Final Fantasy 8 ? Return to Innocence

[Yumari]

Return To Innocence

Author: Yumari

Rating: PG-13

Genre: Drama/Angst

Summary: They grew up together, and the Sorceress War saw to their rise as the Fated Children. However, while the rest basked in glory, one strayed behind. Seifer returns to the Orphanage to seek answers to his questions about his past while before him, his future and that of the Orphanage Gang unfurls.

Disclaimer: I do not own FFVIII although I would really love to. Squaresoft does, however. I'm just borrowing. XP Please do not sue as doing so would be an utter and complete waste of your time. I am poor and I would just slap this disclaimer at you. XP Thank you very much!



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PROLOGUE
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"This is it," he whispered silently to himself. From where he stood, he could almost make out the outline of the lighthouse across the horizon and the little house that stood at its foot. There was no turning back now; in less than an hour the boat would be be making its stop at the tip of the Cetra region and he'd have to get off to face what he had gone there for.

But then, he could always talk to the captain and tell him he's changed his mind about this whole trip and he can go all the way back to Fisherman's Horizon -

He frowned upon the mere idea of backing out on this trip. If he didn't do it now, when would he? It isn't on a daily basis that he feels the courage to confront his inner demons. Besides, the boat fare didn't come cheap. If he let this opportunity pass him by, there's no telling when he'd be able to save another eight hundred Gil for when he felt the urge to go on another three-day journey.

It's been three months. He was tired of running, and he made sure he won't this time.

He just hoped he wouldn't run into any of them.


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The trip to Cetra had been long but uneventful - not that he was complaining. Like he needed another Hyne-damned affair to throw him off-course again anyway.

Throwing his knapsack over his shoulder, he trudged towards the lighthouse as the wind blew against his face. From the short distance, the place looked the same way as it had appeared in his fragmented memories: a quaint cottage by the sea, a small field of desert flowers... It had only been several months after the Sorceress War since he's had these mental snapshots on what he supposed to be his forgotten childhood but at the moment, he felt these memories come alive: children would run across the field as the smell of freshly baked bread filled the salty morning air, shortly after, a woman would come out - her long raven black hair loosely tied behind her. She'd call them back in for breakfast on a large wooden table while another adult - a man - would pour milk in their wooden mugs. He remembered sitting beside a blonde girl who always complained about him making noises while he ate. Heck, he even remembered being reprimanded for it.

He remembered a lot of things, but he couldn't remember why he had forgotten...

A few minutes more and he had set up camp by the beach that was fifteen flights of stairs down the cliff on which the old orphanage stood. He had counted the steps on his way down, and now that he thought of it, he felt himself walk on memory lane once more. He saw six children running down to set off fireworks, while one little blonde boy stayed upstairs, shouting that he would tell on them. And if he looked on closely, he could almost see Zell pointing his fingers at them.

"No kidding. Chicken-wuss?" he chuckled to himself as he watched the sun set in the horizon, bathing the sky in mixture of orange and violet hues.

Taking off his boots, he stretched his weary feet, letting the sea water lap up at them as it met the beach. His eyes drifting shut, he could feel another wave of familiarity wash through him, this time as a child playing by the edge of the beach, splashing water on a little brunette and a blue-eyed blonde as they screamed for him to stop while splashing him and his partner - a redhead - back.

He could almost see the Messenger Girl and the Instructor in their places...

And there was Puberty Boy looking on in the background, his hands laced with the eldest of them all - a girl with short brown hair in a blue sundress. Wasn't her name... Ellone?

Chicken-wuss would come running, Matron just behind him as she called out for him to be careful. He remembered the boy look back at their mother and wave, then promptly trip on a rock. They would all end up laughing then, while the puny blonde would start crying as Matron gathers him up in her arms, and call all of them back in for a snack...

It had always puzzled him as to why he would see their faces in his fragmented memories; how he would recognize those children for them when the age was an obvious difference. Squall, Quistis, Zell - the names would slip from his mind even before he had the chance to grasp the thought of how it is possible for them to have a shared childhood when he couldn't even remember a single thing. It didn't make sense.

That had been his life for the past nine years from when he started attending Balamb Garden: driven by a hazy past and a dream that he found to have never strayed away from him inspite of the fact that he couldn't even place why he had such a dream to begin with. His life had been spent mostly on instinct. It was instinct why he despised Leonhart. It was instinct why he enjoyed making fun of Dincht. It was instinct why he kept putting down Trepe...

It was instinct why he went with the Sorceress back at Timber.

It had always been instinct and his 'romantic dream'.

And now, opening his eyes, the images flitted into the wind as one question slipped through his thinned, quivering lips: "Why?"



- Tsuzuku -



Author's Note: This is the first FFVIII fic that I ever uploaded online. And it's going to be a multi-part story! Ehehe... Ahem. Please R&R. I would really love to know what you think of it. Thanks for reading!

[Stellar-Soldier]

I always wondered what happened to Seifer after the slaying of the sorceress Ultimcena... sure, he was fishing with his buds after all that, but seriously. Did he ever return to Centra, to the orphanage, simply because of questions that seem to ring in his ear?

[Yumari]

Hello! //_^v

Well, we would've found out what happened to Seifer and his posse IF only Squaresoft actually released THAT FFVIII sequel instead of scrapping it... *sniff*

It's such a shame really; there was this whole thing about the Liberi Fatali in the game, but Squaresoft focused instead on Squall and Rinoa's relationship and forgot about the other members of the Gang. *sniffs yet again*

That's why I felt compelled to write this fic... I felt that there was something important lacking in the ending, and I wanted to explore on that area more. //_^;;