This was written in response to Loren's challenge to write a fic about Ultemicia. So here's what I came up with...enjoy...
Her Time
"Here you go, Ma'am, I brought you your lunch." The young nurse carried a tray of rather dubious looking "food", lacking taste and texture as did most meals in the hospital.
"Thank you dear, but I'm not really hungry," the old woman in the hospital bed replied. She looked so tiny and wasted that Leah, the nurse, felt sorry for her...she was barely holding on to the last threads of life.
"You should eat," Leah insisted softly. She set the tray down in front of the woman and looked at her expectantly. The old woman poked at the dish of jello with a sad, wistful look on her face.
"Are you busy, right now?" the woman asked softly. Leah shook her head. "Then would you please stay for a while?"
Leah blinked and took a seat on a chair beside the bed. "Do you need something?"
"I would just like to talk to someone," the woman replied. "You see, it's been so long since I've had any visitors. My friends...my husband...even my children, they're all gone now."
"I'm sorry." Leah looked at the tired, wrinkled face...it was so hard to imagine that face ever being young. Had her thin, white hair once been dark and vibrant? Once upon a time, she might have been beautiful, but all that remained now was a sort of quiet dignity. Even for a woman living out her last days in a hospital bed, there was something about her...
"Do you even know who I am?" the woman wondered. "There was a time...but never mind. The time has passed. The world belongs to young people such as yourself, and soon I will go to join the friends who went before me. I look forward to it-yes, I can't wait to see them all again..."
Leah could almost feel the echoes of another time, and she shivered. But something clicked in her head. She knew this woman's name, but no-she couldn't be-not when a hundred years had passed...
"I'm sure you will see them," Leah said, gently, although she was shaking a bit. She reached out to take the old woman's withered hand.
"I know," the woman replied. "I can feel it. I can feel them calling to me now. But I still cannot go to them." She sighed. Leah looked at her in concern, and the old woman stared back at her, examining her face.
"I suppose it is fate that we meet now...and you have a good heart. I haven't met anyone like you in such a long time. I don't want to do this to you, but my time is coming, and I can see in your eyes that you can handle it..."
Leah felt a strange feeling wash over her, and the old woman's eyes closed, a peaceful smile on her face. Leah pulled away, putting a hand to her head. She felt dizzy, sick to her stomach. "What's going on?" The line on the monitor beside the old woman's bed went flat with a loud noise, and she covered her ears, shielding them from the too-loud sound. Everything seemed too loud...
"What happened?" Two doctors rushed into the room, and Leah cringed.
"There's nothing you can do," she said. "She's gone."
The younger of the two doctors just shook his head, but the senior looked shocked and angry.
"No! She can't be!"
Leah sat down with a soft moan. "Don't shout," she said. "It was her time to go. She was ready. She told me that."
"Do you even know who she was?" the man demanded. "That woman was a sorceress. To die, that means she must have passed on her powers. So now we've got a new sorceress to deal with!"
Leah could only think of the nameplate on the door...the nameplate that read
"Rinoa Leonhart"...