There was a knock at her door and Yuna opened it. If it was an assassin, they’d have had t get past Auron and Wakka in the living room, and probably past Paine and Lulu following Anzi around as she went over the palace making notes of what she’d need to take care of and teach people how to clean or use.

"Seymour?"

"I was wondering if you’d let me back in," he said. "And if you wouldn’t, could I please have a spare change of clothes form the dresser?"

Rikku giggled.

"I never said I wouldn’t let you back in your own room."

"Yunie, I think he means you’re in the doorway."

Yuna moved out of the way.

"Thank you—"

"You!" Jyscal yelled, grabbing Seymour by the neckline and slamming him against the wall. "You lying, shameless, backstabbing piece of trash!"

Rikku screamed and ran to the doorway next to Yuna.

"Don’t touch me!" Seymour said, yanking his clothes from Jyscal’s grasp.

"You do not give me orders!" Jyscal yelled, grabbing Seymour’s arm.

"I said do not touch me!" Seymour yelled, swinging a punch and hitting his father in the face.

Jyscal roared and grabbed Seymour and threw him to the ground.

Yuna yelled as they rolled past her, clawing and hitting each other and knocking her off her feet as they wrestled. They didn’t see where they were going and they both went down the stairs, the noise bringing everyone else from their respective rooms.

Seymour managed to throw his father off of him and stand up. He kicked Jyscal in the chest as he tried to get up and used the time while his father was down to grab a chair.

He swung it at Jyscal, who managed to stay just and inch out of reach before grabbing it and yanking it out of Seymour’s grasp.

Their audience was too stunned to do anything and no one wanted to get in the middle of the fight.

Jyscal grabbed Seymour by the hair and punched him in the chest over and over, just over the scar that had just recently been freed of staples and stitches.

Seymour finally found a way to counter and twisted around to bite Jyscal’s arm, causing him to let go. Seymour pushed him away a step and they both went at each other. Jyscal went for Seymour’s throat and Seymour went for his sleeve.

No one saw it until it was too late. Everyone gasped; even Auron held his breath for a second. Anzi fainted.

Jyscal staggered back, more from surprise than pain or fear. He couldn’t believe it. Seymour couldn’t believe it. No one else could believe it. Buried high on the right of his chest, was Seymour’s knife.

A slow heartbeat of time went by and no one moved. Then everyone was breathing again as Seymour turned and ran for the door.

"Seymour!" Paine yelled. "Don’t be stupid!"

Seymour hadn’t listened. By the time she had finished her words he was out the door and still running.

"He’s not," Jyscal said, wincing as he tore the knife out. "They just want him dead. I am going to do far worse than that."

"Seymour!" Yuna yelled, running down he stairs and past Jyscal. "Seymour!" she yelled, running out the door. She stopped as she saw the city spread out before her, completely empty. The wind picked up and something fluttered into her face. She pulled it from her face and saw it was Seymour’s long belt.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

"Go check down there Auron, see if there’s anything down there. What the hell would be over here, a menacing tree?" Auron stopped in mocking himself. He was odd enough to the townspeople, he wasn’t helping by talking to himself.

As he walked down the street people backed up and gave him a large amount of space. If he moved to one side of the street, the people on that side of the street would run into a store or turn a corner or even climb up some stairs to get away from him.

He sighed. "The only thing suspicious around here is me," he said, then felt a tug on his robes. He turned around and looked down to see a child about five holding his robes and frozen in terror. "Do you need something?"

The child screamed and started crying.

"Uh, you lost or something?" Auron asked bending down. "Where are your parents? What exactly are you—"

"My big brother dared me!" the kid yelled.

"Jinsi!" a woman yelled, grabbing the boy away from Auron.

"Kes dared me to touch—"

"How many times have I told you to stop listening to your brother?" she said, then turned to Auron. "And you keep away from him!"

"You gonna scare every kid around here?"

"This is a trap and you know it, Wakka," Auron said, standing up. "Anzi has been shut in a room with Paine and Lulu to watch her. Meanwhile, Yuna thinks she can find Seymour by combing all of Guadosalam and Jyscal sees nothing wrong with it—in fact, he joins in the search."

"And?" Wakka asked.

"And he only agreed to this because he sees us as expendable and wants to draw the terrorists out in the open."

"And if they’re that dumb we’ll kick their asses," Wakka said. "If not, we go home after getting some exercise. Besides, if we didn’t do this for Yuna she’d run off after him herself and probably get herself lost and he’d kill us all."

"Your optimism is both frightening and annoying."

"Hey, I know it’s a stupid idea, but let’s just humor her, ya?"

"She married a psychotic nutcase and you want to humor her?"

"I never said humor him."

"So how do you suggest we actually find him?"

"Hey I’m dealing with Yuna. You deal with Seymour."

"I don’t want anything to do with Seymour."

"Well, that attitude’s not going to help us find him."

"Guys?" Rikku said, unusually solemn.

"Okay now YOU’RE sneaking up on people," Wakka said "Is there something about this place people aren’t telling me?"

"Someone was selling this," she said and unfolded the bundle she was carrying. I was—used to be—Seymour’s robe. Now it was half-torched and one of the sleeves fell off from her holding it so roughly.

"Selling it?" Auron asked.

"They didn’t want to get in trouble with the police," she said. "They found it in their back yard in a tree that was on fire but they thought they’d get in trouble if they stepped forward. But they couldn’t leave it in the tree or keep it around."

"Then how did you get it?" Auron asked.

"They were selling it so I bought it."

"How’d you find out if they wanted people to keep quiet about it?"

"That nice lady told me about it," Rikku said, pointing to a woman leaning against the wall of a bar, playing with her short skirt and whistling every time a man walked by. "She made me pay twenty gil to know about the person selling it."

Auron slapped his face.

"What?" Rikku asked.

"Hey lady!" Wakka yelled.

"Eww!" she yelled back to him, left her skirt alone, and stomped inside the bar.

"Wakka!" Auron said. "What do you think you’re doing?"

"I thought she might tell me if there was anyone else who wanted that old rag."

"How are we going to break this to Yunie?"

"Break what to her?"

"Aa!" Wakka yelled. "Knock or something!"

"We are outside," Jyscal said.

"Well quit that!" Wakka said.

"What do you have there?" Jyscal asked Rikku.

"Uh, it’s kinda second-hand and… bootleg," she said. "I got it from someone who wanted to get rid of it ‘cause they didn’t want you thinking they did it."

"They did not do this out of fear that I’d think they killed him," Jyscal said, taking part of the burnt robe in his hand. "News of his injury has reached the public as has news of the people out to kill him and his wife. They were afraid I’d think they must have had a connection to the terrorists."

"So what are we gonna do?" Rikku asked.

"I do not know."

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

Seymour screamed and then someone’s foot met with his face and he woke up.

He fell over on his face and decided it would be best to figure out a few details before moving again. There was a blindfold over his eyes, that would explain why he couldn’t see, though not why he thought he nose was broken, because said foot had hit him in the jaw and he hadn’t hit he floor that hard. There was a gag over his mouth and his hands were tied behind his back. There was something binding him around the knees. Seymour was suddenly glad he still had his pants and shoes still on.

The last thing he remembered was running, then being hit over the head with something metal.

Someone grabbed him by the neck and propped him up. "Hey, you!" a vaguely familiar voice said. Seymour searched his memory for the owner, but all he found was that thinking made the throbbing in his head hurt more.

The mystery person pulled the blindfold down. A young blonde man with an eyepatch over a sliced left eye stared him in the face, only inches away.

"You don’t remember me in the slightest, do you, you sick fuck?"

Seymour shook his head much as his throbbing headache would allow.

"I’m going to take off that gag, and if you try anything at all, I’m shooting you in them crown jewels, get me?"

Seymour nodded frantically.

The man took the gag off and that’s just what Seymour began doing: gag. He coughed and sputtered and tried to spit the bad taste out of his mouth as he got used to breathing out of his mouth as opposed to a bashed nose.

"Fucking smart," the man said, making himself comfortable against the wall, casually wielding a large gun. "Lighting that thing on fire so they think you’re already dead. Wonder how fast the syndicate are gonna catch on."

"Actually I did that to fool my father," Seymour said.

"Fucking for real?" he asked. "Then this’ll make things REALLY interesting."

"Not to offend you, but… who are you?"

"You had your face on the floor ‘cause you couldn’t even stand up, didn’t you?" the man asked rhetorically. "And yet you STILL managed to get me."

"I’m sorry, I appear to have been hit on the head," Seymour said. "Would you mind jogging my memory?"

"Jog this you sick fucker!" he said, giving Seymour the finger.

"Nope, still don’t remember you."

"Where’s that damn little pitchfork you were carrying. The one that nearly lost me my foot?"

"Oh, you," Seymour said. "Last I saw I had stabbed my father with it."

"And I thought you were smart."

"And he thought he’d kill me, I’m just full of stupid surprises."

"Yeah, that last one cost me something other than my foot," the man said, holding up his left hand and twitching each finger—all three of them.

"Well at least—"

"I’m left-handed!"

"And which foot did I hit?"

"Fuck off!"

"And you’re talking to me, why? Am I supposed to try to stop you now?"

"Nah, I felt like swearing at ya," the man said.

"At least your honest," Seymour said. "Not to push it, but didn’t you want me dead?"

"Me? I don’t give a shit."

"I must have missed something, then."

"Me, personally? Go fuck a sinspwan for all I care. It’s the syndicate that wants you dead."

"But I thought you belonged to the syndicate."

"Not any fucking more. They can kiss my ass. They fuck with me, I fuck with them."

"I am getting a very disturbing image in my head."

"I’d shoot you for that, but you’re going to die anyway."

"But I thought you said—"

"I ain’t gonna kill you. Corpses smell and live hostages work better."

"You’re going to hold me for ransom?"

"Dam straight. Too bad no one wants you alive, huh? At least not after they got their hands on ya."

"Well, I’m fucked," Seymour said.

"And I’m gonna watch the fun," the man said. Three seconds later he made a face as he just realized what he had said.

……………………………………………………………………………………….

"Which one of you morons am I going to take with me to diplomatic negotiations?" Jyscal asked, slamming the door open more loudly than usual.

Everyone in the room was immediately pointing in a random direction.

"Correction, which, of any of you, speak Al Behd?"

"I do," Yuna said.

"ME!" Rikku said, jumping up. "I AM Al Behd."

"Fine, I’m already making a fool of myself. Both of you, down stairs," Jyscal said, slamming the door closed once they were out.

Anzi was still ordered to stay in her room and at least two people had to be in there with her. Everyone was in there as often as they could, not wanting to be near Jyscal after Seymour had run away.

"Puid desa!" (About time) they heard as they were coming down the stairs.

"Indeed," Jyscal said. "I apologize profusely for my son’s—"

"Tytto!" Rikku yelled, pouncing on Cid, who had come in person for the negotiations.

Jyscal winced, until he saw Cid hug Rikku and twirl her around.

"You never said you were here!" Cid said.

"You never said you spoke Spiran!" Jyscal said.

"A little. These two taught me. Yuna! Come here. What the ralg are you doing here?"

"Long story," she said, hugging him.

"Please let this be enough," Jyscal prayed quietly.

"Huf, frana'c dryd yccruma cu E lyh rind res uha!" (Now where’s that asshole so I can hurt him one!) Cid exclaimed.

"Uh, he wants to know where Seymour is."

"He…" Jyscal started.

"Oui mucd res?" Cid exclaimed. Then he paused. "You lost himn? He’s six feet tall and has weird, bright blue hair! How can you lose someone like that?"

"First, he has a habit of not being found when he doesn’t want to be," Jyscal said. "Second, you insult my people by—"

Several things happened at once. There was angry screaming composed mostly of childish swear words mixed with gunfire. Then the palace shook and there was a deafening boom from the upstairs and they heard someone scream and Auron cursing.

"Not NOW!" Jyscal yelled.

"You trying to kill me?" Cid asked.

"You two stay with him!" Jyscal yelled and ran upstairs and into a bedroom to look out the nearest window.

"Hey! You!" a blonde guado was yelling. He held a semi-conscious and rather bloody Seymour by the neck, barely letting him have enough air. To his side were the two leaders of the syndicate that had forced Jyscal to relocate his wife and son to Baaj, hoping to Yevon that his wife would survive when he came for her. They had cost him Juuno and he remembered them. He’d never forget them. He’d sooner forget that Anzi was the mysterious accomplice with Seymour in his murder.

So the syndicate had run out of new members and were already making a confrontation. Why one of their lackeys was on the ground, holding a shattered shin, though, was beyond him.

"BOTH of you fuckers, listen up!" the blonde one shouted.

"What’s going on?" Cid asked

"We’re with him, so you can’t do anything!" Rikku sad, following him into the room.

"Hey, I said listen, damnit!" the blonde guado shouted.

"Maln, what is the meaning of this?" one of the syndicate shouted.

"The next person who tires some shit—and that includes ignoring me—gets shot… again."

"Maln, you traitor!" One of the syndicate yelled.

"Fuck you!" Maln shouted, and, true to his word, shot him in the head. "You shut up or there won’t be any of you shits left!"

"Great, my son has been abducted by a juvenile delinquent half his age," Jyscal said.

"Rikku told me he ran off before I got up here," Cid said. "What IS going on?"

"You listening up there, old guy?" Maln yelled. "’Cause I can just give him to them and go home after shooting a couple more of you!"

"What are your demands?" Jyscal yelled down to him.

"Ra'c hud caneuic!" (he’s not serious!) Cid said.

"First, I want them dumb FUCKS," he spat. "Al Behd, shot! Next, whoever gives me more money can have his nasty fucker!"

"But they want him dead!" Jyscal yelled.

"And so do you! But he aint’ dying ’til I get my shit!"

"Finished?" one of the syndicate asked.

"Am now."

"Hear me, Jyscal! This is your last chance! We want the ugly ill-bred foreigners dead! You have five seconds to comply! I warn you, I am down here, while you are up there you and far from safe!"

Jyscal turned, hearing Cid yell, and saw an assassin fall in the doorway as a gun want off.

"You came armed?" Jyscal asked Cid.

"After what Seymour did?" Cid asked. "You have no right to protest!"

"I’m not," Jyscal said. "I’m saying that was damn smart."

"If that’s the way you want it!" the syndicate leader yelled, lobbing a grenade through a nearby window. The whole building shook from the blast.

"Anzi!" Jyscal yelled.

"Why did I fucking bother?" Maln said.

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