of trouble!"

And the door closed between them.

%%%

In his sleep, Seifer's nose crinkled slightly. He hated that smell…hospitals, the smell of detergent and formaldihide.

*Seifer's nose crinkled slightly, before he opened his eyes. Everything seemed so foggy, but he saw Quisits staring down at him, and he smiled. She looked kinda cute, all worried like that. But something niggled in the back of his mind. Like he was forgetting…something important…someone important….*

A light swirls through Quistis's worried eyes in his dream, and suddenly he's somewhere else, watching light swirl through Edea's eyes in multi-colored ribbons. He blinks. Something wasn't right. A short woman comes into his line of sight and whispers something in the sorceress's ear. He knew her. He knew he knew her.

"Who…?" he tried to say, but no words came out, trapped in that light in the sorceress's eyes. Who is that? he wanted to ask. What did she say to you? Why do I know her. Is that…she's…she's the one…that I always… But he couldn't grasp a solid thought, couldn't grasp anything, through that swirling light. Is she…? She's the…the knight from my dreams… It was the closest his brainwashed mind could come to the truth. A mixture of truth, and fire, and wind, and snow…so much snow…the ice queen. He would see her a few times after that. At the head of an army, or whispering secrets into Adel's ear. Covered in blood…expressionless…inhuman…but sad. So sad…And he has another vague memory, of that girl…somewhere else…staring up a the stars, the endless and eternal moon. And now, he's elsewhere again, his dream mind taking him to the girl's side as she stands in the Quad, staring up at the sky….

"What are you thinking, when you stare at the moon like that Jynx?"

"Simply…that I have not forgotten. And that I never will."

"Not forgotten what?"

"Anything, Mr. Almsay. I have not forgotten that which I cannot change, nor that which has changed because of me. I have not forgotten this world, and I have not forgotten my promise to protect that which I am able to protect, and to destroy that which must be destroyed. Simply, that I have not forgotten, and that I never will."

"Jynx, I…"

"It's late. Goodnight, Mr. Almsay," the girl said.

"You don't have to leave just because I'm here," he said.

"I have been standing here for an hour. I believe I have wasted enough of the moon's time for one evening. Goodnight."

"Jynx…but I…I wanted to tell you…"

The girl ignored him…passing through the quad and into the hall, sneaking easily past the faculty, as if by old habit more than necessity.

Seifer sighed and looked up at the moon. "I won't forget either," he promised. "That you're the one…I like best."*

Seifer's eyes opened slowly on the dim bedside light, where Quistis was reading. He looked up, to find her eyes locked on him, her features etched with concern. He smiled. She looked so cute, all worried like that…but, he reminded himself, Jynx was the one he liked best. "Why so blue, Quisty?" he asked, sitting up.

It reminded her of a time she had seen him wake up before, and she suddenly remembered watching over him, also, at another time. But she hadn't known the details then, of what had happened-only that he'd hit his head.

Quistis sighed. "I'm glad you woke up," she said softly. "I was worried."

"I'm okay. I was just remembering some stuff that slipped through the cracks during the war, that's all," he said. He seemed strange, almost peaceful, content. He'd already made his decision.

"You're in love with her, aren't you?" Quistis asked, surprised when a pain in her chest suggested that she hoped she was wrong, that he didn't love Jynx. Because she really…she wanted to be the one that Seifer loved.

"Love? With Jynx?" he asked. "I don't know that that's it, really. She's just the person that I like best. So I'm going to stay by her side for as long as I can."

Quistis felt her heart clench, her stomach flop. She couldn't believe it. Did she…did she love Seifer? Was that even possible? Possible or not, it seemed that it was true. And maybe it had always been true.

%%%

I know I know, for making you wait so long, this chapter is pretty much…well…crap. And it's short…again. Geez, I'm just so uninspired today! Grr. Anyway, I'll try to get things to come together and write another chapter soon…I hope I'm not confusing people too badly. Sigh. Ah well, R&R. and until next time, as always, happy haunting.

~Banshee Puppet~