Stolen
Chapter 27 - Prey
Stolen
Chapter 27 - Prey
"Come in, my knight." The sorceress smiled at the SeeD; her teeth so white they looked as false as the woman herself. Though, even with the lack of light in the room, Squall could tell there was something odd.
Stepping forward, the leather-clad man entered the hall, standing at ease in the middle of the marble floor not wanting to look into the woman's eyes.
"I trust you were well taken care of while you slept?"
"My lady." He nodded.
"He is a strange boy, but loyal. I can feel it. He would not betray me as easy as some."
Standing silent, Squall waited for the sorceress to continue.
"I digress." She stood, walking to the brunette and placing a hand on his shoulder, causing the man to gasp.
Her energy was different.
"You're probably curious as to why I don't punish you, my knight. Hyne knows I have every reason to...but unlike Hyne, I have a use for you to be well." She smiled, taking a hold of one of the SeeD's hands and placing it on her stomach.
"Your son will be born within days."
"Days?" He cocked his head to the side in confusion, knowing already of the child she bore.
"My magic has seen to it. You will train it, and he will become your replacement."
"My lady." He bowed once more, trying in vain to understand.
"Leave now."
The smirk covered the scarred blonde's face again as he lifted the blood stained Hyperion down for another blow on the dark-haired youth below him.
"Give up, boy." He shouted, the red blade slicing effortlessly through the soft porcelain flesh of the younger man's stomach.
The brunette searched frantically for his sword, which had fallen from his hand some time ago, keeping an eye on his relentless attacker as he did so.
"Seifer..." a voice warned. That voice: the voice that haunted his dreams.
The voice belonging to a name long forgotten: echoing through his mind to a place on lips forced silent by the past.
He wanted to scream; to cry out to the world about the one who'd taken from him the only family...the only life he'd ever known and thrust him into the middle of this meaningless war.
"We want him alive...for the moment."
The blonde looked past the dazed youth to the man speaking and nodded, knowing obviously not to mess with his master.
"Don't worry, Seifer...you can torture him when we go back to the castle. I promise"
The boy looked up, finally finding his sword with out stretched fingers, and smirked to match the one on the elder blonde.
Seifer's face dropped bare seconds before the blue blade pierced through him; cleaving the scarred head from the toned body, sending blood flying everywhere.
Catching a taste of it in his mouth, the boy smiled. He'd done the impossible. Not even the nameless man who continued to torture him even now could take that away from him.
"When you meet Hyne, tell her K-" The young SeeD was cut off as the pressure in his head caused the world to spin and black out.
Purple eyes snapped open from the slumber they'd not realised they'd slipped in.
It hadn't happened that way, at least, not the way he remembered it. In a sudden thought, Kaien lifted his shirt before standing upright in surprise.
The scar on his stomach was thick and fresh and healed. And it hadn't been there when he'd put his shirt on.
At least he was now sure of one thing...
...It could be changed.
"You're slowing down, old man. Need a hand?" The English blonde asked, turning to face the president.
"Got anything that can cure a headache?"
"Nah. The only stuff I had I used when Squally came back. The guy is just one big headache." He smirked, noting the half amused look of his companion.
"Good to see I'm not the only one who thinks so, sometimes."
Laguna's face went pale. Falling to his knees, he cried out, clutching at his wounded neck. The heat throbbing from the bite mark was beginning to spread, like a fever wracking his body.
Seifer was kneeling next to the older man in a shot. Removing the hand from the mark, the blonde gaped. He hadn't noticed it before, and with the colour it was, it was hard to see why he hadn't; the deep blue, like that of bruises, covered his neck; radiating from the puncture wounds of a bite mark.
If he didn't know better, Seifer would have sworn that the flesh it self was dead, or decaying.
Searching his pockets quickly, the blonde pulled out a holy water.
"Drink this."
Laguna looked up at Seifer, his brows furrowing as he gazed down at the blue liquid.
"Zell bit you. This is just a precaution." The baritone answered, seemingly reading Laguna's mind.
As Laguna weakly brought the vial to his lips, Seifer stood, pinching the bridge of his nose as he paced in front of the president.
"That bitch is gonna pay."
The blue quickly vanished from the Laguna's neck as the healing magic took its course, the older man's headache easing off.
"Whatever that was, Seif...it worked, thanks."
You're too good to be undead...I don't want you to end up like Zell...
"We're late. Let's go."
"I'd like to thank you for taking care of Seifer." He smirked, walking around the cell to wrap his hands around the dark, long-haired figure beside him.
"It certainly saved me from doing it. He was..."
"Possessive." The second, older voice cut in, wrapping his own arm around the black-clad man at his side.
The youth looked up, unable to move much with the spikes of ice embedded in his shoulders.
"Squall?" He asked weakly, blinking his wide blue eyes in an attempt to focus on the shrouded faces before him. He could tell, even without seeing it, that the shorter man was grinning at him.
"That's right. You've been a thorn in my side for too long, Kaien Carson."
"Can I kill him now?" The other man asked; his voice so familiar it almost screamed to Kaien.
"Soon, my love, soon. There are just a couple of things I want to find out first." Squall smiled, kissing the taller man before turning his gaze back to the boy.
"Why are you so intent on stopping me?"
The darker man looked up; the smirk on his face unnatural for the peace loving man.
"Pa'Guna?"
Squall raised an eyebrow before twisting the ice spear.
"Laguna, leave us."
Without another word, the older man walked out of the cell, leaving the two blue-eyed men staring at each other.
"Who are you?"
"You don't recognise me?" The youth breathed out, grimacing at the scarred man before him.
"You're stronger than you were a year ago."
"I'm stronger than I was ten years ago too."
Squall looked at the boy sideways, confusion marring his usually emotionless face.
"You really don't know me?"
"I don't think it matters anymore." The cold reply came as one of the crystals was removed from his arm.
"I am Kyle Ien Leonhart." He murmured between clenched teeth, his naturally blue eyes sparking with red and yellow as the air around them both thickened.
"Your son, and your saviour." He cried, as the room flashed around him.
The light died quickly, leaving the wounded boy lying on the cold floor with only a thin cotton material covering his nakedness.
"It iz good to see you avake at last, young man. Now ve can begin."