Disclaimer. Squaresoft owns all these guys and places. I don't mean to infringe you guys so........ just chill, eh???
In case you end up wondering.... I came up with a story line where Squall loved 3 people. Seifer was first, Rinoa second and finally Zell was his third love. If ya wanna see expansion on this read my 2 fics 'With or without you' and 'The hardest words'. Cheers!




The Longest Road.


"The man who has no inner life is the slave of his surroundings."
-Henri Frederic Amiel.



Chapter twenty three; Devil's Angel and Lions.





A confused looking Zell Dincht stopped Quistis in the corridor as she came out of her classroom. "Have you seen Squall?"

"No, sorry. Not since this morning anyway."

"I said I'd find him when his meeting had finished but I can't find him anywhere in Garden." He said with growing concern.

"Go see if he checked out at the front gate."

"I never thought of that, I'm so dense sometimes!" He turned and ran down the hall stopping at the doorway to give her a mock salute and a wink. "Thanks Quisty!"

She blushed gently at the nickname and nodded.





Squall had hidden his vehicle in a clearing at the base of mount Balamb and picked a bandage up from the passenger seat before flicking on the alarm.

As he traversed the familiar path, he began to wind the bandage around his eyes. He no longer needed his eyesight, having committed this path to memory years before. Years when Seifer and he had been both comrades and mortal enemies. And before that, even lovers.

He rounded a large boulder and remembered it as the scene of a first kiss, a brief encounter with a new lover. Too many years and too many heartaches ago to remember without pain.

A pain that burned brighter with each passing step knowing that same lover was the enemy awaiting him at the top, on the rocky plateau where scars had been gained a year ago.

"At last." Seifer exclaimed as he reached the plain. "I thought you'd have arrived ages ago." Squall could almost hear him roll his eyes.

"You have to give me a little extra time."

"Not at all. I don't have to give you anything Squall, you took it all from me."

Squall was disgusted. "How can you say that?" He drew his gunblade on instinct as Seifer began to run towards him. The Hyperion blade sang through the air, a whispering rush of death-song.

The lion heart raised to meet it. A crash and a scream of steel on Adamantine. Holding the strike there with one hand, Squall pulled a dagger from the inside of his boot, and held the dull side against his own temple.

Seifer grunted with the effort of trying to force Squall's gunblade back. "What are you doing Leonhart?!?"

He slid the blade upwards, beneath the bandages and with one swift movement, cut the gauze layers. The bandages peeled away.

And Seifer was treated to the ice cold "you asked for it" stare from Squall's stormy grey eyes.

With an intense roar, like a lion, Squall used all his strength and forced Seifer backwards. The shock was now dissipating and Squall had but moments to press his advantage.

The blue arcs of the gunblade, swung with increasing fervour were indistinguishable from Squall's own body, becoming a part of the lion. He struggled to control the rage that bubbled inside him, threatening at any moment to explode with all the force of a supernova. If it did, Seifer would not survive.

Seifer hardly had time to strike back, barely managing to execute a thrust or strike every now and then. One such thrust caught the back of Squall's hand but did nothing to slow him down.

Just then, Squall's booted foot hit a patch of gravel and he skidded, loosing his balance for simply a moment.

A moment was all Seifer had been praying for.

He pressed his advantage and with a swing of the Hyperion and a shoulder charge, relieved Squall of his weapon and knocked him sprawling to the ground.

Seifer towered above him, golden hair longer than a year ago, making him look younger than his years. Angel, Demon, lover, friend...... Enemy. The Hyperion raised above his head, familiar smirk on his face and malicious glint in his eye. Squall scrambled backwards in the dust, and Seifer followed him....

Just as Squall resigned himself to his fate, his hand struck cold metal and his fingers clasped around the hilt of a dagger. His own dagger.

Seifer lunged towards him.

Squall thrust the dagger up, feeling it slide through the flesh of Seifer's stomach.

The Hyperion bounced harmlessly away and Seifer fell to his knees clutching his stomach.

"Shit!" Squall scolded himself. "I fucking lost my mind. Rookie mistake."

"Stop talking to yourself Leonhart. It's not fitting for a man such as you to loose their marbles. What hope do the rest of us have?"

He remembered himself and looked up at his blonde enemy. "The others have gotten to me a little, I'm thinking out loud these days."

Seifer nodded and smiled. "I'm afraid I have some bad news, There is no cure, I just wanted one of us to die out of the way.

Squall shrugged. "I didn't think there really would be a cure. I just wanted to ask you a few questions really." He stood.

"What now?"

Squall pulled the collar of his shirt down to expose a red rash and a small angry mark, it looked like a gnat bite and had been the source of his infection according to Kadowaki's examination. "Who ordered this? The blow dart was a little primitive don't you think?"

"My superior officers developed the virus to finish Rinoa. They were sure she'd be the one to rescue the boy. I told them that it was more likely you would come, after all you are the father. Mind you, it worked anyway didn't it?" Seifer laughed half-heartedly. "To the worst end of course, but it worked."

Squall's eyes narrowed to slits and his grip tightened on the dagger in his hand. "And who decided to cut up my baby son's face?"

"A stupid soldier who was dead before he hit the floor when I found out. He thought it would be a good joke." Another smirk appeared on the blonde's face. "He didn't appreciate me doing it to him though..." Seifer closed his eyes for a moment to remember the baby's face. A vague memory resurfaced in his mind, of a silent baby bought to the orphanage, a beautiful boy with angry gray eyes who he had seen as both his rival and friend. "I'm sorry.... about most things these days. I used my last Curaga on the boy to try and help him but it could only just close the wound. How's he doing?"

"He's fine. He's growing very quickly, but he's okay." He paused. "What happened to us? Back then?" He asked, watching Seifer.

"What an I? An ego-masseur?"

"No... I just want to know what went wrong...."

Seifer regarded him for a minute as if trying to find his ulterior motive. Finding none he spoke. "We were just too different."

Squall swung to face him so violently that a cloud of dust rose around him. "That's bullshit and you know it!"

For several minutes the two were silent, until Seifer moaned softly and said; "Very well Squall. It was because we are different but more than that really..." He adjusted his position to make himself a little more comfortable. "You have no idea what everyone thinks of you, do you? I find that so refreshing."

"What?"

"The whole world loves you Squall. Someone has but to set eyes on you for the first time and they like you. You've got what the rest of us want and you don't even realise it...... no, worse...., you deny it." Seifer rubbed a bloodied hand over his face and winced. "There was always something about you...., Chicken wuss loved you even when we were kids because of it."

"It?" Squall asked, still as confused as before.

"It, it, it! I can't explain it any better but there's something about you... You draw people to yourself no matter how hard you don't wish to. I saw Quisty fall in love with you and I saw chi.... I saw Zell realise his feelings. And it made me so insanely jealous I thought I'd end up killing you." His words were so calm he could have been reading instructions on mixing concrete. "I had to get myself away from you. And then, I began to resent the fact that you had what I wanted."

"I had what you wanted...?" Squall repeated a little dazed.

Seifer rolled his eyes and sighed. "All I ever wanted was for people to like me and love me Squall. That was why I went with Matron Edea.... She offered me all of it. But it didn't work."

The brunette stared at the floor in disbelief. Was he really like Seifer claimed he was? Or was it all a lie?

"Then when I first met with Ultimecia I thought being so utterly loved by someone that you become a part of their soul would be the next best thing.... Then you took that away from me too!!!" Seifer slammed his fist to the rocky ground with a hollow crack. He looked up with pained eyes a sea of exhaustion and longing. "And you know something? I hated myself more than anything because I forgave you and I wanted to be fighting by your side, all of you, my childhood friends."

'He wanted to be fighting with us, not against us....' Squall thought.

"And I wanted to have someone who loved me like Zell loves you..... Someone to be my everything..."

Squall dropped to his knees in front of Seifer having retrieved his gunblade. "You are an idiot aren't you?"

"Huh?"

"You're an idiot. Did Ultimecia blind you or are you just thick?"

"Say that again Leonhart and I'll cut out your tongue."

Squall folded his arms across his chest. "What you say about me isn't true for everyone and I'll tell you something for a fact... You didn't have to go to Ultimecia for that deep a bond, there some already waiting for you..."

Seifer narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "You?"

"No, not me. No way. They were right behind you the whole time. They followed you into Ultimecia's clutches.... Fuu and Raij, And I know they both loved you, as a brother, friend and even more.... Especially Fuujin."

Now Seifer was taken aback. "But they were just.... just......................... friends." He shifted position again. He reached up to rub his forehead. "I made the biggest mistake of my life, didn't I?"

Squall nodded. "Yep."

The blonde stared down at his hands, bloodied and bruised. "I only saw them once after Ultimecia. When you flew over Balamb on your return from time compression. I was hired for a kill soon after... They joined us for a while but I lost them on a mission...."

Squall watched the blonde begin to cry. It was a curious sight, he had never seen Seifer Almasy shed a tear. He suddenly seemed very small and vulnerable. "You think they're dead don't you?" He reached out and put a hand on Seifer's shoulder only to have it shrugged away. "They turned up at Garden, looking for you, wondering if you'd returned to us..." He pulled an elixer out of his pocket and offered it to Seifer. "I offered them some positions within the Garden network. Raijin became the head SeeD at Galbadia Garden."

Seifer nearly choked on the elixer. "He what?"

"Fuujin's the head-mistress."

Seifer really choked this time...

Squall banged him hard on the back. When he was sure Seifer wasn't going to cough himself to death he stood and began to make his way out of the clearing, stopping to glance over his shoulder. "Do me a favour Almasy!" He called. "Visit your posse and tell 'em I sent you. And tell no one about my condition...."

The blonde laughed, a deep belly laugh like the one on the docks when Fuu had kicked Raijin into the water. "I will visit them Leonhart, but not for you!"





Squall knew there was another reason why things had been so tense between them at the end of their relationship, he had no idea what it was but he didn't particularly care any more.

Back in B-garden, there was a warm body in cold sheets waiting, for him...

And Zell Dincht, he was Squall's everything........








Authors notes;

I am shattered. I just wrote over 2000 words and I did it in four hours. I'm drained and tired and I am fed up of my job. (It's getting in the way of me writing!) There are very few chapters left in this story and i have a horrible feeling that you're all really gonna hate me. So I'm gonna post the lot of this at once. Then I can take all the hassle at once. (And isn't it weird how sometimes when you watch an anime and you can see all these openings for a fic, especially YAOI ones....)

Luv ya all

Whatever.................................................

Darksquall.