Release
He's blamed himself this entire time for everything that's happened to her. She should never have become a sorceress, his mind screams, tormenting her for ever putting her in the party, keeping her well within Edea's line of sight during that fated battle. He remembers how she fell, stiff and rigid on the floor, and how much it scared him as he carried her immobile bodied all the way from FH to Esthar to the fucking moon. That's how far he'd go for her, if only to spare himself a little of the guilt.
When she finally wakes up, all she does is give him a quiet smile, telling him only that she's scared. And it kills him, hurts more than Griever's Shockwave Pulsar ever did. He knows that maybe, just maybe if she'd yelled at him, blamed him for putting her in that situation—wasn't he supposed to protect her? wasn't she his client?—screamed at him, chucked an Ultima at his head, maybe then he could stop killing himself over what happened to her if she'd just do it for him.
She knows it hurts him, too, and it's then, he realizes, looking back, that her shiny white wings have started to fade a dull gray. Because it's all killing her too; she's the one living and coexisting with the same people trained to kill her, after all. She's the one who has to live with a Hyne-related parasite living inside her, after all. She's the one rotting on the inside for lack of a real life, after all.
It doesn't take long for her wings to turn a stark, opaque black. Instead of the sweet smile he used to watch on her face as she slept, there's a leer that greets him as he tries to slip into their bed. "Get the fuck out," she hisses, her tongue trailing venom across each syllable, "I've a headache and a bloodlust and I don't need your sorry ass around here."
I didn't mean to say that! He can hear her voice, that of a year ago, when she was still naïve and new, in his head. He wonders if it's that knight-sorceress stuff that Cid tried to force onto him, or maybe it's just his guilt leading him into denial. But he stays there, lying in their bed and staring at her like a puppy that's just been kicked in the stomach, and finally she gets up, refusing to look him in the eye, to go let off some steam by unleashing overwhelming Flares on unsuspecting Grats.
He catches her one night watching a broadcast from a television station in Timber, and that's when he knows that she's not herself anymore. She watches the screen with a sneer. "Those fucking morons in Timber actually think they'll be able to rid themselves of Galbadian occupation?" she spits out each word, her eyes narrowed into lethal, psychotic slits. "They're nothing without me! And I'll show them, once I've taken over and they're all bowing to me!"
No! They need help! They need to be free, and so do I! It's the millionth time he's heard her voice calling out in his brain, and this time, something about her want to be free snaps inside him. He grabs the remote and shuts the television off, eyes unblinking as he meets her angry glare.
"What the fuck did you do that for—"
She never finishes the sentence, because in half a second he pins her up against a wall and in the next half second, he runs Lionheart into her chest cavity, the only sound being the slice of her flesh.
The face distorts into a sick smirk, bright and wild with magic, a blatant mockery of the smile he saw that night under that shooting star. "You think that'll be enough to save her, don't you?" the body-stealing magic sneers through her stolen vocal cords. "Well, she's already long gone, and it's your own damn fault!"
The body cackles and abruptly gives out, and it's all he can do to support her body weight—the difference being that now it's her's once again. She offers a weak smile despite the blood on her lips. "And Squall's gunblade will pierce my heart," she recalls, musing over that shared moment at the orphanage with her last few, ragged breaths. He nods through the tears that are falling all over her, hoping this release will give her back everything he's ever owed her.
"Thank you for letting me go." She smiles once more and that's it. There's a rush of her shiny white wings, and he holds his breath, thanking her for saving him from the darkness once again.