Fatality IV: Open Wounds

Disclaimer: Only the twisted plot is mine. Not the characters, not the setting, not the lyrics.

A/N: I’m not going to say how many times I had to rewrite this chapter before I got comfortable with it. Makes me glad I had the time to do so. Warnings for brutal character abuse and other general evil doings apply.

And you can’t stop me from falling apart
‘Cause my self-destruction is all your fault
~ Skillet – Open Wounds
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“You know this is your fault, right Squall? If it weren’t for you always being the one everyone liked behind your back, the one that was expected to do great things, the one that fucking saved the world, I never would have done half the shit I’ve done since that field exam.”

Seifer keeps repeating the same things, in slightly different words, and I can tell he doesn’t like me not reacting to them. I won’t react how he’d like me to because it’s just not true. Nobody, except for maybe Ultimecia, made him defend her; nobody made him kill Irvine, and nobody’s making him offer no explanation for what went on yesterday.

I glare at him, finally get out of my chair, and stride over to him deliberately. “If I remember right, Seifer, they used to expect big things from you until you showed how little you cared for authority. Students would have admired you more if you weren’t a bully. I never liked your attitude, but I always respected your fighting skills. As you said yourself yesterday, there was a time when there was more to our spars than training. If you held any hope in that warped mind of having something like that again, you are more delusional than I already think you are.”

He snickers, stands up, and runs a bare finger across the scar on my forehead. “You think I’m crazy, Puberty Boy? One of us was crazy yesterday, but it sure as hell ain’t me. I wasn’t the one who let himself be possessed for a while, after all.”

Possessed? I’m not sure which is more confusing – the fact that Seifer knows what happened or him saying that I’d been possessed on the beach yesterday. But by who?

“If you know what went on with me and Rinoa yesterday, I suggest you start explaining. What I did to you unnerves me, but what she nearly did with you makes me want to rip your testicles off.” The faint buzzing in my head is probably why I end up saying that. It’s what I wanted to, but I know better than to show that much anger around him. What the hell is going on?

Seifer keeps laughing. He’s not even touching me this time, but images of all our most sexually charged moments in the past are running through my mind. I focus on thoughts of Rinoa and Irvine to try and push them away. It’s not working very well, though, and I barely make out what he’s telling me.

“You see, Squall, I managed to turn the tables on my situation after you killed Ultimecia. While I was floating through time, as I’m sure all of you were, I found her. Somehow I grabbed her soul, brought it back with me, and now I’m the one in control. Yeah, her body died after she passed on her powers, but she can still do a few fun tricks.”

The mental pictures disappear once he starts circling me with that old familiar predatory look on his face. “She hates being kept like this, of course, but she enjoys toying with minds still. What’s going on is quite simple – she manages to possess your mind for a short while and makes it act as it would have if she’d never attempted Time Compression. As we learned yesterday, both you and Rinoa would want me in that world. Of course, I don’t know what I would be like. I’m not stupid enough to let her take over my mind again.”

I should have guessed everything was Seifer’s fault. It started when we got physically close to him, after all. And as crazy as this is, he seems to be in just as much control over himself as he always has been.

He backhands me for no apparent reason, then spits in my face and punches me in the stomach. It makes me double over to catch my breath while he begins rambling. “And like I was sayin’ earlier, it’s all your fucking fault. Everyone liked you, so they sent you, Chicken-wuss, and the messenger girl to help the pathetic Timber Owls. That got me all worried, so I went after you three.

“I wanted to help out by killing Vinzer Deling for you guys. That lead to what I’d always wanted – the chance to be a knight. And I was her favorite, the one in charge of everything, until you kept beating me and chasing her down. When she got mad at me, she started controlling more and more of my actions. You think I wanted to give Rinoa to Adel? Hell no. Yeah, I was her protector, but I realized after that final loss that she really was fucking nuts. I’d die if she succeeded.

“So I turned the tables, managed to control her because you killed her. And I’ll let what’s left of her go once I’ve used her to get my revenge on you and everyone else that ever beat me. This ain’t because you saved the world, Leonhart. It’s because you made me lose control over what I was doing. Ain’t what I told Kinneas before I killed him, but have I ever lied to you before?”

I’m surprised he didn’t hit me again as he was speaking. The faint relief at that ends, though, when he grabs me by the collar, pulls me up, and punches me in the jaw. “Answer me or I’ll just hurt you worse.”

Now I’m regretting telling Quistis not to keep an eye on the situation in here. I’m unarmed, unjunctioned, and in the same room with someone who wants to seriously injure or kill me. I hope Rinoa will be able to tell if I need her help.

“As far as I know, you’ve always told me the truth as you saw it. But doing this is only going to lead to someone killing you, you know,” I mumble, only to get kneed in the gut. Again, I double over and gasp for air. He shoves me backwards. If I look up at him, I’ll probably see only hatred, but when I do raise my head, there’s the same expression there that I caught as we shook hands yesterday. My mind’s about to tell me what it is when he grabs a knife from his boot, yanks me up by the hair, puts it to my throat, and growls in my ear.

“You might not want to believe it, but I have morals. I believe in never lying to those important to me. And hating you as much as I do makes you damn important; therefore, I will never lie to you. Squall, I’m not going to kill you now or ever. There are better ways of making you suffer.”

I don’t believe him one bit, but I can’t talk with the sharp blade pressing against my Adam’s apple. He should still be sore and weak from yesterday, like I am. The only way he could be healed so fast – and the only way a weapon could have gotten past him being searched – is if everything he said earlier was true. In that case, Ultimecia, or whatever’s left of her, must have been told to make him better as well as to keep the knife hidden.

The instant he lowers his knife, I elbow his side and dart towards the door when his arm falls away. As I pull the key from my pocket and stick it in the lock, I’m only faintly aware of Seifer moving up behind me. Sharp pain radiates from my lower back, making me scream. I turn around to hit him, but he’s pulled the knife out and slices my forearm open.

I’m scared to touch him for fear of having Ultimecia get inside my mind again. Right now, though, I don’t seem to have much of a choice. Blood spurts from a severed artery, but I take no notice of it. I just bend over a little, ram my shoulder into his chest, and scream out as he stabs me again. Pretty much proves that he was lying about not wanting to kill me.

In my mind, I can feel Rinoa getting closer to me, which is a relief because I’m getting weaker by the heartbeat. The blood on the floor makes me slip, so I kick at Seifer’s knee as I fall. He lands on top of me, but scrambles to his feet, runs to the door, unlocks it, and leaves. And even though I’m bleeding pretty badly, I force myself to get up and stumble out after him.
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A/N: I like being evil. You all probably want to maim me for the cliffhanger, though. My Squall-muse certainly wants to maim me for the nearly constant abuse. I hope the explanation made as much sense to you as it does in my mind. If not, just say so and I’ll try to clarify in future chapters.