Crack The Skye (Seifer, Invite Only)

[shogumecia]

A sword flying away from it's master, through the air it passed. As it collided with the ground, the tip of this weapon pierced the stone in the ground. This weapon was never recollected by it's master, but rather by someone who intended to see them again. In the darkening main hall of the Lunatic Pandora a lone man entered the room, not himself in these moments but merely watching helplessly as an unseen force guided his body forward. To fulfill an order for his master, the weapon's wielder had left it pierced there in the ground. Why didn't the master seek to retrieve his weapon one might ask? In some odd manner that in some way had to do with time and karma, the owner of the weapon was reborn as himself without having died before into a different universe. No memories of the past were accessible to the conscious mind of this individual, and thus they needed to be reawakened in order to put use to him again.

She only had moments to complete this small task for herself before time would continue it's course and prevent her from fighting her battle with the SeeDs. The course was not to be altered, but the sorceress was in no immediate danger now. Her body within her chamber inside her dark and euphoric castle was safe, and her conscious mind now possessing a Galbadian rookie in the past inside Lunatic Pandora moments after Adel's defeat. The goal was simple, retrieve and make safe the sword of protection. Alas, there it was, and with a firm grip the soldier picked it up. It was then encased inside the all powerful Crystal Pillar, left for it's master to reclaim it in the future. There inside Lunatic Pandora, inside it's core, rested Hyperion.

As she discontinued the use of the private, her mind became inside her own self once more. Her sinister, gold eyes looked down upon the vacant chamber from her high rise throne. She pondered how things would go this time around, and somewhere inside that cold calculative mind she determined nothing would fail.

Many chandeliers hung from what seemed like nothingness, as to the average person there was seemingly no ceiling. The grand, and high arches of this room were bewitched to represent the star infested galaxy in which this world, like so many others, resided. In some ways this was merely decoration, but as one skilled in the eye looked closer, they could see ships flying back and forth amongst the worlds as if they were flies encircling a piece of feces. This deeply woven spell upon the flying buttresses, served as a map and a reminder of what was out there to be taken. The exception among these worlds, ones who were not being infested by interlopers, was Enchanted Dominion and the utmost mystery that was the Castle of Dreams.

She reached out to him, this warrior. Faintly at first, but with passing seconds her voice became more and more dominant over thoughts, calling to him. Wherever he was, a portal had been provided that led to the outside of her chamber upon the stone walkway underneath a catalyst moon of unyielding despair, a moon that remained a world of monsters. Inside her chamber, waited Ultimecia.

[radianttwilight]

"My childhood dream, fulfilled. I've become the sorceress' knight."

Seifer's eyes snapped open and he quickly glanced around him, feeling a bit disoriented. Those words - haunting him, always at the back of his mind, just out of reach...he could vaguely remember saying them, and he could hear them being said in his own distinct voice, and he knew it was a real memory, but from where? When? What was the context? And the sorceress...as he pondered the name, wondering who the identity of the mysterious woman could be, a shudder ran through the gunblader's entire body involuntarily. He scowled for a moment at the reaction - she had to be bad news if he responded like that...but then, why did he feel himself so drawn to the thought of her? Never before had he felt such a draw towards another person, not even towards Fujin, or Rinoa, or anyone...not as much as he could remember, anyway. And yet, those words resonated in his mind stronger than any other at the moment, and no matter how hard he shook his head or tried to concentrate on anything else, they just seemed to grow stronger, repeating themselves over and over...

"I was hoping you'd be there, Squall. So...how'd I look in my moment of triumph?"

What was this feeling? Seifer held his face in his hands, massaging at his temples with his thumbs harder and harder as he tried then to block out his own voice in his head, deciding that to try to figure it out hurt too much, and he wanted to avoid that pain, that confusion, and that frustration. But still, no matter how hard he tried, he was unable to shake the feeling, or escape the hazy images that were starting to play before his eyes - it was like trying to hold onto a dream that one just wants to remember, but it just out of one's reach, constantly slipping through one's fingers. He let out a low growl at the thought, angered at not feeling like he was in control of even himself, let alone the rest of the situation, a feeling with left a bitter taste in his mouth. Even as he did so, he began to feel that pull again, like he had a duty elsewhere...somewhere he needed to go...someone he needed to see...and Seifer usually never answered to anyone but himself...

"I'm the sorceress' knight. You'll never...get past me."

Seifer slowly pulled his hands away from his face as slowly the world around him seemed to fall into a suffocating silence, until all he could hear and feel and be aware of was that drawing feeling towards something distant. He glanced around him slowly, his eyes unblinking, until they fell on a dark portal. He felt any sense of caution leave him before it could really take any manifest in his heart as his boots led him towards the portal, taking slow, deliberate steps. Everything around him seemed to keep disappearing slowly into shadow, into the abyss, the void, into nothingness, until all the blonde could hear were the words 'sorceress' knight' repeated over and over within him, seemingly to the beat of the heart slamming in his chest. As he neared the portal, he held a hand out to it, his cyan gaze lost within its dark depths, and once his hand slipped into the darkness, the rest of his body soon followed suit.

As he stepped out of the other end of the portal, Seifer suddenly found himself in complete silence, and a sense of self washed back over him again, spreading slowly from his head and his chest all the way through his limbs. He quickly glanced back over his shoulder only to find the mysterious portal gone - but his surroundings had changed drastically. Where was he...? The place seemed so familiar, and yet so distant, and he felt again like the only time he had ever been in such a place was in a dream...was it possible it was another memory? But again, the question that posed itself was why would the blonde have forgotten these things? What reason did he have for pushing everything away?

As he felt a small tug from within his mind, the gunblader's gaze turned slowly towards the large door before him, reflected in the unforgiving moon overhead. Where was he...and where did this door lead...? The drawing feeling was a strong one, however, and Seifer was unable to resist the urge to push his weight against the door, once again throwing all sense of caution to the wind as it slowly creaked open...

"The sorceresses as one! That is Ultimecia's WISH!"

As the room beyond the door was revealed, Seifer's breath caught in his throat for a moment unexpectedly, and he stumbled forward, the door being the only thing that kept him from falling. He quickly recovered, taking only a moment to nurse his bruised ego before the name came crashing back into his mind, pushing its way to the very front of his thoughts, and finally out of his mouth in the merest of whispers.... "Ultimecia..." The name seemed to echo within the vast room despite his weak intonation.

[shogumecia]

The room remained silent for quite some time, and still to the charts of the universe remained, full of life. The doors creaked open soon after the powerful tyrant had lazily watched the Hollow Bastion quadrant, a group of worlds among an aged star that included Agrabah, Hollow Bastion, Halloween Town, Atlantica, and of course Neverland. She moved her eyes slowly to the man in white now beneath, yet before her throne. An evil smirk spread across her face, showing the wicked glee behind her beautiful features.

He had come as directed, following the inertia feeling that drove his memories, and to her further enjoyment he had brought no one with him. 'How fortunate.' she pondered to herself, looking down upon the gunblader, her knight. "Seifer..., my dear Seifer." she began, holding her palms upwards though her arms never left the rests of her throne. "You have returned, baring no recollection."

He bared silence and nothing more, though she too went into it's depths. Ultimecia would be willing to explain a theory to her knight. "You seek answers, ones that remain dormant within you." She waited for his response to such comments, for she was certain he would have one.

[radianttwilight]

That voice...so familiar, yet so distant, just like everything had been seeming to feel recently. Seifer closed his eyes as he heard the female voice repeating his name a few times - calling him 'her' Seifer, actually, and desperately tried to place where he knew it from. It was definitely a voice he had heard before, one that bore significance to him, but...where could it possibly be from? It frustrated the man that he felt like he was failing so much at understanding himself of all people, and every time he became confused like this it felt like one more personal failure, and built up within him an anger unlike any he had experienced in a long time, slowly collecting in his chest, pounding in his heart and through his veins. Seifer Almasy did not fail on any level, including these internal ones...and yet, what else could he say he was doing?

The anger mixed with frustration as he felt it pour seemingly through every vein in his body, leaving his skin tingling and his mouth dry.

The gunblader's eyes opened quickly as the voice continued, mentioning the fact that it knew of his memory loss - no recollection...well, that was not far from the truth. Seifer's expression became a stoic one as far too many conflicting emotions pulsed through his mind, everything from feeling bitter about the fact that this voice KNEW he was failing to anger at the situation in general to...almost a calming sense of relief and of comfort about where he was - and yet, laced through that feeling, one of a deep-set fear, which was an emotion the blonde was unused to experiencing. How could this place feel both comforting and frightening at the same time? Just what had happened here in Seifer's past that would evict such a strange feeling in his stomach...?

Seifer's boots carried him further into the room, closer to the voice, until at last his cyan eyes locked upon the person that was speaking - and his eyes widened. That face, that look, everything about her - he did know her! Ultimecia...the name formed on his lips again, but this time it did not escape with an actual sound. This was her...a figure from his past, dancing through his deepest memories, his darkest dreams, and his waking nightmares. He felt drawn closer to her, and yet a powerful aversion from her at the same time - the entire situation was enough to make the blonde feel sick to the stomach, but he resisted the urge to act upon that feeling. No...rather, his boots continued to carry him forward, across the floor, closer to her.

She seemed to emanate power, and Seifer could feel that stronger and stronger the closer that he got to her. That power - it was a feeling he could feel himself becoming drunk on, addicted to...he had always liked power, and it was so heavy in the air it was overwhelming, and it continued to draw him closer. And her words...her statement about his seeking of answers - yes, that was what he was doing, it seemed that she did indeed know. At first, the feeling was unsettling for the gunblader, but the uncomfortable feeling passed moderately quickly. "I do want answers," Seifer was pleased that despite everything else going on around him and within him, he still managed to make his voice sound bold, strong.

"You...you can help me retrieve them?" It was somewhere between a question and a statement, and Seifer dared to lock his eyes on the gaze of Ultimecia for several long moments before he had to look away - he wanted to show that he was confident, he felt that it was important to show, as he typically did, but for the first time in a long time, Seifer actually felt like he was speaking to someone that he either respected...or feared. Whichever it was, it was enough for him to know just how bold he could be - or at least, how far he could push himself across the line.

[shogumecia]

Her laughter inside was cold, vicious and nothing short of malcontent. Her thoughts reminded her of how demanding such lesser, more insignificant humans were. Seifer showed little of this in the before time, but Ultimecia deemed that the blame was to be put on his jarred memory. A cold, vicious smirk spread into the lines of her lips as she held out a hand to her side. From the floor grew, spread and matured a portal fashioned out of her ability to alter and manipulate matter. Her eyes of malice continued to remain locked on her knight, then opened her mouth to answer him.

"I have set the path for you, it is you who will retrieve your memory. It lies beyond the portal there, within the depths of Lunatic Pandora." she spoke. Answers were more fit to be earned to Ultimecia, and with a good sense of both metaphoric and cryptic reference placed into her words, she had told Seifer exactly what he needed to do. The portal led to where Squall had handed him a humiliating defeat for the last time, the chamber just beyond the Crystal Pillar. There, placed within a confined hold was the knight's weapon. Cocooned within a force of energy that dematerialized the limbs of all who sought to claim Hyperion, with exception of it's true wielder.

See the cocoon was in fact Seifer's memory, safe guarding his gunblade, amplified and placed through Ultimecia's power with her recollections of him, as well as fragments gathered about his persona whilst calling his name by tapping into the youth's mind. All he simply need to do was to reach out and grab the hilt. Memory would be restored upon firm grasp, at least to Ultimecia's calculations it would. She pointed a finger towards the portal. "Go now Seifer, your memories summon for you. It will not take long." With that, a slight flex emitted from her black feathered wings, causing them to slightly extend a bit before casually setting themselves lightly to her backside once more.

It was his duty to reclaim what was his, though it had taken a decent amount of care to preserve such possessions. No one but him would fulfill what she needed done by a second, a knight. So she had taken liberty to giving herself a prized and valuable asset to obtain her goals. All for the greater purpose, for which she herself would be conducting the marionettes that were the acting forces within the universe.

[radianttwilight]

Seifer lowered his gaze from Ultimecia's as she instructed him that this was his task to fulfil, not hers, and even told him all that he needed to do. In the end, he had always known that he would have to recover from this himself - though he didn't like to admit it, he was beginning to understand that he had to be the culprit behind this in the first place, after all. He had tried to swing the blame on Rinoa, even on Squall, but it was just to not face up to the fact that he had done this to himself. Now it was time to step up and fix the problem, however, and he was going to have to do it alone. No Raijin, no Fujin - just Seifer. He absently ran his thumb along the scar on his face, an uncomfortable feeling actually settling in his stomach. He rarely felt nervous about anything, but this...?

And it wasn't the fact that he had to face it alone that was so uncomfortable for him. Rather, it was the understanding that knowing everything that he had forgotten was accessible once more, for real this time, and it was right at his very fingertips - but that included whatever it was that had caused him to block those memories in the first place. What exactly had happened? His blurry memories left out any important details as far as what could have possibly made him forget everything about his past and construct an entirely new one, and the few things he had recovered already did not elude to that. Rinoa's words also echoed somewhere in the back of his thoughts, her short paraphrased version of what had happened, and none of it was positive.

But then, did Seifer really care? Did he regret that he had not done something positive in the eyes of someone like Rinoa? He had to have had a good reason for whatever actions he had taken, and he liked to think that he also had a good reason for losing those memories afterwards...and now, he had a chance to get them back. He was not going to let that slip through his fingers.

Seifer Almasy was tired of feeling vulnerable. It was a feeling that had never sat well with the blonde.

Cyan eyes flicked towards the portal that the sorceress had opened to him, and with only a few more seconds of hesitation, the man's feet finally listened to what his mind was telling them to do as he crossed the room towards the portal. Knowledge, insight, and power - that was what lay on the other side, and Seifer found himself eager to grasp it once more. As he passed through the portal, the uncomfortable feeling in his stomach began to escalate, but he ignored it as best he could. Soon, the only thing that his mind could focus on was what lay before him in his vision, and the rest of the world seemed to melt away around him - that was it. That gunblade...it was....

"Hyperion."

The word was barely a whisper as it left his lips, and with it a tingle coursed through the man's veins, making the hairs on his arms and the back of his neck stand on end in reaction to the energy he could just feel in the air. For a few long seconds, all Seifer could do was stare, but soon his arm seemed to reach towards the encased weapon almost on a will of its own. A slight smirk formed on his face - it was coming back, that feeling, that sense of power, and soon, he would remember just what everything felt like...

As his fingers closed around the hilt of the weapon, a pain shot through Seifer's head that the ones he had felt from interacting with Rinoa, Squall, and Zell could not even begin to compare with. His mouth opened, but no sound came out from his silent scream as images, feelings, faces, sounds - an overwhelming mix of everything seemed to flash before his eyes at once. He almost let the weapon slip from his fingers, but refused to fall to that level, instead gripping the hilt all the tighter as his memories that had been somehow attached to the weapon all returned to him in one painful, overwhelming bunch.

When Seifer returned to Ultimecia's side, he felt both physically and emotionally drained, but refused to let those feelings show up on his face. Defeat - he had been defeated. In the end, he had lost to Squall and his pathetic friends. He had never made it to SeeD like he had always thought was his wish - but no, he had achieved something far greater. Sorceress' Knight...the same words that he had heard before returned to his mind, but this time with greater clarity, and greater meaning....

This time, he would not lose. Seifer would never accept defeat - no, this time, they would have to kill him to beat him. He had never felt so determined.

"I am...at your side," Seifer's voice sounded flat as he spoke. It was still a difficult thing to accept, being below someone else whenever he had always seen himself as the top of the food chain, but this was his best way to gain power, right? Helping the sorceress this time be successful in whatever her goals were...that would eventually lead him to the top, and he would not be beneath even her any more. That was what he wanted, and what he was determined to get. And Seifer always made certain he got exactly what he wanted. "What would you have me do?"

There was no thanks. Somehow, that formality seemed lost in this case, between these two people, in such a place as they were. As for some of his memories? They certainly needed to be dealt with, sorted out, figured out, seperated from what he knew about his 'life' in Twilight Town - everything even down to his real age seemed distorted - but it was not something for the moment. No...for the moment, it was time for more answers. Everything else seemed so much less important.

[shogumecia]

Her eyes closed softly, her ruby lips spreading into an evil smirk to compliment the lashes. Indeed she now had her servant, her obedient blood hound, back beside her side where he belonged. She held up a hand, and snapped her fingers, upon which a few illusions appeared. One was a cloaked Organization nobody, the second a random silhouette of a kid holding a Keyblade, and the last appeared a silhouette of Sephiroth. Her eyes slowly opened, and bore a look of evil into the cyan spheres of her knight. "This universe, in this time we currently reside, is filled with many obstacles." she began. "Organization XIII, keyblades, and surviving members of a mercenary force known as SOLDIER." added the sorceress, gesturing to each illusion with a casual wave of her hand.

She swiped at them, to which they all blew into a blur of colored smoke. As Ultimecia clenched her fist, a new illusion appeared from the floor where the others had just been. It was Squall and Rinoa, respectively. "Impudent SeeDs. They will suffer my wrath, kursed for meddling in my affairs!" With this she looked back to Seifer with her golden eyes of malice. "These two are the first obstacle Seifer. They are pieces of the board that must be put out of play."

The illusions faded into smoke once more, and Ultimecia looked away from Seifer to the moon above. "The two handled you far too easily, and your defeat has become a humiliating stain upon time itself." spoke the tyrant, as the lunar lights continued to draw her gaze. She returned her attention to Seifer once more, slowly blinking as she turned back to him. "Seek out an ally worthy of service to me Seifer, and use them to help you destroy the SeeDs."

[radianttwilight]

Seifer listened in silence as Ultimecia listed off all of the problems currently plaguing the world - most of it he had never heard of before. Keyblades, though...that brown-haired kid that had hung around with Hayner's gang now and again had some sort of weapon that resembled a key that Seifer had seen in passing a few times. He had not thought much of it at the time, other than the fact that it looked completely ridiculous, but could that have been a keyblade? And if it was something that Ultimecia took the breath to mention, then it had to have significance, and power that Seifer had not even noticed. He inwardly cursed himself, and Hayner for seeming to have the upper hand in knowing someone like that. However, thoughts of Hayner soon slipped out of Seifer's mind as he sifted through his memories - he had far bigger adversaries to deal with now, and his struggles with Hayner and his gang just seemed so pointless and childish now.

For a moment, the question of just how old Seifer actually was popped into his head once more - he had been 18 during the first struggles with Squall and his friends, and how many years ago had that been now? Not too many, but he had to be...around...20 perhaps? Not knowing one's own age was a bit disorienting, and the blonde had to shake his head slightly to try to focus his thoughts on something less frustrating. He suddenly felt rather...well, old, but this was not the time to focus on that.

A scowl crossed the gunblader's face whenever the images of Rinoa and Squall were displayed. They had been the ones that had triggered the beginnings of his memories' return, but now that he could fully remember everything that had transpired between them, Seifer knew just where his hate was coming from. Especially for Squall specifically - and it was a hate that had been fostered and growing between the two for years, ever since their childhood. Rinoa, though...their past was quite different. She had mentioned love whenever Seifer had seen her most recently - love, that was such a laugh. The blonde had never loved the woman, that he could be certain of now - she had been fun, he was willing to admit, but never an object of love. But had she loved him...? She said that she had...that was something he had never realized even back when they had been together. Did it change anything? He could not let it.

Love was a weakness, and not one that Seifer was willing to give in to again - romantic dreams...look where that had gotten him last time. This time had to be different.

Almost as if on cue to his thoughts about the conclusion of his previous escapades, Ultimecia brought up his failure and loss to Squall. Cyan eyes snapped to the floor at the mention of his moment of weakness, and his fingers curled tighter around the hilt of Hyperion. Why did she have to bring it up? He could hardly forget it now - he had been bested by the person that he hated the most, and Ultimecia, the one that he had sworn to protect, had been defeated. Maybe he had gone too far, though - there were still parts of his past that he could not remember, but he had a feeling that he had never been aware of them, periods of time whenever he had not been in complete control. The thought angered him a bit - had he been used? Perhaps.

But then, he found himself willing to submit to that again, oddly enough. Typically, Seifer would never be willing to be used by someone else for their gain, but with Ultimecia, he saw his OWN gain coming back in the end. If he aided her again, and was successful by whatever means were necessary, then in the end he could finally cusp true power within his grasp. He would not be defeated and humiliated so easily again. This time, he would gain what he wanted the most. "You'll find I am not so easily defeated now," Seifer replied in a low tone, not showing defiance to Ultimecia so much as confidence in his own abilities and determination, "I will not lose again." It was a statement that he truly believed was true, and he meant every word.

Seifer's gaze snapped back to the sorceress for a moment before turning to gaze past her, off into the distance rather than meet her gaze again as she told him he needed an ally. An ally? It was almost insulting - she really did think that he was not going to be able to handle this on his own again. He was no longer a naive child...he could, no, WOULD defeat Squall and whoever else came at him this time. Mistakes would not be made for a second time. He gritted his teeth together in frustration at the thought of having to depend on and drag around another, someone besides Fujin and Raijin, who seemed to have been more and more distant from him as of late anyway. Despite his anger, though, the gunblader was far from stupid - now was not a good time to defy Ultimecia, not right when he had returned to her side. Instead, he replied with, "I will find someone I can use. Someone with power that I can wield." She had said 'use' after all - that meant in Seifer's eyes that they did not have to be equal with him, and he had not plans on allowing that to happen.

[shogumecia]

An evil smirk spread across the lips of the sorceress as her knight agreed to seek out someone. There was a brief silence amongst the two, save for the intense burning of fire around them in goblets and candles. "You will require more than memories to defeat this Squall." she spoke at last, then waved a hand over his forehead, creating an emerald green sparkle that formed over his head before vanishing into thin air. "Your spells are now re-accessible."

She pointed towards yet another portal that conjured out of thin air, creating a slight roaring sound. The black and violet hues of the portal seemed to continuously rush inwards from it's edges to a center of black. The portal led back to where Seifer had come from, wherever it would be. Ultimecia knew not where Squall or Rinoa were, but in her mind she was confident that the knight could find them. "Do not kill them dear Seifer. These SeeDs will be useful tools for our campaign across the stars, and must be brought to a secure location to make them obedient." Now all the knight had to do was to follow his part of the plan, and of course Ultimecia would with hers.

While her knight acquired SeeDs, Ultimecia would seek out promising candidates to fill her ranks. The plans would go accordingly, and soon Ultimecia would sweep the stars to her control. Only then, when she had enough of a staked claim upon the worlds would she return to her original goal of compressing time. "Go now dear knight, make your sorceress proud." she spoke finally, and with that Ultimecia faded from view as she set out to put her plans into motion.

Ultimecia has left the thread.

[radianttwilight]

It really did not seem like Ultimecia had the confidence in Seifer that he believed he fully deserved. A frown crossed his features whenever she said he would need more than memories to defeat Squall - of course he would, but he felt like he had what he needed....although, power over magic was nice to have again. His frown only deepened, however, when her orders came to not kill his adversaries. For a moment, he wondered fleetingly if he would have ever actually been able to KILL Squall, Rinoa, and the rest, but he quickly replaced that thought with one of that of course he would be able to, and he did not allow himself to consider any other alternative. Having a soft spot was not suiting towards him, nor would it help him gain what he had managed to lose before.

So she was going to make the SeeDs obedient - that should prove interesting. The thought of working with Squall again brought a sour taste to Seifer's mouth, though, so he hoped that was not what was going to become of Ultimecia turning the SeeDs into workers for her purpose. Seifer did automatically assume that no matter what, none of them would ever be at his own level in the sorceress' eyes - he was her knight. Squall could never replace that, never best that, and that realization made the thought of having to continually interact with Squall a bit more bearable.

Seifer lowered his head in the slightest of bows whenever Ultimecia took her leave of the place, leaving him a dark portal to travel through himself. After she had disappeared, he pulled off his hat, running his hand back through his messy blonde hair for a moment in thought. So much had happened so quickly....it was a bit overwhelming, but he resisted the urge to do something meek like sit down or the like. No, he could handle this - he had to. He quickly replaced his hat, pulling it down low almost to cover his eyes, and swung Hyperion comfortably over his shoulder, the place it was meant to go. A look of determination crossed the man's features as he walked with very deliberate steps towards the dark portal. He would find someone, yes....it was the first step on his journey towards immeasurable power, and finally, respect. And he would not be stopped so easily this time.

Seifer has left the thread.

End Thread.