"Remember"

a Final Fantasy: Dissidia fan fic

all characters belong to Square-Enix et al

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A/N:

This fic contains spoilers for FF: Dissidia.

However, not everything in this fic comes right from

the game, and may contradict some of the storyline,

so it can be considered an AU fic.

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It felt more like a memory than a dream. That place, those people, the pain and the pleasure, he could still see and hear and feel it all. Most of all, he could still see her face, smiling at him. She had the most beautiful eyes, innocent and wide, hiding the power that lie just beneath them. Strong and fierce; when he first saw her transform he had been scared, for she had taken a wild form of something he had never known. Yet her eyes had remained the same and he was no longer afraid, instead drawn to her mystery and power, eager to fight by her side, trusted in her strengths even when she herself was in doubt. She was unlike anyone he had ever known.

They had all fought, together and alone, had become fast friends by the end even though it was all too brief. There was barely time at all for friendship, least of all for him, as he preferred a path of solace. Yet he still went to her, becoming close in such a short time that hours seemed like years and they know one another as well as childhood friends would. Then, when there were moments of rest, they had withdrawn from the others, a quiet spot in that foreign place and loved one another. He could feel her lips, soft, kissing gently but with urgency, desperation, not knowing how long those moments would last, but trying to make them go on forever.

At the end of it all, they had to leave. Each one of them had a different place they belonged. She had tears in her eyes but did not cry, only held onto him for as long as she could before the others noticed. He remembered saying that they should all meet again; somehow it had felt like they could, even though a voice whispered above them that they would receive the gift of forgetting, so they should not be sad at having to part. He kept his eyes on her as he vanished from that world, keeping her in sight as long as possible.

Squall awoke, sitting up wide eyed in the darkness of the bedroom. Next to him Rinoa stirred slightly, but did not awake. He looked at her and suddenly everything felt wrong and different and changed. This dream...that girl... He got out of bed and crept quietly from the room, grabbing his jacket on the way out. Pulling it on, he stepped outside into the cool night air and sat down in the grass. He was bothered and did not like it, did not like having a dream that upset him so much, that made him doubt his own reality. There was only this world and this grass and Rinoa was the only one he... He couldn't finish the thought because it felt wrong, like a lie or the betrayal of another. Of her.

It was then that fate or coincidence or perhaps just the cold night air that had him push his hands into his pockets, where he felt something like silk. He pulled it out and held it up in the moonlight, the soft glow illuminating the ribbon in his hands. Her ribbon. She had taken it from he hair and placed it in his jacket. 'To remember me by' she had said, and he remembered, not a dream but the truth, of Terra and the others and Cosmos and Chaos and... It was all too much at once. He pressed his face into the soft silk and could still smell her. He could remember yet understanding escaped him, how did all that happen when he hadn't seemed to have left his world at all?

He would find out, he vowed it. If Cosmos did exist then he would find out how to reach her and find out where Terra was, how to see her again. The Goddess owed him at least that, owed them that, and he knew he could get what was due. Things had changed forever, that much was certain, and he swore many things in the night, most of all that he would never forget.