Never Alone
Never Alone
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Never Alone
Leon made sure no one followed him as he made his way into
Ansem’s secret computer room. He had no need for the others to know what he was
looking for. He didn’t want anyone to know what he’d been feeling or thinking
lately. Smirking at himself, he realized the irony of his last thought.
Once upon a time, he’d lived in a world where he’d had a
past, a history and friends. Friends he missed with a passion. A world where
he’d been known for never talking outside of his own head, a place with the
name of Squall Leonhart, was a hero of the Sorceress’ War, a Commander of Balamb
Garden, and a not-so-bitter rival to the man he was looking for through the
computer before him.
Leon, as he was called now, he very rarely called himself
Squall, not even in his own mind, it was too painful, stood before the large
monitor, plugging in wordings, codes, searches, and names, anything that might
give him an answer. Roxas was a name that he knew carried the closest chance of
finding him. He didn’t care what he’d find as long as he retained answers.
passing while speaking to Yuffie and Cid about his confusion with Organization
VIII and them calling him Roxas all the time and then meeting the other kids,
like Hayner, and the Seifer Trophy he’d gotten from the bully.
That had made Leon’s heart accelerate, made him bite his
tongue to keep from grabbing the little kid and yanking him close by the shirt
and demanding answers. He’d pretended not to be paying attention, but he’d
listened intently, only to find he’d missed many crucial keywords in the conversation
that would give him the chance to see if the Seifer from that world was the
same Seifer from his world.
He fingered his scar as everything he inputted came up
empty. He’d been sneaking in here for days, in between battles and duties to
the town he now lived in and the others he’d befriended.
and held to his scar, breathing heavy in his frustration as the other fist hit
the keyboard in anger.
Alarms went off as page after page, window after window
opened up and closed, red error messages flashing. Leon rubbed between his
eyes, the noise from the computer starting to give him a headache, though he
suspected it was more than that that was giving him the headache. And then the
sounds quit and Sq…Leon lifted his head to see what had made the computer stop.
In his experience the infernal machine never let up till you typed in the
correct phrasing of words.
With a sucked in gasp there before him was the answer…but an
answer he wasn’t sure how he felt about.
Storm grey eyes locked onto the image before him, hungry for what lay
before in pixilated colors, everything was familiar, and yet not. Without
realizing what he was doing, he lifted a hand as if to reach through the
monitor before him, the craving for human touch filling him desperately, only
to be blocked. And yet that too was fine as he outlined the scar, a mirror of
his own, eyes sea green, and a smirk so achingly familiar, he felt himself
smiling in spite of knowing that smirk had the capacity to make him growl.
“Damn, I’m a cute kid ain’t I Puberty boy!”
just over a shoulder, and Leon knew if he looked, it’d be like looking at a
ghost, Seifer as he’d last seen him, gunmetal jacket with the familiar fire
crosses on the shoulders, the blue vest underneath, the large ID necklace under
a firm jaw, high cheekbones, the same sea green eyes and the same scar as what
graced the monitor before him, only older.
“Yes…you are, but, why are you a kid there, with the Disciplinary
Committee?”
“You ask like I got answers, I’m just a figment of what’s in
your head Squally, a projection to temper the loneliness that lies in your
soul.”
He smirked at that, he couldn’t help it, sarcasm had always
been his best defense against the scarred blonde. “You almost sound like a poet
there, don’t be so honest, really.”
Seifer chuckled, laying a ghostly hand on Leon’s shoulder,
“Never knew I had it in me huh!”
“No, I didn’t. Does this mean since you’re talking to me
now, that you never really did have it in you, this is just my projecting it
onto you?” Leon’s voice took on a
whispered quality in his seriousness.
“Does this mean since I’m talking to you, that I’m really crazy? That
I’ve lost some part of my mind?”
“There you go again, always overanalyzing things Squally,
can’t you simply take this at face value? Enjoy it for what it is, if it helps
you get by, what’s the harm huh? I’m not about to make you talk to me with
people around. I was a bastard Squall, but I think I learned a bit from back
then, I’m not so cruel now.” A familiar smile flashed, one that boded trouble
for whomever it was flashed at, “Unless you piss me off in some way, that is.”
Leon looked back at the monitor, the boy before him running
around with what he recognized as younger versions of Fuujin and Raijin. At
least Seifer wasn’t alone there. Leon would have hated to see his former friend
as alone as he was. Especially at such a young age, it’d have been cruel of
whatever Deity lived in these worlds, orphaned in their own world and then left
alone on another world without anyone else to remember you.
“I’m not alone there Squall, they’re with me, and I don’t
have the memories of my past life, not yet. They’re locked away if what I’m
remembering is correct. Don’t put more feeling there than needs to be. Don’t go
all-emotional on me okay, fight the battles you need to here and work to find a
way to bring me here in the flesh. Don’t forget them though.” Seifer pointed to
Rai and Fuu one on each side of the cocky smirking boy taunting the other kids
around him. “Give him what I didn’t
have before, give him what none of us had, a family. And until you get him
here, I’ll be here to harass you till you get sick of me!”
Looking over his shoulder Leon gave the man behind him his
patented blank glare while the other man smirked. And then just like that
Seifer was gone, back into the recess of Leon’s mind and Leon looked back
toward the screen.
Leon continued to watch the kids on the screen, once more
locked on the young Seifer strutting away from a battle he had won, and he
smiled. He silently promised the young man before him that’d he’d do all in his
power to bring the boy and his friends to him so they wouldn’t be alone.
So that he wasn’t alone, not anymore.