Usual disclaimers...I don't own FF8 or anything else related to it...but try and steal Adrienne and you shall suffer an unimaginable death...mwahahahahaha This is my first fic so PLEASE!!! Go easy on me...and Tryn you had better review or else...oh and if anyone has any complaints or anything or thinks that my story sounds suspiciously like theirs please e-mail me. I have read a lot of 2nd generation fics on ff.net and so far there mine doesn't seem to have any startling resemblance to any of them…but I can't be certain I read ALL of them. So if you have any complaints e-mail me PLEASE and don't flame me!!! BTW I think the FF8 2nd generation fic by Arashi Leonhart is great so if you hate mine then go read his J

Chapter 1

Death of an Angel

The sound of footfalls echoed resoundingly through the clean white corridors of an Estharian hospital. One was heavy, steady, rhythmic in its beat, the other was soft and fell in uneven intervals. Doctors, nurses and patients paused momentarily to look up at the commander of Balamb Garden as he walked past, and the small child who clutched his hand tightly.

Squall Leonhart stopped before a door in the ICU ward. The child at his side wrinkled her nose at the metallic stench of antiseptic that hung thickly in the hospital air. Squall looked at the nameplate on the door and gently tugged at the girl's hand motioning her to enter. If the child had been able to read, she would have known that the nameplate on the door read Rinoa Heartilly Leonhart.

Rinoa's dark eyes fluttered open as she heard the sound of the door creaking and Squall walked through the door. She wanted so badly to jump up and hold her husband tightly in her arms, but she didn't have enough strength. All she could do was struggle to sit up and smile weakly at him.

This illness that she had was no ordinary one, it was eating her from the inside, she could feel it. No medicine, no type of treatment could stop it or even slow it down, the doctors had all given up hope on her, her days were numbered. She did not know when the illness would totally consume her; it had been killing her slowly for almost a year already.

She had a growing suspicion that this illness had not come to her by natural means but by some other way. There were times when she felt that this illness was alive, a being with a conscience, a parasite that was living inside her, draining her life away.

But it was just her imagination; no one was capable of doing such a thing…no one except a Sorceress. But there were no other Sorceresses other than herself and Ellone so she had convinced herself that what she had was but an unknown illness that there was no cure for. She would not spend her last days worrying about this, she had a husband and a daughter and she wanted to spend whatever time she had left with them.

Squall looked at his wife, taking note of her appearance; she looked far worse than the day before. Her once lush black hair hung in limp strands around her thin shoulders, like cheap black wool of the poorest quality. Her face was as white as the sheets that covered the bed, and her dull black eyes that used to hold so much joy and life seemed hollow and empty.

She was dying and there was nothing he could do but stand by and watch. He realized that for the first time in his life, he was helpless. The fact that the life of the person he loved more deeply than anything in the world was at stake made this realization all the most painful. What was the use of having the power of so many men and women at his command when he could not even save the one person who showed him what it was like to love and be loved.

But he forced all these thoughts to the back of his head and pasted a smile on his face. He would not let Rinoa see his pain; he wanted her to be happy…always. He widened the fake smile on his face as he said "Guess who I brought."

Rinoa's eyes widened and she gave a small gasp as Squall gently pulled out the little girl who was hiding behind him. "Adrienne…"she murmured softly as Squall pushed the child forward. He frowned slightly as Adrienne hid behind him, afraid of the person who lay on the bed.

"Adrienne" Squall said as he kneeled beside her and looked her in the eye "that's your mummy, don't be afraid, she won't hurt you." Squall said every word slowly unsure whether his 3-year old daughter would understand. Adrienne looked up at him with her blue almond-shaped eyes but shook her head and ran behind him again, grabbing tightly to the material of his uniform.

Squall stood up and smacked his palm against his forehead, a gesture Rinoa recognized as his way of showing that he gave up. Rinoa smiled sadly as she recalled a bittersweet memory of the way Adrienne would use to run into her arms with Squall standing at one side the perpetual frown on his face. She remembered telling him that Adrienne would be afraid of him if he kept frowning like that all the time. The irony of it all was that now, she was the stranger to her daughter and not the frowning Squall.

"It's not her fault that she does not remember me Squall, she hasn't seen me in a very long time." She struggled to sit up and smiled warmly at the child. "Adrienne, come…let me see how much you have grown" Rinoa held out her arms towards her daughter.

Adrienne hesitated then walked slowly to the strange woman in the same manner a baby deer might walk towards a sleeping lion. Rinoa reached out and gently stroked the little girl's jet-black hair. It had been a long time since she had last seen Adrienne. A sudden sharp pain in her heart caused her to withdraw her hand from Adrienne's hair and press it against her chest.

A lazy mocking voice in her head seemed to say, "your time is up, hold your daughter one more time Sorceress Rinoa and cherish it for it will be your last." The voice dissolved into a soft laugh that chilled Rinoa to the bone before fading away.

"Adriey…love let me hold you…one last time…" Rinoa called out, the last three words barely above a whisper, using a nickname that she used to call Adrienne by. There was still so much that she wanted to say, to do, but time was no longer on her side, the sorceress knew that much.

She held the child tightly as she whispered softly "I will always love you and your father Adrienne, never forget that…" She looked towards the window and saw that it was night, the dark sky scattered with stars that shone like white jewels. Rinoa felt herself drifting away as she passed her powers on to Adrienne.

Outside, a single shooting star streaked across the night sky.

Adrienne closed her eyes as Rinoa held her. She felt safe and warm in the black-haired woman's embrace. A strange sense of sleepiness engulfed her as she opened her sky blue eyes to see her mother again; not knowing that it would be her last. Instead of a pale sickly-looking woman, Adrienne saw a beautiful angel surrounded in a glorious light. She closed her eyes as sleep took her. She did not feel the thin arms around her grow limp, neither did she hear the sound of Squall calling out Rinoa's name, nor was she part of the panic that ensured as the doctors and nurses rushed into the room.

All she remembered of that day was an angel in blue surrounded by a halo of light.

What do you think??? Sucky??? I know, I can't write, heeheehee. GQ and xiao ying ying, thanks for reading this stupid fic and telling me that it wasn't THAT bad though it is because Rinoa is seriously OOCJ