Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Until the End of Eternity, and Longer ❯ Chapter Forty ( Chapter 41 )

WARNING: original character death in this chapter. But I'm not telling who! Read on!

Well, let me open by saying that I think the last chapter sucked. *frown* Seriously, it's definitely not some of my best work, but at least I got in, I think, a sensible explanation of what Jynx's issues are. Heh. Well, okay, she has a lot of issues, but I think I explained things okay, I hope. But the chapter still sucked.

Breif summary of non-flashbacky action. Jynx's plan backfires when both of her sisters show up and she accidentally shoots Xu instead of Caraway! Xu is currently being treated by some EMTs while Squall, Irvine, and Laguna rush to city hall after a good round of their favorite soaps(heh heh, oversimplifiction), Quistis is with Xu, and Ruvie is not far off, with the EMTs out in front of City Hall, and Seifer is unconscious after being hit in the head with a big rock. Elsehwere, Jynx is holding Max "hostage" in the upper levels of the building. The secretary is talking to the reporters, and Caraway is…well, you'll see in a minute….

~**~

"Until the End of Eternity, and Longer"

by: Banshee Puppet

Chapter Forty

~**~

Contrary to what everyone thought was best for him, General Caraway didn't hurry out of the building. Instead, he took it upon himself to lift up a rather heavy dead-weight Seifer Almsay up. While he's in the process, Seifer groans awake. "Hyne-damnit Jynx," he grumbled under his breath, one hand coming up to the back of his head. He felt a good sized lump, but gladly, nothing that needed stitches, and cast a quick cure on himself before he realized that someone was holding him up. He opened his eyes blearily to find General Caraway holding him half-bridal style, which basically translates as he had an arm around his back, but Seifer's long legs were dragging along the ground.

Shaking off his weariness, Seifer rights himself. "Uh, sorry."

"Did you just say Jynx?" Caraway asked, brow furrowing. If it was the Jynx he thought, then he'd been right all those years ago.

"Same one, most likely," Seifer answered. "Care to tell me what the hell you did to piss off such a blank girl as Jynx?"

Caraway sighed. "That young woman, is one of the most dangerous people alive," he said. "I got her enrolled in SeeD a long time ago, because it was in my best interest to do so."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Where is the one place that a murderer can kill and never be noticed?" Caraway asked.

Seifer shrugged. He hated riddles.

"In a war, Mr. Almsay. I put Jynx the one place that her actions could be tempered. And then, things went wrong. That mess with her sister," he sighed. "She had to be found, you understand, before she hurt anyone. She's not mentally sound, never has been."

Seifer shook his head. Now it made sense. Caraway had wanted Jynx where he could keep an eye on her. "You tried to control a hurricane. What did you think would happen?" he scoffed. "It was stupid. If you'd left her alone, she'd still be in that silly little village, most likely. The one that was destroyed because of you. No wonder she's pissed. Don't go blaming Jynx for your stupid mistakes."

Caraway's eyes narrowed. "What is she to you?"

Seifer just turned a winning smile on her and swung Hyperion over his shoulder. "Jynx is the person I like best," he said cheerfully. "So I have to make sure she doesn't do anything stupid. She go that way?" he asked, pointing with his sword.

Caraway nodded, and then said, "I'm coming with you."

But after a moment, he crumpled to the ground.

"Actually, you're not," Squall said dryly.

Laguna waved at Seifer, smiling. "It's for his own good!" he said cheerfully. "Let's go save Jynx!" he said before running up the back stairs, hopping over debris that had fallen from the small explosion Jynx had caused.

"Well, at least he's enthusiastic…I guess," Seifer said with a sigh before following the Estharian president.

~**~

Ruvie looked up and gasped. "Xu! On the roof look!"

Luckily for Xu, it was only a shoulder wound. She'd fallen unconscious from the shock, but had woken up a few minutes ago and had gotten briefed on the situation by Quistis. She looked up and frowned. She'd know that ponytail anywhere.

~**~

Shit shit and double shit. Jynx's mind wasn't going over much else right now. She'd managed to back herself into a corner, but at least she had plenty of explosives set to a timer through the building. But the fact that the SeeD were about five seconds ahead of them wasn't helping any, as she found herself and a now frightened, captive Max with a blade to his throat cornered on the roof with one president and three SeeD who happened to all be very good at their jobs.

"I won't hesitate to kill him, you know," she stated, pressing the blade tighter.

"Jynx, come on, think about this," Irvine tried, getting his logical mind around the desire to hurt the man that Jynx had in her clutches. The man who ruined his mother's life, and his own father. So this was his father… Well, he probably deserved this, but, Irvine would have settled for a good fist slamming into his face. It all seemed a bit…. …excessive, even for the rather complex Miss Jynx Arashi.

Jynx stared at Irvine. "I would think you of all people would want to see him dead, Mr. Kinneas," she stated.

Max's eyes widened. "… …Irvine." He should have known. He looked just like… …and Max sighed. It was true, everything about him…he was Jace's son. Max could never take him away from her, he saw that now. He'd been foolish to try. Of course, knowing that was awfully lonely.

"He may be a stupid bastard who deserves to die," Irvine says, "but you do it, and you'll have to deal with the consequences. It isn't worth it Jynx," he said, taking a step forward.

Acting on instinct, she held him by the throat over the edge of the building. "You'd be surprised," she said evenly. "Wouldn't it give you closure? Or you, President Loire?"

Laguna hadn't said anything, he was just staring, jaw set in a very unguna-like manner. Squall now saw the expression. "Dad?" he asked.

"I won't say that after all he's done, it wouldn't make me feel better," he said evenly, glaring at the man hanging, gasping for breath, from Jynx's hand. "However, I will say that there's no reason for you to be involved in his fate in any way."

"There's every reason," Jynx said. "I'll do whatever it takes to avenge Shin."

"What do you want Jynx? Isn't this the part where you're supposed to make demands?" Seifer prodded, hoping to bring her mind down to it's normally logical level.

"What I want? I want the power to kill GF."

Laguna's hand came to his chest. He could almost feel it, her pain, as he saw the necklace he gave her on Christmas hanging around her neck like some sort of broken anthem to her lost home.

"But Jynx, there is no power enough to kill GF. Only a sorceress can do that," the president said.

"That is not," Jynx said, "the answer that Mr. Kinneas wanted to hear," she said as she let go her grip. Irvine quickly cast protect on the man, but it wasn't enough. It was a long drop, and Max Kinneas hit the pavement with a resounding thud, his skull smashing open in a mix of brain and blood against the hard pavement as an explosion broke the building in two. Flame and blood. It seemed that where Jynx went, blood and flame were not far behind, but before the fire consumed the air between her and the SeeD, the surprise of what she did as her fingers let go and the body of Maximillian Kinneas III began to fall heavy toward death, froze the SeeD in action. Because it was at that moment that Jynx's lips curled into a very deliberate and definitive smirk.

"JYNX!" It took Squall and Irvine both to keep Seifer from jumping into the flames to try to save her. "We've gotta get out of here!" Irvine reminded them deliberately as Laguna kicked down the door to the stairs and the smoke rose, blackening the sky and everything in it.

"JYNX!" Seifer called again, his eyes filling with unexpected tears. But there was no answer, and with a little more force from the two other young men, he followed down the stairs, with one last remorseful look over his shoulder.

~**~

"Irvine, use Shiiva to put out the fire before it spreads anymore," Squall said.

"Right," Irvine answered, going for the junction when his eyes widened.

"What is it?"

"Squall…it's Shiiva. She's not here," Irvine's eyes were wide with shock. He'd had her junctioned only a moment ago, he was sure of it.

"Shiiva is missing?!?"

Irvine nodded sheepishly. "She was just here. I had her junctioned, I know I did!"

"We'll worry about it in a minute. Grab a hose Irivine."

"R-right."

~**~

Laguna looked at the boys and sighed, sitting down next to Seifer sadly. "How did she take it? Xu? That Jynx is, you know?"

Seifer shrugged. "Xu? She took it the way Xu takes everything. She nodded and said, I understand. Well, I suppose it's for the best. For the best, Laguna. Jynx is dead, her own sister, and she says it's for the best. What a bitch."

Laguna put his hand on Seifer's shoulder. "Jynx was a pretty lonely person though, you have to admit. She's probably a lot happier now…"

"You don't buy that and you know it."

"You're right. But thinking that way makes me feel a little better. Maybe she'll watch over you the way that Jace and Raine watch over me."

Seifer looked up, a little startled.

"Well," Laguna said with a warm smile, "you loved her, right?"

Seifer looked down at his hands. "… …yeah, I loved her."

~**~

The End!!! Well, sort of! Haha. I'm going to go write the Epilogue now! Wohoo! I think the last few chapters of the story sucked, but, they wrapped everything up okay I guess. It's hard, b/c they've really been a compilation of a bunch of very short scenes all happening very close to one another and at the same time. Ah well, epilogue is next!