Fanfiction: "Until I Burn Away"
Aug. 2nd, 2019 09:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deemoyzaTitle: "Until I Burn Away" (7,549 words) [AO3]
Chapters: 2/6
Fandom: Final Fantasy VIII
Rating/Warnings: Teen & Up / strong language, disturbing imagery, and mild gore
Characters: Seifer Almasy, Edea Kramer, Ultimecia
Summary: Seifer takes control of the Galbadian military, but is unable to contain Squall and the others. Eager to please Edea, he orders a strike on Galbadia Garden at her command, and has an unexpected reunion with two people he'd rather have left behind.
Excerpt below the cut.
Now, in the dim light of the commencement room, she motioned him toward her. Seifer knelt before her, and she stroked his hair, gently, affectionately, as if she was petting a dog, before sliding her hand down his cheek to tilt his face upward.
"Oh, sweet knight," she said, her claws digging into the flesh behind Seifer's jaw, "you have failed me yet again. Those accursed SeeDs have escaped. They escaped the prison, they escaped the missiles. Either they are incredibly lucky, or they have had help." She flexed her fingers, and one claw pierced Seifer's skin. He winced, but otherwise made no protest.
"Considering they are your former comrades," Edea continued, "I am beginning to grow suspicious. I am beginning to wonder where your true loyalties lie."
"With you, Edea," Seifer answered, looking into her eyes. "Always with you."
"Really?" Edea traced the edge of Seifer's ear with her fingertip, sending a shiver through his body, and his blood to all the wrong places. "Then prove it."
"I am at your command." Seifer struggled to keep his voice steady, reeling from a heady mixture of desire and shame.
"I have a new order for you. Come." Edea withdrew her claw from his skin, then rose. She brushed him aside and left the commencement room. Seifer followed on trembling legs, his blood still aflame, scorching his skin where it seeped from his wound. Edea walked deeper into the Presidential Residence, down a long hallway, and into a conference room. She tapped a panel on the table there, and a plan of Galbadia Garden appeared on the monitor.
"Do you know how your little friends managed to escape the missiles?" she asked, her voice edged with ice.
"Reports from survivors say somebody messed with the Error Ratio of the launch," Seifer said.
"In that case, the Error Ratio must have been restored, because our data shows the missiles struck their intended coordinates. No, Balamb Garden survived because it removed itself from the missiles' path."
"Removed?"
Edea tapped the panel again, and the plan zoomed in to a cylindrical structure running through the center of Galbadia Garden. "Balamb Garden is mobile. All Gardens are. They were built around mobile shelters from ancient Centra. Few people know of this capability, and fewer still know how to use it. Somehow, someone at Balamb Garden activated the central structure, but if reports from Balamb Town are to be believed, they do not know how to control it."
"So, what do you want me to do? Send out a ship to intercept them?"
Edea shook her head. "Leave them be, for now. They are helpless so long as they are adrift, and are no threat to our plans."
"Then what's the deal with Galbadia Garden?" Seifer gestured toward the monitor. "Are you afraid someone's gonna take off with it, too? You just said nobody knows how to control it."
"I do." Edea's voice melted into a self-satisfied purr. "I've had plenty of time to familiarize myself with the technology necessary to further my goal. And a mobile base for the Galbadian military will do just fine to that end."
"Mobile base? You want me to secure G-Garden for the military?"
"Yes. Your new objective, Sir Seifer: order a strike on Galbadia Garden. Remove all students and faculty from the premises, kill any who resist. Capture the Garden Master for interrogation. Assemble a force inside Garden – leadership, elite soldiers, infantrymen, paratroopers. Once you have established control, I will train a group of pilots in Garden's operation, and we shall begin the hunt."
Chapters: 2/6
Fandom: Final Fantasy VIII
Rating/Warnings: Teen & Up / strong language, disturbing imagery, and mild gore
Characters: Seifer Almasy, Edea Kramer, Ultimecia
Summary: Seifer takes control of the Galbadian military, but is unable to contain Squall and the others. Eager to please Edea, he orders a strike on Galbadia Garden at her command, and has an unexpected reunion with two people he'd rather have left behind.
Excerpt below the cut.
Now, in the dim light of the commencement room, she motioned him toward her. Seifer knelt before her, and she stroked his hair, gently, affectionately, as if she was petting a dog, before sliding her hand down his cheek to tilt his face upward.
"Oh, sweet knight," she said, her claws digging into the flesh behind Seifer's jaw, "you have failed me yet again. Those accursed SeeDs have escaped. They escaped the prison, they escaped the missiles. Either they are incredibly lucky, or they have had help." She flexed her fingers, and one claw pierced Seifer's skin. He winced, but otherwise made no protest.
"Considering they are your former comrades," Edea continued, "I am beginning to grow suspicious. I am beginning to wonder where your true loyalties lie."
"With you, Edea," Seifer answered, looking into her eyes. "Always with you."
"Really?" Edea traced the edge of Seifer's ear with her fingertip, sending a shiver through his body, and his blood to all the wrong places. "Then prove it."
"I am at your command." Seifer struggled to keep his voice steady, reeling from a heady mixture of desire and shame.
"I have a new order for you. Come." Edea withdrew her claw from his skin, then rose. She brushed him aside and left the commencement room. Seifer followed on trembling legs, his blood still aflame, scorching his skin where it seeped from his wound. Edea walked deeper into the Presidential Residence, down a long hallway, and into a conference room. She tapped a panel on the table there, and a plan of Galbadia Garden appeared on the monitor.
"Do you know how your little friends managed to escape the missiles?" she asked, her voice edged with ice.
"Reports from survivors say somebody messed with the Error Ratio of the launch," Seifer said.
"In that case, the Error Ratio must have been restored, because our data shows the missiles struck their intended coordinates. No, Balamb Garden survived because it removed itself from the missiles' path."
"Removed?"
Edea tapped the panel again, and the plan zoomed in to a cylindrical structure running through the center of Galbadia Garden. "Balamb Garden is mobile. All Gardens are. They were built around mobile shelters from ancient Centra. Few people know of this capability, and fewer still know how to use it. Somehow, someone at Balamb Garden activated the central structure, but if reports from Balamb Town are to be believed, they do not know how to control it."
"So, what do you want me to do? Send out a ship to intercept them?"
Edea shook her head. "Leave them be, for now. They are helpless so long as they are adrift, and are no threat to our plans."
"Then what's the deal with Galbadia Garden?" Seifer gestured toward the monitor. "Are you afraid someone's gonna take off with it, too? You just said nobody knows how to control it."
"I do." Edea's voice melted into a self-satisfied purr. "I've had plenty of time to familiarize myself with the technology necessary to further my goal. And a mobile base for the Galbadian military will do just fine to that end."
"Mobile base? You want me to secure G-Garden for the military?"
"Yes. Your new objective, Sir Seifer: order a strike on Galbadia Garden. Remove all students and faculty from the premises, kill any who resist. Capture the Garden Master for interrogation. Assemble a force inside Garden – leadership, elite soldiers, infantrymen, paratroopers. Once you have established control, I will train a group of pilots in Garden's operation, and we shall begin the hunt."
