Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Vividarium Et Intervigilium Et Viator ❯ One ( Chapter 1 )

Title: Vividarium Et Intervigilium Et Viator

Rating: PG-13 for language and violence
Summary: In the garden sleeps a messenger, my sweet. Do you wake him, and receive the message, or kill him, and not care?
Disclaimer: Okay, I'll only say this once. Storyline? Mine! Characters, Game Universe, and everything else? Squaresoft! Any Questions? Better not be... *growls at nitpickers*
Note: I like 'speculative eyebrows'. You have been warned :P

Chapter One

Hello, my knight. Life as you know it has ended...

Darkness loomed in all corners of the room, threatening to consume all that dared to come near. Random pieces of furniture were placed about the room in no orderly manner, mostly there just to be seen but not used. All were painted a sharp color of blood red, made to stand out, and be menacing to those that laid eyes upon them.

When one betrays his Sorceress, it is customary for one to fall ill with a curse on the soul...

She danced and sang always, even if the lights went out, and the air grew cold. She was always merry, and full of life, though her situation was horrendous. Those little songs she would make up were nonsense, but sweet to the ears, so they were listened to as if they held the meaning of life.

You refused to fight for me in my last moments and fled through the night into your 'mother's' arms...

And the Luck joy, buck joy copper pot;
He said that all his luck was shot
And so we say to that copper pot
Oh me oh my oh clover!

Being alive will now be a task, and there will be hell on earth forevermore...

Sitting in a half dozing state, he watched Lynn dance in the small light given from the ceiling. Alexis came to sit beside him, giving him a slight smile as she perched on the armrest of his chair. He put his arm around her waist loosely, and leaned back further. Ultimicia had set her plan into motion of moving the Lunatic Pandora towards Esthar, so the free time Seifer had was sparse. He tried to make the most out of moments like these, and by not letting the girls know what was going on was one of them.

For you, this is a slow death. And this... this will be your reality...

A shadow came over the room, drowning out the light for a moment, and giving the monsters the time they needed. Sounds of teeth clicking, and tails dragging on the floor surrounded them, even when the light came back. In an alarmed state, Seifer pulled Alexis to the light, and had her stay with Lynn as he prepared to fight whatever monster chose to advance.

Your life has been my death, Sir Knight, as my death has been your curse...

Two eyes came from the darkness first, followed closely by a gaping mouth of jagged teeth and black, oozing gums. Drawing Hyperion to a battle stance, Seifer swung at the monster viciously, trying to block any incoming attacks from hitting the girls behind him at the same time. It snapped and roared as it brought down a huge claw down on Seifer's shoulder, knocking him to the ground to unconsciousness.

And this curse shall kill you, my knight. That, I can promise, even in the afterlife.

---

Breathing erratically, Seifer opened his eyes to the unwelcome sight of the systematic ceiling fan. It's blades swirled around in a monotonous motion, a reminder to the ex-sorceress knight that his life will either end while he is young, or go down the same route of tedium. True, the ceiling of his dorm was his only friend in this Hyne-forsaken place, as he has come to discover. But it is always there when the dreams came and ushered him unceremoniously awake to the horrors of life, leading him to resent the whole thing.

Giving a sigh in resignation, he closed his eyes as he gathered his thoughts. The standard issue alarm clock beeped five times to alert his mind to the time, before falling back into the steady buzzing of yet another horrible piece of electronic trash. He had often thought of crushing the contraption into dust and putting it into the hot dog mixture for Chicken-Wuss, but the trouble it would bring was not worth it.

"Another nightmare..." He spat in disgust, opening them again, only to be greeted by the ever so faithful stucco ceiling once more.

Sitting up in his bed drenched in sweat, he turned to the clock on the wall to see the red numbers glaring back at his form of disarray. It read 5:01am, informing him that it was still his most un-favorite time of the 24 allotted hours given to mortal men. The darkness still lay thick on the land, and the nightmares and ghosts of his past came freely to the minds eye.

"Damn." he muttered, shaking his head to banish his weariness and the already evident headache that was certain to come. Letting a glare settle on the clock of evil, he commanded his mind to quiet, to let the ghosts leave and return to their graves as he swung his legs over the side of the bed as he looked out the window. The hard linoleum was cold to his bare feet, though he did not notice much as he stood and stretched the sleep away from his body.

"Five in the morning is too early to be awake..." He grumbled, walking into the bathroom. Turning to the mirror, he glared at his reflection and bared his teeth in a vicious fashion. "Guess I am a monster, after all." He mused, sending one last glare at himself before peeling off his clothes and stepping into the shower.

SeeD Seifer Almasy had been back at Balmb Garden for 17 months now, and every night there was another nightmare, another horrible thing just waiting to wake him up with a nice jolt to the adrenaline. Circumstances had been getting better, though. At least now he didn't wake up screaming.

Cid and Matron had taken special care of him, since his return. He had received his own dorm, with a private bathroom. Normally only members of the faculty received such luxuries, but he was a special case. He was a villain to all the population of the earth. Probably to Hyne herself as well.

Enemy or ally, no one wanted to find him dead in a bathroom stall.

"Damn these headaches..." He murmured, the cold water doing little to help his aching head. "Better go blow it off in the Training Center before I eat. Maybe that will help..."

---

"Please tell me why you are waking me up this early in the morning?" Squall demanded as he walked through the double doors leading to the commander's office. Xu and Quistis stood at one side of the desk, glancing up at his entry, before going back to rummaging through papers. Zell, Irvine and Selphie were on the other, all blatantly grinning at Squall's frustrated stance.

"Well? What did you call me for?" He growled again, sitting down behind his desk and glaring at everyone in turn.

Narrowing her eyes, Quistis turned and faced Squall directly before answering. "Commander, Sir, there is a slight problem with our equipment, and there is no way for us to properly maneuver Balmb Garden anywhere." She reported in a clipped tone, distaste evident in every syllable. "So therefore the situation is that we are still in the middle of the ocean between Centra and Galbadia, and have no way of getting to any sort of land."

"Good way of getting to the point, Quisty. Real smooth." Irvine teased, mimicking her professional tone. "Now all we need is for our fearless leader to have a heart attack when he hears about the dwindling food supply!"

Groans of exasperation chorused from everyone as Selphie punched Irvine in the stomach. Squall gazed at the double doors and wistfully sighed as memories of a bed with a sleeping Rinoa flitted through his mind one last time. Turning to Xu, he leaned back into his chair and opted a superior expression. "So, what is messing up the equipment?"

"Sir..." She grinned, tossing a picture down in front of Squall. "I believe Almasy knows that better than all of us."

---

The Grat fell in a pile of green goop, transforming into a red mass as it disintegrated in defeat. Seifer gathered the healing potion dropped in his victory, and cleaned his blade from the residue as he looked around for another monster to kill. Ever since he had returned, the only solace that could ever be found was in the Training Center. Killing monsters gave him a sort of peace, some sort of confirmation that he was indeed alive and not under Ultimicia's control. That, and no one bothered him when he was on a kill-all-monsters spree.

He stopped at a curaga draw point to restock, getting 20 added to his defense, when a T-Rexaur came tromping out from the underbrush. Roaring menacingly and lashing about, it charged at Seifer with the intent to kill. Without flinching, Seifer ran to the side, narrowly missing the feet of the creature, and slashed out with his Hyperion. Blade tearing through flesh, the Gunblade connected with the T-Rexaur's right leg and caught on the bone, making the weapon stuck. Roaring out in pain, the monster turned quickly and lunged at Seifer, teeth bearing.

The jaws of the opponent sank into his shoulder, causing pain to jolt through his torso, almost disabling him. Letting a cry of pain escape, Seifer fought to pull his weapon free. Once the weapon was discharged, he swung the blade around full circle, sinking in straight between the eyes of the large Reptile. The T-Rexaur lifted him up and shook him a bit, hoping to kill and devour him, despite the fact that a piece of very sharp metal was stuck through its head. With a few more shakes, the monster dropped Seifer before bending down the other way and collapsing dead, brains oozing out to make a gruesome scene before disintegrating into nothingness.

After staggering over and picking up his weapon, Seifer checked to make sure there were no more enemies were in the vicinity before falling into a sitting position. He rummaged through his inventory, pulling out a few potions and Curas, before leaning back and acknowledging the GF presence in his mind. "Heh. Look who came out of the woodwork. Lady Tiamat!" He sneered as he downed a potion, wincing as the powerful summon retaliated with insults of her own.

At least I am honorable, Master Almasy!!

"Right, right... Hyne, I hate T-Rexaurs. They always charge through chomping and stomping, but they never stop and smell the roses."

Kind of like yourself, master?

Growling at the Guardian Force, he stalked towards the entrance of the Training Area. "Shut up, Tiamat."

"SeeD Almasy, please go to the Commander's Office at once." The intercom echoed, clicking off once the announcement was through. Seifer groaned as he changed his course, walking towards the elevators instead of the dorms.

Quistis was waiting on the elevator once he boarded, a distant look in her eyes evident. She gazed at the doors as they closed and moved her gaze to Seifer as the lift began to move. Seifer stared back just as blatantly, a small smirk on his face. Tiamat rattled around in her normal manner whenever a hero of the war was in their presence, and began to sputter curses at the woman to his great amusement.

The elevator opened, and Quistis led him out to the office of the commander, never looking back to him. The double doors stood wide, and the entire group of heroes stood around the desk, with the addition of Xu and Nida. Quistis moved to stand next to Squall, and her expression turned into professionalism once again.

"So, why the call before breakfast?" Seifer asked, leaning on Hyperion in a menacing manner with a smirk on his face. "If another sorceress is taking over the world, you know where to send me."

Squall's face darkened at the reference, and gritted his teeth. "You are here because Garden's machinery has gone haywire." He growled, gripping the edge of the desk. Quistis placed a comforting hand on his shoulder to calm him down, her gaze still fixed on Seifer.

He grinned, and shook his head in amusement as he surveyed the group before him. "So? I didn't do it." He shrugged his shoulders. "No Lap Dog needed for that sort of work."

No, they would need a Sorceress wanting to find her knight...

"Tiamat..." Seifer growled under his breath. "Shut up!"

Squall rolled his eyes as Seifer talked to himself, and pulled out the photograph from a folder on his desk. "We figured as much. But there was an image that came across our receivers that lead us to believe that you did have something to do with it." He threw Seifer the paper and leaned back onto the desk awaiting the reaction.

---

His gaze leveled on the horizon as the sun began it's slowing decent to the other side of the earth. Though Time Compression did not have a feasible way to tell time, there was still sun rises and sunsets. They just tended to come within each other in a two-hour time frame.

Alexis came up beside him, her footsteps barely audible in the still air. She leaned onto his arm, and grinned as she observed the painted sky. "Ultimicia will fall soon. You know that, right?"

"Yeah, I'm aware of it." Seifer replied, looking down to her. "What's your point?"

"I want you to become my knight after she is gone." She shifted uneasily, looking everywhere but at the man beside her. "And I want you to help me take care of Lynn, so that I'm not by myself..."

Seifer smiled, and leaned down to press his lips to hers. Withdrawing, he rested his forehead on hers and placed his hands on her waist. "I'll be your knight now, and I'm already helping you with Lynn, so don't worry with that."

"Really?" Alexis asked, moving her head back so she could see his face. "Are you certain?"

"Yes." Seifer replied.

"Good. Now you can tattoo this symbol over your heart!" She exclaimed, holding a piece of paper with a design printed on it. She waved it under his nose and grinned at his surprised expression before dragging him inside the palace. "You see, it has elements of both of us, and..."

---

Squall cleared his throat to break the silence. "Is that the a symbol for a Sorceress? We know there were a few others in Time Compression with Ultimicia before it collapsed..."

Seifer nodded his head. "Yeah. This is a design for Adel's daughter, Alexis."

"Where was she when Time Compression collapsed?" Squall shifted his weight to the other foot and raised a speculative eyebrow. "Did she get out before it went down?"

"Not that I know of." He replied, gazing at the image of an old Centra dragon wrapped around the Hyperion cross. He knew it well, as he had seen it often in the nightmares of his betrayal. "I was under the impression that she was killed along with Ultimicia's daughter when the monsters went berserk."

Quistis removed her hand from Squall's shoulder and tilted her head curiously, as if pondering something. "What was your relationship with them?" She gave a small smile as Seifer's eyes widened in surprise. Everyone around her glanced her way to try to figure out where she was going, but to no avail.

"None of your business." Seifer growled, coming to his senses. "Let me know if there is anything I need to do on the situation." He saluted and quickly walked out of the room and into the open elevator, the doors closing behind him.

"Damnit!" Seifer punched the buttons on the elevator, signaling for it to move downwards. Pulling his hand away in pain, he leaned up against the back wall of the contraption, sighing in exasperation. "I didn't find out where they got that symbol!"

With a soft ding the doors slid open, enabling him to move out into the main hall of the Garden. As always, both cadets and SeeDs were running aside, moving out of his way as he tromped through, not wanting a confrontation with the notorious Sorceress Knight.

"Hey, Almasy!"

Seifer turned around to see a cadet in his late teens approach him at a running pace. "Hmmm... Another fucked up punk that needs a lesson." He spoke to himself as he smirked at the arrogant expression on the kid's face. It was almost exactly like the expression he once wore.

The cadet came to a halt before Seifer and stood in a fighting pose. "People say that you can be beat. I want to see."

"Right..." Seifer chuckled while rolling his eyes. "Go home child. I don't have time to play dress-up with a little ass like you." He finished, turning and walking down the walkway once again.

"Oh Almasy! I heard you can't even save the woman you pledge servitude to! Even if she was evil, you were supposed to protect her, but you didn't!" The teen called after him as heads turned to see what was going on. "That means you're the ass!"

There was silence in the hallway as Seifer stopped walking. The elevator doors opened once again, this time revealing Squall and Zell, with Quistis following. They moved over behind the cadet, as if to give backup to the child if Seifer was to attack him.

The sound of water could be heard, dripping, one plop at a time.

Plop...

Plop...

Plop...

Seifer quickly turned and drew his gunblade, pointing it at the surprised cadet with anger. "Say that again and you will draw your last breath, got that, you fucker? I had my reasons for standing beside her, and I had a reason for leaving her side as well." He lowered his arm and turned to walk away. "Don't talk about shit you have no knowledge of."

"Yeah, but that ain't what I heard!"

Hyperion out and in a fighting position, Seifer turned and rushed at the cadet while casting a fire spell on the teen before he could react. Moving sideways to avoid the flailing punches the cadet was throwing, Seifer then hit him upside the head with the flat-end of his weapon and withdrew, breathing heavily.

The cadet crumpled to the ground with a scream of pain, then lay still.

And an old Sorceress' Knight found solace in his mind.

---

"Here is some psychological crap for you! Life goes around, and around, and around - until finally it stops in the one spot you don't want it to be in."

"Hello?" The shout echoed back at him ten-fold among the fallen stone pillars that would be considered as Ultimicia's Palace. Seifer had found a way into Time Compression as soon as Lunatic Pandora had started so that he could see whom he was supposedly defending with his life and honor. So far, nothing doing.

Eyebrows quirking in interest, the woman laying beside him rolled to see his face properly. "Alright. I'm listening."

Picking his way across the debris of the fallen palace, Seifer made his way to the doors of the building, blasted open by some sort of fireball that must have been thrown by someone wanting to get in. The sides of the walls were scorched with ash, and the floor was burnt black from the flames.

"So basically there you are, stuck, with no one within shouting distance to give you a hand. And truthfully, even if they did hear you, they wouldn't give a fuck." He grinned, waiting for her reply.

"Come on! Where is everybody?" He yelled at the top of his lungs standing in the center of the main hallway.

"Seifer, what has this to do with anything?" She asked as she sighed in exasperation.

Looking around as the echoes came back at him, he noticed movement on his left, towards a small servant's door.

The grin forming into an all out smile, he continued, keeping one eye on her face and the other on her still form under the sheets. "Look, all I'm saying is that while life is still going around, you gotta get all you can. You follow?"

Quickly he ran to the door and opened it, seeing a dark passageway before him and sounds of running bare feet going deeper into the darkness. Without a moment of thought, he bolted through the door, hoping to catch up with the person who was running from him.

"Sure… Like you need to gather something to survive on if your stuck for a long time?"

The small, darkened tunnel ran for a ways, dipping downwards for a few feet every so often. There would be an occasional speck of light from a crack in the floor, slightly showing the crude paintings of prisoners once contained in the area.

"Yeah - snacks and a load of other-worldly crap that you can eat until the cows come home." He laughed.

Coming upon a large doorway, Seifer came to a halt and moved his hands over the door, only seeing light from the hinges holding it up. It was made of a thick wood, the handle a big and heavy knocker that enabled you to pull the door open with enough strength.

Letting a frustrated groan escape her, she rolled onto her side, facing away from him to make her point. "So this speech of yours in truth actually has no point whatsoever. It's just a long spiel of brainless crap that you came up with one day that you figured you would try out on me?"

After examining the whole thing, Seifer grasped the handle tightly and pulled, opening the door with great effort. Light streamed into the passageway from where he was standing, temporarily blinding him as he staggered into the open space.

"Yeah... Look, Alexis? You are the one person I can say that I want to be around for the rest of my days, alright?" He pushed her back onto her back and rolled so that he was slightly on top of her. "So don't get pissed if I decide to try and find a reason to not like you. You know very well that I will never find one."

He could still hear though. Music was playing softly, a slow death waltz with silent words, enticing, yet terrifying at the same time. Obviously Ultimicia had scary tastes. Seifer gripped the wall, making his eyes work.

"But that won't stop you from trying?" She replied, the corner of her lips forming slightly into an expression of mirth.

A magnificent chandelier. That was the first thing Seifer say when his eyes finally adjusted due to his commands. Large purple candles decorated the fixture, with hazy blue lights coming from the tops.

"Of course not. Weaknesses should be gotten rid of."

Then maroon colored carpet, stiff and thick, came into focus. Upon further examination he could see the beautiful mahogany furniture, made in an old Galbadian style, with satin cushions and gold trimmings everywhere.

"Oh. I get it. I'm a weakness. Gee, Seifer. You sure know how to make a girl feel loved."

And last to be noticed was a girl standing right in the center, a small childish red dress adorning her tiny body as she looked up towards Seifer in wonderment.

"Hi." She spoke, bringing his attention to her small and frail form. "I'm Lynn! Are you my mummy's Knight??"

"Yeah, don't mention it..."

---

Whew! This chapter is rewritten! Time for the next!