Categories > Games > Final Fantasy 8 > Sleeping Saviour
Final Fantasy VIII
Sleeping Saviour
Warning: Mention of past character deaths.
-Chapter 01-
Sidney Almasy's pulled the trigger as her gunblade connected with the
monster's throat. "That's eight." She stuck her tongue out at the black
man quickly slew the monster he was fighting with his right-hand katal.
"Ten," he panted, stopping to catch his breath.
"It doesn't count if you kill 'em a second time, Jere." Sidney argued.
Jere Seagill smiled. At the age of nineteen he greatly resembled his
well-known ancestor, though Kiros in his day had stood a full three
inches taller.
Sidney's appearance didn't seem to favour anyone for the most part,
except her eyes.
"You have Laguna's eyes," they told her.
She looked at those eyes in the clear water in the training hall
at Loire Garden now, frowing at the bruise darkening around the
left one.
"They're right," Jere told her. "You do have Laguna's eyes."
Sidney got to her feet.
Jere's favored those the woman Kiros had been roommates with.
Jennifer Argento had been one of the people assigned to
guard the sleeping President.
Impressed with her devotion to the task, Kiros had asked Jennifer
out after work one night. After ten years running the gamut from
friendship to something far stronger Kiros decided to make it
permanent. Jennifer, declined, even though she was pregnant with
Kiros' child.
"I don't want to complicate things," she told him.
"What's so complicated about it," Kiros wanted to know, as they
inspected the cryostasis chamber where Laguna slumbered. "You
do love me, right?"
"Yes," Jennifer answer, casting a reverent eye upon the man in
the chamber. "But not as much as I love him."
Kiros hardly spoke to her the first month after that conversation.
It had hurt him too much to know he'd given her so much only to be
rejected.
The growing rift between them had been repaired not by counseling,
but by an epiphany.
He had stayed in the chamber room one night after hours to be with
his sleeping friend. "I think I love you as much as Jen does." he
told Laguna, as the true depth of his feelings for the man made
themselves clear to him.
"That's the other reason I said no," Jennifer said from the door.
Kiros smiled, and after that a new friendship, founded upon their
mutual love for Laguna had taken the place of their old one. Their
daughter had a man from Dollet, and had moved planetside with her
husband. She had divorced him two years later, taking her son,
Charon, with her. Neither had been seen again, until Charon had
attacked the station in his mid twenties with a group of rebels
having decided that he would make a better President of Esthar
than some sleeping legend, and tried to assassinate Laguna.
He'd turned off the chamber, assuming Laguna, trapped inside,
would suffocate to death.
Despite his own son's initial assessment of him, however, Laguna
had been smart enough to install a method of opening the chamber
from within.
Deducting the situation in moments, Laguna locked the doors.
Charon froze.
"Look at me," Laguna ordered, coldly. He was almost painfully friendly
to most people once he got past his legendary shyness. But he did not
like people who tried to kill him. "Or are you too cowardly to turn
and face the man you tried to murder."
"Why couldn't you die when you were supposed to?" Charon demanded.
"I should be President of Esthar. Not you. I defeated those last
two armies."
"Single-handedly?"
"No, but."
"Then the people who fought alongside you deserve it as much as
you do." Laguna looked around. "Funny. It seems they forgot to
come and try to kill me."
"Because they're too blinded by the tales people tell about
you. Like you were some kind of warrior hero. I think that's
bullshit." He took a dagger from his pocket. I don't think you
ever lifted anything heavier than a letter opener. You're just
some glorified paper puncher."
Laguna quietly grasped his machine gun. "And what are you?"
he asked. He wanted to assess this man, and maybe diffuse
the siuation.
"Your death." Charon raised the knife and charged at Laguna,
the look of rage turning quickly to one of pain-laced surprise
when a hail of bullets from Laguna's machine gun struck him.
Laguna contacted the control room. The team arrived ten minutes
later, advised him of events planetside, and returned him to
stasis, while Charon's body was removed from the chamber room.
Now, twenty years after the assassination attempt, Laguna
remained at peace. There had been, fortunately, no reason to
reawaken him.
Sleeping Saviour
Warning: Mention of past character deaths.
-Chapter 01-
Sidney Almasy's pulled the trigger as her gunblade connected with the
monster's throat. "That's eight." She stuck her tongue out at the black
man quickly slew the monster he was fighting with his right-hand katal.
"Ten," he panted, stopping to catch his breath.
"It doesn't count if you kill 'em a second time, Jere." Sidney argued.
Jere Seagill smiled. At the age of nineteen he greatly resembled his
well-known ancestor, though Kiros in his day had stood a full three
inches taller.
Sidney's appearance didn't seem to favour anyone for the most part,
except her eyes.
"You have Laguna's eyes," they told her.
She looked at those eyes in the clear water in the training hall
at Loire Garden now, frowing at the bruise darkening around the
left one.
"They're right," Jere told her. "You do have Laguna's eyes."
Sidney got to her feet.
Jere's favored those the woman Kiros had been roommates with.
Jennifer Argento had been one of the people assigned to
guard the sleeping President.
Impressed with her devotion to the task, Kiros had asked Jennifer
out after work one night. After ten years running the gamut from
friendship to something far stronger Kiros decided to make it
permanent. Jennifer, declined, even though she was pregnant with
Kiros' child.
"I don't want to complicate things," she told him.
"What's so complicated about it," Kiros wanted to know, as they
inspected the cryostasis chamber where Laguna slumbered. "You
do love me, right?"
"Yes," Jennifer answer, casting a reverent eye upon the man in
the chamber. "But not as much as I love him."
Kiros hardly spoke to her the first month after that conversation.
It had hurt him too much to know he'd given her so much only to be
rejected.
The growing rift between them had been repaired not by counseling,
but by an epiphany.
He had stayed in the chamber room one night after hours to be with
his sleeping friend. "I think I love you as much as Jen does." he
told Laguna, as the true depth of his feelings for the man made
themselves clear to him.
"That's the other reason I said no," Jennifer said from the door.
Kiros smiled, and after that a new friendship, founded upon their
mutual love for Laguna had taken the place of their old one. Their
daughter had a man from Dollet, and had moved planetside with her
husband. She had divorced him two years later, taking her son,
Charon, with her. Neither had been seen again, until Charon had
attacked the station in his mid twenties with a group of rebels
having decided that he would make a better President of Esthar
than some sleeping legend, and tried to assassinate Laguna.
He'd turned off the chamber, assuming Laguna, trapped inside,
would suffocate to death.
Despite his own son's initial assessment of him, however, Laguna
had been smart enough to install a method of opening the chamber
from within.
Deducting the situation in moments, Laguna locked the doors.
Charon froze.
"Look at me," Laguna ordered, coldly. He was almost painfully friendly
to most people once he got past his legendary shyness. But he did not
like people who tried to kill him. "Or are you too cowardly to turn
and face the man you tried to murder."
"Why couldn't you die when you were supposed to?" Charon demanded.
"I should be President of Esthar. Not you. I defeated those last
two armies."
"Single-handedly?"
"No, but."
"Then the people who fought alongside you deserve it as much as
you do." Laguna looked around. "Funny. It seems they forgot to
come and try to kill me."
"Because they're too blinded by the tales people tell about
you. Like you were some kind of warrior hero. I think that's
bullshit." He took a dagger from his pocket. I don't think you
ever lifted anything heavier than a letter opener. You're just
some glorified paper puncher."
Laguna quietly grasped his machine gun. "And what are you?"
he asked. He wanted to assess this man, and maybe diffuse
the siuation.
"Your death." Charon raised the knife and charged at Laguna,
the look of rage turning quickly to one of pain-laced surprise
when a hail of bullets from Laguna's machine gun struck him.
Laguna contacted the control room. The team arrived ten minutes
later, advised him of events planetside, and returned him to
stasis, while Charon's body was removed from the chamber room.
Now, twenty years after the assassination attempt, Laguna
remained at peace. There had been, fortunately, no reason to
reawaken him.
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