“Ari!” Quistis screamed, leaping to her
feet and stumbling over to the fallen girl.
She turned glimmering blue eyes to Seifer, who stared at Ari’s body in
disbelief. “It’s too late,” Quistis
whispered. “Oh, Seifer, it’s too
late.” She threw her arms around him, as
the other SeeDs came running.
Selphie’s eyes widened as she took in the
scene before her and she stumbled back into Irvine. Rinoa’s hands went to her face and Squall
wrapped her in his arms, his winter eyes focused on Lila. Regaining herself, Selphie scanned the area.
“Rinoa, Paige is hurt!” Selphie motioned, and the two girls ran to
where the redhead lay bleeding. Quistis
joined them, eyes wide with worry as she brushed Paige’s hair off her face.
The three men faced Lila, their weapons
drawn and at the ready. None of them
needed an explanation, it was quite apparent happened to the girl.
“It was you the whole time,” Seifer
hissed, grip on Hyperion tightening.
Lila’s mouth spread into a delighted
grin. “Took you long enough to figure
that out.” Then her expression hardened
and she rose into the air. “But enough
talk.” With a flick of her hand, Irvine
and Squall were knocked away and an invisible barrier surrounded Seifer,
leaving him caught alone with Lila’s snake.
Quistis immediately ran to him, but was knocked away. Carefully, she inched forward until she was
pressed against the wall. Seifer put his
hand up to meet hers, before the sound of Lila’s voice had them both
turning. “You killed Martin, Seifer, but
he was a Grat compared to this creation,” she laughed. “Have fun playing!” She raised her hand and the smoke snake
reared back to strike, its green eyes glowing.
“Lila…?” a weak plea and everyone turned
to the source. Lila’s eyes widened and
flickered: yellow, hazel, yellow, hazel.
“Zell…” came her whispered response. “What are you doing here?”
He didn’t answer, just stared at her in
complete disbelief. “Lila, what are you
doing?”
“I-I’m…” she trailed off lamely, gaping at
him. “You aren’t supposed to be here,
you’re supposed to be recovering from my-your suicide.”
“You tried to kill me?”
“No!” Lila shook her head vigorously. “I just made it look…No, I couldn’t kill…You mean
so much-“ She cut herself off and pointed at Ari’s corpse. “Ari tried to kill you! I found you, remember? It was Ari!”
“Because you controlled her!” Quistis
spat. Lila glared at her and waved a
hand. The blond clapped a hand to her
throat and cursed inwardly for not having junctioned Silence to her status
defense. The sorceress turned back to
Zell, lowered herself to the ground, and hesitantly took a step towards him.
“Lila,” the martial artist murmured. “You…killed Lex.”
Her eyes glinted with sorrow and she hung
her head. “I…I didn’t want to! But she found things she shouldn’t have in
Timber! I had no choice! She would have…ruined everything.” She took another step forward, palms toward
the sky. “Zell, please, I…I love you,”
she whispered, eyes shimmering with suppressed tears.
Zell’s sky blue eyes were wide. “You what?”
A long silence, before she whispered it again, barely audible. “You love me and yet you tried to kill
me? You killed the woman I loved, the
woman I’d planned to marry, and you say you love me?!” His voice rose to a shout and he nearly
lunged at her, but his weak body gave out beneath him. He fell to the ground with a loud thud. The other SeeDs started for him, but he waved
them off, hoisting himself up to one knee.
Lila watched his struggles wordlessly.
“You lie.”
The tears ran freely down Lila’s face now
as she sank to her knees. “Zell,
please…please, I didn’t want to! I had
nothing against Lex or you! Please
believe me! I just used Ari to frame
her; I wouldn’t let her kill you. I
swear, I love you.”
“Then who do you have something against,
Lila?” Zell asked, softly.
Blindly Lila gestured at Quistis and
Seifer. “They killed Martin!”
“You helped, Lila,” Seifer pointed out,
his voice echoing off the barrier he was surrounded by. “You freed Paige and Joe, and then stabbed
your brother in the back!”
Lila shook her head. “You don’t understand!” She turned pleading hazel eyes on Zell. “Martin wasn’t my brother, he was my
knight. But he…he was power-hungry, and
forgot why he was with me. He came up
with the brother-sister plan so we could stay together and he’d have my power,
but I…I was unstable! I needed his love,
not his company. I didn’t know how to
control my power and he wasn’t balancing me!
He…he noticed and supported me for a time, but he still just wanted my
power. So when Seifer showed up, Martin
tried to…He was sick of being my knight, even if only in words, and he kept
Seifer around to take his place. I didn’t
care who it was, I was so unstable, I just needed someone, but Seifer already
had someone…and I lost control.” She
buried her face in her hands, small body shaking. “I wasn’t going to kill him, I was just going
to injure him so he wouldn’t be strong enough to leave me! When I got there, I was too late. He’d already killed Quistis, but I knew he
would lose, killed no matter what I did.
And Seifer killed him…Though I loved him. So I vowed revenge and Ari overheard the
power struggle between me and my abilities.
But I knew who she was the moment I stepped in the infirmary.” Her eyes narrowed, as she faced Seifer.
“I still haven’t forgiven you. You refused to be my knight and then you
killed the only other one I had! Do you
have any idea what it’s like to have a piece of you ripped away like that? Ripped out of your soul?! You might as well not even HAVE a soul, you
feel so empty! Do you have any idea?!”
she screamed, before sobs wracked her body and made the rest of her words
incoherent.
“Yes,” Seifer interrupted, green eyes
blazing. “Yes, I do know what it feels
like. I felt like that when your
brother, your knight, whoever the hell that bastard was, killed the love of my
life. So congratulations, Lila! Not only did you kill Ari, you made Zell feel
the exact same way as you. Empty!”
“When Lex died, I wanted Zell to be my
knight. Because he’s empty too and I
thought I can fill that hole, just like he can fill mine!” Lila hissed at the
enraged gunblade specialist.
“What makes you think he’d want to?!”
Seifer yelled back. “You fucking killed
Lex! You might as well have killed him!”
“I didn’t kill him!” Lila wailed, hazel
eyes glowing ominously. She flung
herself at the martial artist on the ground, sobbing into his shoulder. Zell looked down at her, his expression
unreadable, before his gaze moved to Seifer, then Squall. “Zell, please, I’m so sorry! Please, please, be my knight, we’ll be so
happy,” she pleaded.
“Lila…” Zell said slowly. “I want to be happy, but…” Lila drew back from him, mouth opening, ready
to beg, but he held up a hand and reached out, putting a gentle hand on her
shoulder. Seifer scowled, and Quistis
averted her gaze. Rinoa and Selphie
watched in disbelief from their places next to the semi-conscious Paige. There was no reaction from Squall and Irvine
looked as if he were contemplating using Exeter on Zell. But no one said a word. “I want to be happy…but how can we be happy
when I hate you?”
The brunette jerked violently, as if she’d
been slapped. Zell pushed her shoulder
as hard as he could, which would normally have killed something, but being so
weakened, it sent her rolling, crashing into the invisible barrier she’d put up
around Seifer.
Carefully, she pushed herself up, back to
them, and when she turned, her eyes were a hard yellow with no clouds, no
changing. Mouth curving in a feral
scowl, eyes brimming with hate, Lila stood, wind blowing up from underneath
her. Her hair flew straight up and her
face contorted as she let loose a scream of rage that chilled the blood of
those around her.
“Then you all die now!” Lila shrieked, and
rising into the air, she pointed at Seifer.
“And I’ll start with you!”
* * *