“Paige, if we can’t even get the hell out of this cell, knowing how to break into the mainframe isn’t going to do any good,” Joe sighed, looking up at the still working redhead, eyebrows furrowing at her. Her head rested against the bars of the cell, her eyes closed, and breathing evenly. Obviously asleep. But her hand moved mechanically, continuing to work the dagger in the lock. Smiling crookedly, Joe moved to her and gently stilled her hand. Immediately her stormy eyes flew open and zipped to his face.
     “What happened? What’s wrong?”
     “C’mon.” Joe shook his head. “You need sleep. We aren’t going to do any good if we’re bone tired, even if we do get that door open.”
     “But I have…to…help…” Her protest was silenced as her head fell to lean on his shoulder. Joe stared down at her, at her peaceful face, the slight upturned nose, the mouth with a fuller lower lip giving her a permanent pout, the light shadows her eyelashes created on her cheek. Furiously, he shook his head and eased to the ground, cradling her body against his own.
     A pair of hazel eyes glowed out of the darkness, startling Joe, and his grip on Paige tightened. Paige murmured something unintelligible and burrowed deeper into the warmth. The hazel changed to a cold, hard yellow, and the air in the cell chilled considerably, raising goosebumps on Joe’s skin. “What do you want?” he called out, heart beating rapidly, hammering painfully against his chest.
     The young sorceress glided out of the shadows, head and shoulders erect and tall, golden eyes fastened on Joe and the girl in his arms. Her voice was haunting and icy, as she said,”Tell me why.”
                                *                              *                              *
     Seifer didn’t know how much time had passed. He did know that he was no closer to a decision than he was an hour ago, simply because he’d refused to think about it. But now, even he knew that the moment was nearly upon him when he would have to make a choice. If the voices in his head would shut up…
     You know, it won’t matter, since you’re all going to die. Who the fuck cares? said one voice.
     You care, you know you do. You care about who you spend your last moments on this planet with, you know who you want to protect, said another.
     What fucking choice? You’ll get out of this, you always do, said the last one.
     Seifer was inclined to believe the last one, although the cold sinking into his bones from the air and the hard pole behind him did little to convince him of it’s validity. Likewise, the fact that THE Leonhart and Sorceress Rinoa, along with the top SeeDs at Balamb Garden, were so easily brought to their knees, did not contribute to his optimism. Of course, he had just done his job instead of getting even more involved…
     Yeah, and not be who you are. Bastard. You had to get involved to do your job. Squall didn’t get to where he was by following orders. Quistis didn’t get to be instructor by only following orders.
     Quistis isn’t an instructor anymore. Thanks to you. Heartless bastard. You’re her only failure, and because of you, they took away her license. Because of you. It’s all your fault. Her license is what kept her going, once she made SeeD, and you couldn’t stand the fact that she was better than you…could you? Or maybe you just didn’t want her to move on without you?
     Seifer allowed his gaze to slide up to the woman his thoughts were dwelling on. Her blond hair concealed her face, but Seifer knew without seeing what she looked like underneath. Her eyes, when open, were a brilliant blue, not really like the sky as those Trepies said. Well, unless it was close to midnight and the moon was full and silver. But she had a way of looking at a person that made them uncomfortable, as if she were looking into their soul and knew every secret that person had. Yet at the same time, her eyes would be amused and smiling, though not necessarily the kind of eyes a person would confide in, just eyes that would get a person through a day. Or eyes that were the reason a person got up every morning…
      He jerked his thoughts away from the direction they were going, though it was hard to ignore the feeling that jump-started his heart into a frenzied beating. The image of her dead body in his nightmare appeared in his mind, and his stomach curled.
     And he made his decision, green eyes filled with a kind of loathing that only the hardest of hearts could have ignored.
     “So, Knight.” The hated glowing eyes of Martin Rueday appeared out of the darkness. “Have you made your decision?”
     “Yes.”
     “And?” Rueday laughed. “Who have you sentenced to take the fall for your mistakes? Who will die first? Oh, and believe me, all of them can see and hear you, even if they can’t act upon any of their ideas.”
     That made Seifer pause. “They can? All of them?”
     The green eyes looked thoughtful, then malicious again. “Well, not Quistis. She’s quite out of it.” Insane laughter. “Make your choice.”
     “……”
     “Well? Knight?”
     “I choose-“
     A red light began to flash in the facility, making Seifer narrow his eyes against the alternating bright and dim. Rueday, now visible as a black shadow through the red, cursed. In the next second, a panicked male voice crackled over the intercom.
     “Escapee alert! Escapee alert! Prisoners in cell block D have escaped the cell. All personnel, report to nearest escape route to prevent passing. I repeat-“ The voice continued on, getting more and more panicked.
     “Cell block D?” Rueday’s eyes narrowed at Seifer from across the room. “You’re friends are causing me a bit of a problem and have just cost you a choice.” His eyes rose to the floating form of Quistis and flashed.
     Large metal spikes propelled out of the metal floor and her body went plummeting to the ground, as the white light disappeared. The sound of cracking bone made Seifer wince, and as his jade eyes focused on the form laying in front of him, Rueday laughed and left the room with,”It’s all your fault!”.
     There was pure silence for a moment. The type of silence that cannot be interrupted by a loudspeaker, by a flashing red light, by an obnoxious alarm because the occurrence is too important to be lessened by such trivial interruptions. Seifer stared in horror at the sight in front of him, unable to see the difference between the real image and the image in his mind. Suddenly, he lunged forward, chains snapping from around his arms, and he fell to his knees. Slowly he reached out an arm to touch her prone, feeble form, but was unable to reach. Jade eyes wide with a fury too great to describe, and an emotion too raw to touch, Seifer cried out, his dark and smirking voice suddenly filled with all the pain, pent-up from years of pretended indifference.
     “QUISTIS!!!!!”