Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VIII.

A/N: I hope you guys liked the last chapter, and the tiny little cliffie I threw at you! I can already tell that this chapter will be a little tough, since I have to make Seifer "Seifer" but without his memories… Hm… Well, it'll all work out =) Anyway, here goes! Hope you like!

Firework

Chapter Three

-Seifer-

Before I opened my eyes, a million sensations hit me at once. My muscles ached, my bones creaked, my head pounded like a heavy metal band's drums. There was a ringing in my ears, and the light from outside stabbed itself into my eyelids, blinding me even though my eyes were closed. Voices were around me, floating through my head, the pitches wavering until they found themselves.

"WAKING," someone said, their voice feminine but low, and forceful.

I groaned, letting my head roll to the side and feeling my neck tense with every motion. I felt like a rusted machine. What was happening…?

Make a list, something said. Before I knew why, I was listing everything I knew. Habit? Did I even have habits? What did I have?

List, list. Um… My body hurt everywhere. A humming sound was around me, and there was at least one person close by, but it felt like more. I was cold. I didn't know where I was, or if I had habits, but I did have habits.

I didn't know my name.

My eyes shot open, and it was like seeing the world for the first time – maybe it was the first time? A girl with gray hair was next to me, and a huge dark-skinned guy was behind her, and – a dragon? What the hell was a dragon doing…? Were we in the air? How were we not falling? I was standing on something, but we were in the air, and there was some girl in yellow not even looking at me, but watching the clouds pass by at a speed that I couldn't even fathom.

I opened my mouth but I didn't know why, and my throat constricted in the weirdest way, and my body tensed up and I was standing, but damn! My ankle hurt so bad, and my knees buckled and I fell; the ground was hard and metal and cold, and I moved away from those people that I didn't even know, and things were getting blurry, and the inside of my throat kept twitching like something was supposed to be happening but it wasn't.

"SEIFER!" the gray haired girl yelled and she started moving toward me. I pushed myself along the floor with my sore arms, muscles protesting all the way, trying to get away from her. Who was she? What did she want?

"Seifer, man, calm down, you know?" the big guy put a hand on the gray girl's shoulder and she stopped, her tense face looking worried.

I could only imagine what I looked like to them. Pathetic and terrified? Probably. And seifer? What was a seifer?

The big guy turned to the dragon. "What's going on with him, you know?"

The dragon hadn't moved from where it was, but was staring at me with these huge yellow eyes, not blinking or anything. I shivered. "He does not remember you. He does not even remember his own name – calling him by it will only confuse him."

Remember? What did I remember? Anything? Was I supposed to remember something? My jaw twitched, and I realized that my throat was still itching. I reached up to grab it with both hands, trying to feel out what was wrong with me.

"He cannot remember how to speak." The dragon sounded slightly bewildered behind his emotionless growl, and the two people in front of me were looking back from me to the dragon, again and again, like I was some sort of crazy.

Speak? Could I…? I huffed a breath and felt my throat respond, then tried again. There was a sound, and I tried again and it was louder, then louder still. A sigh became a grunt, then an excited yell, and then…

And then… and then… All my thoughts meshed together into a kaleidoscope in my brain, swirling and twirling in a dizzying dance, and my yells got louder and louder – What's happening to me? Who am I? Where am I? Who are these people? What I supposed to do? What's happening?

I screamed – like the roar of a strangled, dying animal, I screamed. My hands went from my throat to my head, tearing at my hair, and I closed my eyes as tight as they would shut, and tighter still, trying to block out this terrifying world.

I could hear them through my cries: "Seifer, calm down, you know? It's alright!" "LAND!" "I'm trying! Hold on!" "Hurry up, you know? He's freaking out!" "Hold on, I said!... There!"

There were footsteps, tiny little ones, and I could feel someone close by. I tried to move away but I was too scared to open my eyes, and my hands were fisted in my hair and wouldn't move.

And then someone's arms were around me, holding me tight. Their chin was next to my ear, and I was probably deafening them with my screams, but they didn't move away.

Who are you? Who am I? What's… what's…? My head was still kaleidoscoping, and my thoughts were incomprehensible at this point, and through the thickness of my fear I clung to this person, whoever they were, and screamed. I could feel tears streaming down my face and I buried my head into the crook of the person's neck, seeking their warmth and protection.

"It's alright," they said, and it was a girl's voice, softer than the other one's was – the girl in yellow? "You're alright. We're friends; we're here to help you. Don't be afraid."

She went on like this for some time until I couldn't understand her words, but just listened to the sound of her voice. It quieted me, and my screaming stopped, subsiding only to a soft sobbing. My shoulders shook despite how they ached, but her arms encircled them strongly as if they didn't even move.

It took a while, but finally I had become almost silent, simply breathing, eyes wide open. And she still held me, not tightly anymore as if she thought I would run away, but gently, her hands almost floating above me in a zen-like half-embrace. She was fearless and quiet, breaking through my shields in the most tender way possible, and those feelings – the exact opposite feelings of my own – fed into me, until I was quiet, too, although not exactly fearless.

"Better now?" she asked, her voice practically a whisper at my ear.

I was afraid to speak, in case I started screaming again, so I just nodded.

"Good!" She patted my shoulder and leaned back, and I braced myself before lifting my head.

Her green eyes struck me like a slap in the face. So green. Brown hair cut short on her forehead and longer on the sides, flipping up before it reached her shoulders. Her face was sort of round and her eyes sloped down a bit, but she was… pretty. Kinda.

OoOoOoOoO

-Selphie-

Seifer's expression was unmatched. His blue-green eyes wide like a puppy's, his lips slightly parted like he didn't care enough to keep his mouth shut, his brow lifted and furrowed in an almost "please don't hurt me" way.

I think I was as surprised to see him as he was to see me, and I had to keep reminding myself that he didn't know who I was. The Seifer that I knew wouldn't have even let me touch him, let alone cry in my arms like he'd been doing for five minutes, at my best guestimate. He was like… a whole new person!

I offered him a lopsided smile. "Hi," I greeted. "I'm Selphie."

OoOoOoOoO

-Seifer-

For a moment, I could only blink. Selphie? Her name was Selphie.

"M-My name's…" I stopped, realizing again that I didn't know my own name.

Her smile faltered for a second. "Seifer," she said. "Your name is Seifer."

Seifer… I wrapped my head around it, whispered it to test the sound: "Seifer." It rolled off my tongue with ease, as if it was something typical I would say, and the name traveled through my mind as if it knew the roads.

My eyes, which had fallen to the floor, rose to find Selphie's again. "Selphie," I said, memorizing it.

Her smile grew and she laughed, hiding behind her hand.

A spark went off in my head and I scowled. "What's funny?" I asked.

Her laughter died off and she shook her head. "Nothing," she replied. "You're just… Nothing." The corner of her mouth lifted in another lopsided grin, and she pushed her knees forward and stood, offering me her hand.

Part of me wanted to push her hand to the side or ignore it, but the more prevalent part laced my fingers around her palm and let her help me up. I was unsteady on my feet and stumbled, grasping her shoulder for support on reflex.

"Whoa!" she exclaimed, surprised, and grabbed my arm to keep herself steady. "Careful there." She turned so she was facing the same direction as me and looped her arm around mine. "Can you stand?"

I righted myself, getting the feel for it in my legs. Cringing, I said, "My ankle hurts." Really, everything hurt, but I didn't want to sound whiny, especially after I'd cried in front of these people.

"Oh, right." She brought me over to the chair I'd woken up in, me limping beside her, and lowered me down. Now that the shock had worn off for the most part, the true pain of my injuries was seeping through, and I winced at every movement. Selphie frowned, seeming to think for a moment.

"Here," she said, and laid her hand on my chest. Her fingers were cold against my bare skin and I held back a shudder, but soon her hand grew warm. I looked down and the tips of her fingers were pulsing blue, feeding the strange light into my body and letting it disappear. I would've pushed her away had it not felt so nice, as if the blue was pushing my pain to disintegration.

And when I wasn't even sore anymore, she quietly whispered, "Curaga," and took her hand away, standing up straight again and smiling.

I blinked and sat up, confused. "What did you do?" I asked.

She pursed her lips and hesitated before answering. "Well… It's a little hard to explain."

I raised an eyebrow, offended. "I can handle it."

OoOoOoOoO

-Selphie-

Turns out, Seifer really could handle it, although I'm sure he was still scratching his head. I explained what GFs were, how they junctioned, and how they allowed their host to use magic. Of course, through that I had to explain that Bahamut was a GF, that he was junctioned to Seifer, and that Seifer had chosen to have his memory wiped.

He sat through the explanation in silence, only asking questions occasionally and nodding at the answer. Finally, when I had finished, he was silent for a moment, then stood, saying he was going to go think, and left the control room.

The four of us – me, Fujin, Raijin, and Bahamut – stood still in the control room after he left. We were all slammed to the ground by the gravity of it all.

"Seifer…" Raijin said. "He's not even Seifer anymore, you know?"

"Don't say that!" Fujin protested.

"WHAAA-?" My mouth hung slack. Fujin could talk normally? Since when?

Ignoring me, Fujin continued. "He's still Seifer, he's just a little lost. We've got to be there for him, Rai! He can't go through this alone."

Raijin was already nodding before she finished. "Yeah! He's still our friend, and we're still his friends! His best friends, you know?"

Fujin smiled – actually smiled! This day was getting crazier by the minute. "Let's give him some time to get his head on straight, and then tell him where we stand."

And then, as if I wasn't there, the two of them headed out of the control room, leaving me and Bahamut more than slightly bewildered.

I looked at the dragon. "Did you know…?" I started.

"I had no idea," he replied, shaking his head.

"Good to know I wasn't the only one."

OoOoOoOoO

-Selphie-

Squall stared at me with such an unemotional face that I had no idea what to make of it. Normally I wasn't too shabby at reading people, even Squall, but this was a whole new level of blankness and it made me nervous. I was practically squirming in my seat.

Finally, I broke. "Well, say something, already!"

Squall shifted his weight to his right leg and hung his head, sighing. "What am I supposed to say?"

"Anything!"

I'd just told him and the rest of the old save-the-world group – Rinoa, Quistis, Irvine, and Zell – what had happened to Seifer. He was in his dorm room now, with Fujin and Raijin keeping him company, since I didn't want everyone to see him yet in case things took a turn for the worse. I wasn't sure what that meant exactly, but the possibility of it made me nervous.

Rinoa was sitting on the Headmaster's desk – I'd called a meeting, and Cid was more than happy to let us use his office for something involving Seifer (I wasn't sure why Cid always favored him, but I don't think anyone really knew) – while Squall stood by her side. Her hand was on the edge of the desk near his, and she kept eyeing them, back and forth. They were cute, but still getting used to being in a relationship. Rinoa never wanted to push him too much, but sometimes it seemed like Squall was too aloof around her. But then, when he thought no one was looking, he'd take her hand, and she'd smile a bright smile, and everything would be just fine.

Quistis was standing at attention, still unable to fully let go of her rigid instructor ways. The Trepies, the group of girls who idolized her, had disbanded, and now were just good friends with Quistis. She seemed out of place sometimes with the new crowd, but most of the time looked like she was having fun. I was happy for her.

Zell was leaning against the wall by the door, a hot dog in his hand and a soda in the other. My meeting had interrupted his between-lunch-and-dinner meal. I was amazed at how he still managed to stay fit and in shape: whenever he wasn't eating, he was at the gym. But the library was becoming a common place to find him, too, lately; Irvine said he'd been hanging out with a girl with pigtails a lot.

Irvine was behind me, his hand now on my shoulder to try to calm me down. He and I were…. Well, we certainly were something. I wouldn't call us a couple, not yet at least, but I felt something with him. He was charming, fun, made me laugh… Although sometimes he was difficult, I liked being around him.

"Come on, Selph," Irvine said, "there's no need to get all riled up."

"But Squall isn't saying anything and I'm already freaked out and he isn't helping," I whined, all my words coming out at a run.

Squall ran his hand through his hair, hardly flinching when Rinoa finally grabbed his hand, smiling to herself. "What do you want me to say?" he asked. "That I'm glad? I'm not."

"I don't want you to be glad," I protested.

"Of course you don't," Rinoa said forcefully, giving Squall a hard stare and squeezing his hand. "Seifer's practically one of us; we can't be glad that something bad's happened to him."

"One of us?" Zell repeated incredulously. "That guy's as much 'one of us' as a tiger has spots!" A few chunks of hot dog flew out of his mouth when he pronounced 'spots,' and I stepped out of range.

"He's different now!" I said, balling my hands into fists. I didn't like this. Seifer was our classmate, and kind of our partner in a way. Even though he tried to help Ultimecia, he did it because of his dreams. Weren't we all motivated by our dreams back then? How different were we, really?

"Selphie's right," Quistis chimed in. "We can't keep blaming Seifer for what he did in the past. We've all done things we're not proud of."

"But trying to destroy the world?" Zell argued.

"Zell…" Rinoa chided.

"What?"

I turned to Zell. "Come on, Zell. Give him a chance? He doesn't even remember the stuff he did; he doesn't even know who we are! This is his chance to kind of… start over."

Zell stared at me for a moment, his eyes hard, before finally giving in. "Fine," he groaned in defeat.

I practically squealed in delight, jumping up and down and grabbing Irvine's hand probably harder than he was comfortable with. "Great! So everyone's on board?" I got nothing but nods. "I'll go get him, then!"

I hopped, skipped, and jumped to the elevator, but the doors were already opening. They parted to reveal Seifer, flanked by Raijin and Fujin, in jeans and a graphic t-shirt. It was strange to see him in such casual clothes – I'd only ever seen him in his white outfit with the trench coat.

"Seifer!" I exclaimed, jumping back as he came into the room, followed closely by Fujin and Raijin. "You're here already; great!"

His eyes were looking around warily, from person to person to person, and I wished for just a moment that I could be inside his head.

OoOoOoOoO

-Seifer-

The room was big and there was red and gold everywhere. Selphie was there, smiling like before, and that comforted me a little.

But the rest of these people… I didn't get good feelings from them.

There was a guy with brown hair, kinda long and in his face, all serious looking. Just looking at him made me mad. I noticed he had a gunblade, like the one Fujin and Raijin said I had. They'd explained some stuff to me about who I used to be, what I used to do. Not totally everything was cleared up – but I didn't want it to be. I'd wanted to forget for a reason; I didn't want to screw it all up again. Anyway, seeing this kid's gunblade made me want to fight him, partly to see if I could still use mine, but mostly because I didn't like that stupid look in his eyes.

The girl next to him was really pretty, like dang. Big dark brown eyes and black hair on a pale face, with some light brown-ish streaks in there, and dressed all in blue with some crazy black boots. But she was holding that brown-haired guy's hand, so that thought was gone.

Then there was some kid with a blonde mohawk and a crazy tattoo on his face full of food. He looked like a hamster stuffing its cheeks. I wanted to make fun of him.

Ooh, this room was full of pretty girls, wasn't it? There was a blonde girl with glasses and icy blue eyes wearing some orange dress thing. A whip rested on her hip. My brow raised at that, although I wasn't quite sure why. But no matter how pretty she was, I wanted to scowl when I looked at her.

And then next to Selphie, a little behind her, was some pretty boy with long brown hair in a ponytail and a cowboy hat with blue eyes. Was he… was he holding Selphie's hand? My teeth clenched. I didn't like him.

No one was saying anything. I didn't like the silence, with all these people that I didn't like for some reason, so I stood up straight, squaring my shoulders – I saw Selphie grin again – and said, "I'm Seifer."

I was still getting used to saying that. I said it to introduce myself to them, even though according to Rai and Fuu – as they told me to call them – they already knew me, but it was kind of a confirmation. In front of these people, I was pledging myself to be this person, to be Seifer, whoever that was.

The hamster guy snorted, and I glared straight at him. The blonde girl looked like she was about to take her whip on him, but I didn't wait. I stepped right up to him – I was nearly a foot taller than him, short kid – and looked down on him. Everyone was silent.

"You got a problem with my name?" I asked, my voice ringing loud in a quiet room.

The kid looked like he was getting ready to fight me or something, fists clenched like his teeth – he'd finally swallowed his food – but then he looked behind me. I followed his eyes and found Selphie, giving him a hard look and a frown with crossed arms. She was like a little kid.

I turned back to the hamster guy and he relaxed. "No," he said, but it was forced.

I stepped back. "Alright." Looking around the room to everyone else, I asked, "What are your names?"

They ran down the line. The black-haired girl's name was Rinoa Heartilly, and her boyfriend's name was Squall Leonhart. I still wanted to fight him. Hamster guy was named Zell Dincht. His name sounded like fincht, and even though that probably wasn't a word I thought it was funny. The blonde girl was Quistis Trepe, and she said it all strict like a teacher. Maybe that was why I didn't like her so much. The pretty boy was Irvine Kinneas, and yes, he was holding Selphie's hand, and I definitely didn't like him.

I wouldn't tell anybody, but I was feeling protective of Selphie, kinda like how Bahamut was feeling protective of me. She was this little thing, all cute and helpless… She needed looking after. It was kinda my way of thanking her, too. Since she protected me when I was scared, I'd protect her.

I looked over them again, matching the faces with the names. I didn't say it was nice to meet them, because it wasn't. I had these predisposed feelings to them that I didn't understand, and I knew that they felt something for me.

"What do you think of me?" I asked them.

They seemed struck by the question, and Selphie stammered a little off to the side. "We all like you, Seifer," she said.

"No," I refused. "I want to hear what you really think. Then I can tell you what I think. Sound good?"

No one talked. I was starting to get ticked – how hard is it to answer a simple question, really? – when Squall spoke up.

"We hated you." His eyes were as hard as his voice.

I smirked. "Good, 'cause I don't like you, either. I want to fight you, and you wanna fight me, too, don't you?" From the look in his eyes, I knew I was right.

I turned to Rinoa. "I've got nothing on you, but you're cute." Then Zell. "You look like a hamster, and you're short." Then Quistis. "You're pretty, but you piss me off."

Then came Irvine. I turned my body fully to see him and glared right into his eyes. For a moment I was silent; I hardly knew what to say. Finally, I said what first came to my head: "I'm watching you." It sounded lame, but it was the truth – I'd have my eyes on him when he was near Selphie. I didn't get a good feeling from him.

And then my eyes came down on Selphie, looking small like a kitten, and I could tell she hadn't planned for this first meeting to go like this. I wanted to apologize for screwing it up, but I didn't. Instead, I gave her just a tiny smile for half a second, hoping she'd catch it and feel better.

Then I turned back, facing everyone. "I don't know what I did to make you hate me," I started, "and I don't wanna know. I forgot for a reason, didn't I? But I'll say I'm sorry anyway."

Quistis spoke up. "You're sorry?"

"Yeah." Geez, I must've been a pretty big jerk if it was this big of a deal that I was apologizing. "So keep hating me if you want, but I'll try not to hate you guys. Just don't make it hard for me, alright?"

Silence again for a while, then Squall took a tiny step forward. "Alright," he said with a small nod.

"Alright then." I turned back to the elevator, but stopped when Squall called my name.

He looked me in the eyes and said, "Good luck."

I smirked. "I'll fight you sometime," I said. "That's a promise."