Seifer's Sacrifice Chapter 3

It took them all day and that following night to reach Deling City, one of the few cities that is large enough to hold an airport. To Seifer, it appeared as three decades has passed rather than three years on how different the city had changed. Last time he was here, four floors were common amongst each building along downtown Deling. Now the buildings stretched up to seven floors and some even reached ten!

Only three years has passed but time seems to pick up a completely different meaning outside of Fishman’s Horizon. Time, it seemed, didn’t want to wait for Seifer. The peace between Galbadia and Esthar had proven to be benefactors to one another, at least to the Galbadians. That still bothered him, more than a little, which the Esthars so integrated themselves into the Galbadians lives. Still, he shook off his own prejudice, for Esthar was to be his destination.

For the last few days, nature herself appeared to be against him, first by land as his home was utterly shattered by lightning and then by water when an unsuspected squall tore up his boat. Luckily, one mass and sail survived the storm to keep them from being dead in the water. Seifer hoped Raijin would be able to secure passage on an aircraft that could fly above the clouds and above nature’s wrath. He would’ve gone to secure a plane himself but he feared someone would recognize him. Memory, however dire and not so long ago, seemed to be a fleeting thing. Seifer didn’t fear retribution from any civilian in Deling City. No, he was hiding from Squall or most likely Rinoa, for this place that they may have called home truly scared him.

Resting his head against the airport wall, the ex-mercenary began thinking about his glorious days here. Back then he rode in a parade with Edea, the sorceress that was possessed by Ultimecia at that time, at the helm of the float. How the citizens applauded and cheered, for the sorceress and her knight! Not that they had a choice.

Seifer shook his head, having the images fade from his mind. That time was a lie, no matter how much he wanted it to be real. Instead, he thought further back, remembering the only other person beside himself that he admired. Lately, she’s been the only thing on his mind.

“I never leave the dormitory without it,” the young cadet said with a grin while patting his gunblade on his side.

“Remember, you are to assist me but I need to finish T-Rexaur off. I need the experience more than you do, Seifer,” she said with a wink. Seifer nodded and they entered the training room.

Many dangerous monsters lurked in the shadows and every corner of the room, laying in wait for an unsuspecting victim. A few less dangerous but hungry monsters dared to leave their secured hiding space to attack the armed humans. Neither the boy nor the girl wanted to waste their energy on any of the weak creatures, so they dispatched the three quickly and moved on, never even taking the time to see what they just killed.

After an hour of searching, the two cadets began their trek back to the entrance, hoping to get back to their dorms before they were noticed missing. Seifer looked to his older friend whom seemed defeated. This was her chance to find any of T-Rexaur’s weaknesses before the exam so she could finally ascend. Now she had to just hope for the best. Seifer almost jumped out of his skin when her eyes widened. Turning slowly ahead of him the young cadet saw the beast, feasting on the creatures they defeated earlier.

“Let’s go, Seifer.”

“Let’s go, Seifer,” a call came bringing the ex-mercenary out of his daydream.

Raijin stood only inches from Seifer, waving his hand in front of his face. Seifer almost punched him for disturbing his memories and for invading his personal space. Instead the ex-mercenary shoved his dark-skinned friend away, giving him some breathing room.

“Did you get a plane?” Seifer asked.

“Yep. Fujin’s already on it, ya know.”

Together they left the airport and boarded a small plane. Seifer took it all in stride. Though the plane was smaller than he wanted, it appeared sturdy enough to fly high into the wild blue yonder, far above any clouds and the dangers of nature.

Once seated, he nodded to Raijin, approving his friend’s choice. The size of the plane meant it must have been cheap to get passage on and when they land in Esthar they wouldn’t draw attention to themselves. Things seemed to be finally looking up.

“GUNBLADE!” Fujin shouted, handing a beautifully crafted gunblade to her friend.

“Thanks, Fujin,” Seifer smiled with a nod. Indeed, things were looking up.

Sometime in the flight, the three felt uneasy. The trio normally wouldn’t have noticed but with the strange occurrences as of late, the three looked at each other in panic. The plane was descending and they knew they couldn’t have been arriving at Esthar so soon.

Rushing to the cockpit, the three asked in unison why they were descending. The only other person onboard, the pilot, looked at his controls and saw the altitude gauge kept going up and he was trying to level out by bringing the plane down. It wasn’t working. Tapping the gauge, they all noticed to his right that the plane’s compass was spinning out of control. As the shouts kept coming the pilot’s way, both engines came to a halt.

The gentle descent became a plummet and the pilot tried to pull up and kept flicking the engine control. Nothing happened except the passengers flew to the back of the plane at that instant. Another second later, with the assistance of gravity, the trio slammed back into an empty cockpit with the pilot door hanging open.

When she was able to prompt herself up, Fujin looked up and out the door, barely seeing a silhouette of a parachute. With a curse she returned to the inside of the plane, where Raijin was trying to work the controls the best that he could. Pulling as hard as he could, the controls wouldn’t budge. He tried slamming his fist on the controls. It didn’t work. He tried yelling at it. It didn’t work.

“Grab onto me and hold on tight,” Seifer commanded, standing in front of the open door.

Neither Fujin nor Raijin had any idea what Seifer had in mind but they couldn’t waste any time questioning his motives. Fujin dived and wrapped her arms around his waist, turning her head to rest on Seifer’s rump. Raijin wrapped around Seifer’s back, closing his eyes, realizing that Seifer wasn’t wearing a parachute. The ex-mercenary jumped anyways.

Fujin and Raijin cried as they plunged to the earth below. Seifer ignored them. A few heartbeats later, the plane crashed in a huge explosion. Seifer ignored that as well. Remaining calm, the ex-mercenary pushed out a hand and began calling forth the power within him. Thirty feet, he released that power, bringing a vortex into creation, pushing them up and away from the funnel. At that moment, the three separated and crashed into the ground.

Rolling to his elbows, coughing out some dirt, Seifer looked around for his friends. Relief washed over him as Fujin and Raijin began to stir and groan. It hurt to stand, bruised as he was from the impact to the ground but Seifer didn’t mind at all, since the alternative seemed far more unpleasant. Dusting himself off, a shadow loomed over him a moment later. Seifer sighed and then withdrew his gunblade for battle. Things were looking down again.



Far in the distance, a beautiful blonde woman could only shake her head. She never expected any of this. The fact that the prey eluded her two companions was, in itself, inconceivable and now they escaped her trap. Releasing a methane pocket into the air caused the aircraft to lose control of its instruments and once the plane was low enough, in the thickest part of the methane, she knew the engines would stall and quickly die out altogether. There was no escape.

Again, the targets surprised her. They took a leap of faith and the murderer of her husband used a Tornado to soften the impact. Maybe her husband was indeed killed in dishonorable combat but at that moment, there was no doubt in her mind that her husband couldn’t have fallen to a more worthy adversary.

Chapter 4

All That Glitters Is Cold 4 Fanfic Competition


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