Ashes

by Kount Xero

Two years after the events of "The Few Remaining Strands," an ordinary day in Ocean Garden turns into a struggle for survival after a missile attack cripples the structure. Stranded and helpless, there is nothing left for the survivors but to try and find their way as their home crumbles around them. (Part 4/11 of a series.)

1. Prologue (Whispers)

"Ashes"

Author's Note: "Ashes" is the fourth installment of a series, dubbed here as the "Preludes" to the Third Sorceress War. The reading order goes: Estranged, Cold Metal, The Few Remaining Strands and now, Ashes. (Information about this series of fics is also available on my profile.) The contents of this story is counted as the first act of war.

Prologue
(Whispers.)

Whispers in the dark.

"Selphie..?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you ever think about your parents?"

"My birth parents? No. Heh..."

"What?"

"Zell. He used to call them births."

"Births? Just births?"

"It was this big discussion one day, you weren't there. Irvine found Zell and me collecting those stones we thought were shells on the beach. He just came and struck up a discussion about our birth parents. Why they might have left us, why they might not have wanted us."

"And?"

"Zell, trying to come up with a clever curse but too polite to actually swear, just went, they're birth parents! That's all they are! They are births! They're births, that's what they are!"

"That's just like him."

"What can I say, he was a barrel of laughs then, too."

"The strangest thing... but that doesn't answer my question."

"Sometimes. Just sometimes. And that's just it. Just sometimes, it almost feels like I'm on that beach, waiting for Zell to show up so I don't have to cry about why my parents never wanted me."

"Selphie..."

"I miss him, Squall."

"Two years isn't enough to forget."

"It's enough to move on. Isn't that what we've done..? Moved on?"

"...doesn't mean we should have devoted our entire lives to his death."

"I feel guilty."

"About what?"

"I feel guilty that I enjoy things that he would, things that we used to enjoy together. I feel guilty for doing them without him."

"Knowing Zell, I think he would have hated the idea of you abandoning those things."

"I don't think we can know that."

"It was just an inference."

"It's just... it hurts. Two years gone, and it still hurts like it hurt the first day, the first week..."

"Let it."

"What?"

"Let it hurt. I'm here."

"Shouldn't you be here to spare me the pain?"

"No. I'm here to share it."

A kiss, in the dark, and soft words follow.