Eye of the Beholder
by: Angel Wings Rinoa

Okay, this is a pretty different fanfic compared to the other ones I have for Final Fantasy VIII, but I got to have some variety, ya know? This takes place a month after Sorceress Ultimecia's death and the first scene is in the far future where Ultimecia originated. And the main characters here are Rinoa Heartilly and Sorceress Adrienne (I love her name! Thanks to Dragon Knight again for giving her a name _^). This has, of course, some major spoilers for FF8 so I warned you. And I apologize for any misspellings and grammatical errors. This shifts from present time to flashbacks so whenever you see this, "-------" it means the story is going to another timeline. Man, do I always have to say this? Oh well......The disclaimers: Final Fantasy VIII and all its characters do not belong to me so don't sue me. I'm just in high school and constantly broke! However, Sorceress Adrienne is my original character so please ask me if you're going to use her in your fic, kay? Also, Mileena Dubois belongs to my good friend, Dragon Knight. I really don't like flames, but I do like some honesty so if you're going to say later on that you don't like this fanfic, please say it politely. Arigatozaimasu and happy reading!

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Chapter 1

A thick mist hang over a once monster infested castle. The young lady looked up to see the dark castle atop a high cliff; the quietness was so thick the rustles of the withered leaves could be heard from afar. Inside the castle was also deathly quiet. Her footsteps echoed a loud click while she walked to the throne room of the castle. The throne room was a complete mess. It appeared to have been decimated by a cruel battle that happened not long ago. The mistress of the castle was nowhere in sight; the only trails of her were black feathers lying on the floor. There was also a massive explosion that occurred in it as well. A large crater was seen in the middle of the room; what caused it was probably the one that killed the mistress. The young lady nonchalantly touched the device covering her right arm. She thought that no one could defeat her. She was Sorceress Ultimecia; the strongest sorceress ever in the face of this world. Yet it was obvious she was defeated. The young lady turned her head up to the ceiling; her golden eyes gazing at the punctured ceiling above her. The royal blood of the sorceresses must live on; it was her duty to avenge her death.
"Lady Adrienne! Lady Adrienne!" a former henchman of Ultimecia called to her.
"You will address me as Sorceress Adrienne, Fendor." She told the elder man coldly.
"Y-Yes, Sorceress Adrienne." He said unsteadily.
"What happened to the Queen?"
"A most terrible thing happened, milady. The Queen s-she's....."
"Speak, henchman."
"She's dead! A group of SeeDs from the far past had killed her in this throne room. I witnessed it me self, Your Highness. The Queen was very certain that she will win the fight, but it wasn't so. They even defeated Griever."
Adrienne picked up a black feather on the floor, "How could this be possible? She was the greatest of them all" with a single thought, the black feather burst into blue flames, "You! Tell me who have killed her."
"I don't know their names, milady. All I know is that they come from the past and are enrolled in Balamb Garden. I believe the Queen mentioned of a Sorceress Rinoa she took over in this past."
"Sorceress Rinoa....." she repeated, then smiled wickedly, "I know these SeeDs. Those 'meddling fools', what my mother called them.......Very well. I shall go to the past and destroy these SeeDs."
"But, your majesty, how can you go to the past? You must take over another sorceress's body."
"That is what my mother didn't know about. During my travels, I have found magic that can transport my body to the past."
Fendor looked in awe as Sorceress Adrienne's body changed into a beam of light. Around her the surroundings twisted and warped. Then suddenly, Adrienne disappeared without a trace.

~~~~~~~~

Rinoa smiled cheerfully at her new, handsome model. While she smiled, she scrunched her face into a thoughtful expression, and measured her new model with her thumb in front of her. Sitting on chairs on the other side of the room were Zell and Irvine. They where just there for the pure entertainment of seeing her "handsome model" in such a large amount of embarrassment. They were almost certain that his face was fuming red. Squall couldn't stand it any longer; his right leg was getting numb from his whole weight leaning on it, and his right arm as well from holding his gunblade up above him too long. He carefully moved his arm down an inch; he had to make sure that "the artist" didn't see the movement. To his disappointment, she did. "Ah! Squall, I saw that. I told you not to move a muscle." she scolded him.
Squall sighed irritably and said, "I'll be honest with you, Rinoa. This is the most pathetic pose I have to do for your painting. I've been standing here for more than an hour now."
She dabbed some more black paint onto her pallet and pouted to him, "Oh, come on. You have muscles of steel. Can you just keep posing for just some tinie-tiny few more minutes for me?"
Squall moved his arm back up an inch again to make Rinoa happy. She smiled widely and whispered, "Thank you." to him, "I want to make sure I give a memorable present to Ellone for her birthday. What better way to make her smile than a painting of her favourite, baby brother?"
Half an hour later, Rinoa proclaimed her painting was finally finished. Squall made a soft relieved sigh and climbed down from the so called platform (which was only just a box painted gray that Rinoa wanted to look like a rock). Rinoa proudly stroked the finishing touches to her painting and stared at it to look for mistakes. She twirled on her toe and took the painting to show it to her audience, Zell and Irvine, "Ta da! Done! It's Squall! Tell me what you think of it!" Zell and Irvine immediately ran to Rinoa to look at her masterpiece. Once they got there, they stopped on the spot and paused. They raised their eyebrows looking very befuddled and frozen like statues....Weird........ they both thought at once.
"...So..." she said to the two, "How is it?"
Zell tried desperately not to let it out. Irvine was already rolling on the floor laughing loud and hard. So hard tears came out of his eyes and he couldn't get up or stop. Zell finally collapsed and tumbled on the ground with him also laughing insanely. They stopped abruptly when they saw Rinoa looking very angry at them.
Irvine held back the laughter, "Oh sorry, Rinoa...It's just...the painting...it's.... Hahahaha!!!"
"Yeah, you gotta admit. It looks funny!" Zell admitted to her.
She frowned hard, "Well excuse me! I haven't painted anything in a long while, and I admit, I'm not that very good at it, okay?"
"What's with all of the commotion?" Quisits said. She and Selphie entered the room. Selphie looked down at Irvine on the floor who was still laughing extremely hard.
"What's so funny?" she asked him.
"Go see for yourself." he said while chuckling and snorting.
Quistis and Selphie turned their heads to the painting Rinoa was still holding in her hands. Quistis inspected the painting looking puzzled; she titled her head and tried to figure out what "object" Rinoa painted. Selphie realized who it's supposed to be, and also laughed loudly. She held her stomach and tried her best to not let out all of the laughter and at least keep it to giggles, but she couldn't hold it.
"Is.... 'it'....abstract...? Oh, I know what it is. It's a black, fat pig, right?" Quistis asked her. Her question made Zell, Irvine and Selphie laugh even harder.
"It's not an 'it' and it's not a pig either. It's Squall I painted holding his gunblade. And it's supposed to be a realistic painting of him too."
"It is?...Oh my." Quistis exclaimed softly. She smiled and said, "I see." at first, then soon she was trying her very best to hold back her laughter.
"Is it really that awful!?" she asked them still pouting.
"It's not awful, it's....funny!" Zell replied laughing in between.
"Oh, you bet! All of the dead painters of the world would roll on their grave if they ever see your painting!" Selphie commented.
Squall gave all of them his usual frown, then walked to the painting to see what was so funny for himself. Rinoa cheered up a little to see him, "Oh, Squall! You'll prove to them it isn't that bad. See? Does it look like you?"
No response. Not even a single movement. He focused on the painting and frowned even harder than usual. He could make out his body all right,....well, he thinks it was his body...Then there was the gunblade...or supposedly the gunblade. He wasn't even sure where the rock was or where his feet started. After a few more minutes of stillness, he finally began to move to open his mouth...then stopped. He turned around and walked quickly (almost too quickly) to the window. Rinoa raised an eyebrow and pouted...What the...? Quistis stopped laughing for a moment because she caught a glimpse of Squall smiling a little in the window glass's reflection.
"Squall, are you laughing?" she asked him.
Rinoa was still pouting but in a playful way, "You also think it's funny, don't you?" She ran over to him to look at his face, but he quickly turned around.
"...Needs improvement." he said as simple and as dull as he could.
"Ah! Quistis's right! You are laughing at it! Well go ahead, laugh at it! Let it all out. Show me just how ridiculous it looks like!" she encouraged him. Still, Squall was avoiding Rinoa's face. Whenever she stepped forward to look closer at his face, he stepped back and walked away. Finally, Rinoa decided to inspect her painting more closely. Rinoa's eyes widened; she looked at Squall, then to her painting, then back to Squall. "...I...guess...it doesn't even look like a human...Hmph!.." Rinoa cupped her mouth and giggled hysterically, then after another second, she bent down and laughed out-right. "It's awful! It's gruesome...It's so funny!" she admitted while snickering.
It took a long while until finally everyone ceased laughing. Headmaster Cid barged into the room first, but came out laughing with tears afterwards. They stopped laughing when Rinoa decided to wrap her gift to Ellone. Of course, it was a terrible painting, but it was so hilarious she was sure Ellone will really like it. But as usual, Rinoa's gift wrapping techniques were also something to laugh about. Squall rolled his eyes, and decided to help her get it right.

~~~~~~~~

Pigeons were heard cooing from atop a tree as Ellone happily hummed a tune while she sorted out the children's laundry. She was very pleased that Edea asked her to be the assistant matron of her orphanage. Edea decided to rebuilt her stone orphanage to make room for more children. With the help of Edea's White SeeDs and the whole Balamb Garden crew, the house was rebuilt in a few weeks along with new rooms and places for the children to play in. Once in a while women from Balamb Garden came to baby-sat the children with them; they even got the men to help as well. Today was a special day for Ellone; it was her twentieth birthday. She was finally proclaimed as an adult and not a teen. What she didn't know was that Edea had planned a surprise party for her later that afternoon; all of her old friends and her Uncle Laguna will surprise her with presents and best wishes. Her sorting was interrupted by two little children hopping on the bed playing tag.
"Jeremy, Jason. Get down from there. You're going to break your arms." she said as she watched them bounce wildly on the bed.
"Aaaw! But, Sis, it's more fun this way." Jeremy whined.
"Come 'n' get me, Germs!" Jason taunted him.
"Hey! Don't call me that, Jase!" he yelled back to him.
He grinned slyly, "Oh? So what do you want to be called as? Koodies?"
"Hey! That ain't funny!" both of them flopped on the bed, chuckling.
"You wild, wild kids." Ellone said surrendering to the children's cute innocence, "How am I suppose to deal with you kids?"
"Gonna hafta, Sis! We're gonna get even wilder and tougher once we become SeeDs." said Jeremy.
"Yeah! SeeDs! We're gonna be top-notch, adventurous SeeDs!" Jason cheered.
"Now, now. Squall, Uncle Laguna and their friends are trained professionals. You're going to have to do your best to become real SeeDs."
"Yes, yes! We will!" Jeremy replied.
Jason sat up and tugged on Ellone's arm, "Sis, tell us about SeeDs again and their fight with Ullicia."
"That's Ultimecia, Jase."
"Whatever."
Ellone giggled to hear Squall's favourite word, "You know, Jason, Squall says that word all the time."
"Really!? Cool!" he tilted his head up proudly.
"Yeah, yeah." Jeremy said unenthusiastically.
"So, what happened when Squall's friends couldn't find him?"
"Oh, They were all worried. Selphie, Quistis, Zell and Irvine tried their best as well to find him, but of course, he was in another dimension. But, Rinoa found him and revived him. We're still not sure how she did it."
"Yeah, Squall's an awesome survivor!" Jason commented.
"Oh puleeze!!" said Jeremy, "Tell us about Seifer and his weapon. The Hyperion!! Yeah, that rocks!!"
"Seifer? Yeah, he's cool! I wanna know how to fight just like Zell!"
"Hey, lets play 'Balamb versus Galbadia'! I'll be Irvine this time!"
"Okie, I'll be Squall!" Jason said while he took a cardboard gunblade underneath his bed. "You can't be Squall, dummy! You're a skinny, little kid!"
"All right, I'm Laguna Loire."
"Uh-uh. Uncle Laguna's waayy cooler than you, you dork."
"Hey! Germs the Jerk!" Jason followed Jeremy to the back yard, "See ya, Sis!"
"See you, kids! Don't forget that dessert's at 3 o'clock."
"Yup!" both of them replied.
Ellone shook her head and smiled at the two retreating children. The children in the orphanage reminded her so much of her own friends when they were at their age.

~~~~~~~

Sorceress Adrienne slowly reappeared in a vast field of grass and weeds. In this time, Ultimecia's castle was not built yet, and sorceresses were barely known; where she stood was where the castle will be built eons and eons later. Her feet magically lifted above the ground as she scrutinized her surroundings. The small animals and monsters ran as she hovered past; it was as if they knew the power and evil that lay inside her soul. Humans and towns can't be far. I could hear them. Adrienne thought. She crossed her arms diagonally in front of her chest, and instantly she teleported to the nearby, tiny village. The village was very small; she guessed the population was a little less than half a thousand. It wasn't technologically advanced as well; farmers were still using hand operated tools, and there were still old rusted cars on a road made out of sand. She hid behind an old building made of brick to make sure no one saw her. In the far corner of the road was a sign that said the village's name. It read: "Truthheim, Population: 674" How ironic, she thought, They named their village after the Land of Strength. (Truthheim is from Norse Mythology. A similar place as Mt. Olympus in Greek Mythology) Adrienne quickly turned around for an attack, but found an old man behind her. It seemed that this was some sort of trick; Having an old defenseless man come up to her. His smile tilted to one side as he stepped towards her. The bright red nails on her left arm quickly extended; she was about to stab the old man with her nails (or claws), but thought otherwise since there were too many people to witness it.
"Ah say, youn' 'un. Wat're yoo starin' at?" he asked her with a strange, hard accent.
She sneered at him, "It is none of your business, old man."
"My, Wat fascinatin' clothes ya 'ave. Are yoo a singer of some sort? An actress?" he asked her happily.
Adrienne didn't answer. It was only an old man searching for someone to talk to.
"Ah know ya talk, dearie. And ah do say ya have a pretty voice. Princess-like almost." he nodded and laughed, "Yoo must excuse this old chap. Yoo jus' looked so interestin' out here compared to us uld fulks."
What does this old freak want from me? Is he some kind of trick? she frowned angrily. She turned away from him to walk away.
"Ah see yoo must be leavin'. Been nice talkin' to yoo, youn' 'un. Do yoo have a name ah may call yoo as?" he asked her politely.
She might as well humour the poor man, she thought, "...Adrienne."
He nodded again, looking very pleased, "Beautiful name. I'll see yoo again some time, Miss Adrienne." he waved goodbye.
What strange, foolish creatures humans are... she thought as she watched him walk away. No matter. I must find The Knight. Before she departed from the village, she noticed a little girl crying on the ground. She clumsily tripped on a dent on the pavement. The woman coming towards the little girl must've been her mother. She hummed a soft tune and hushed the little girl. As quickly as she fell and cried, she got back to laughing and smiling. While watching the two, a thought of her with her mother passed by her mind:

-------

"Koncentrate, Adrienne. Find that power that all sorceresses have within them in you." Ultimecia instructed her young daughter. Adrienne focused on the object harder; suddenly, it began to move again. She used her mind to direct the bowl of water pour itself on another bowl, but failed miserably as the bowl broke in half and water spew to different places. Adrienne's eyes became wet, "It did not work, Your Majesty. I failed you again."
"Do not show any tears, Adrienne!" she commanded her harshly, "For krying is a show of weakness. Only stupid humans kry."
"Yes, my queen." she obeyed instantly.
"Look at you. You kan't even use your powers to lift a bowl. Hmph........It will kome to you eventually. Kome. It is time for sleep." she snapped her fingers for her servants to clean the mess the little child made, "When you do become a sorceress, Adrienne, you will become a powerful one. One which no world has ever seen! You will make the sorceress's name glorious."
"Yes, my queen." Adrienne felt the dark purple orb on her right forehand began to glow; the golden metal around her arm glowed in unison with it. She wanted to ask her mother so many things. She wanted to know why she never seen her slept, or why must she become so powerful. But she couldn't. Doing so would anger her powerful mother. She must make sure to never see her angry again...

-------

Adrienne's thoughts shifted back to the real world. She then realized that through all her time with Sorceress Ultimecia, she never called her "mother." Not even once. Utlimecia did the same for he as well. She either called her little princess or by her name. There was nothing strange about it of course. Since she was of royal family, she must address the queen as directed. She frowned strongly at the thoughts coming into her head. There is no time for such petty, unimportant matters. I must find him. she vanished again out of sight...or is it really that unimportant...?

She dematerialized again above a tall mountain. The Knight is here... She closed her eyes and focused her mind on The Knight's location; he was with two other people climbing the very tall mountain. She flew around the mountain; the three of them were standing in front of it. The two other companions with him were a gray haired, young woman and a well-built, tall man. Those two will be in my way. Adrienne extended her hand in front of her and on it, a ball of light formed. She threw it at The Knight's companions and they stopped; frozen in time.
"What the hell!? Fuujin! Raijin!" Seifer shook their shoulders but they gave no response. They had turned into stones by Adrienne's magic. He turned around quickly as soon as he realized that someone was looking at him from above. "Who the hell are you!? Are you the one that did this?"
Sorceress Adrienne smiled devilishly and bowed her head at Seifer, "Valiant, Sir Seifer. I am Sorceress Adrienne. I come from the far future, and I am Sorceress Ultimecia's daughter."
"Ultimecia's daughter!?" he was clearly shocked to find another sorceress in this realm.
"Yes, Knight. I come here to command you to your duties as The Queen's Knight. I come to this world in seek of vengeance for my mother. If you choose to side with me, your rewards will be unimaginable. You will rule this world with me. If you refuse, however, your friends," she pointd to Raijin and Fuujin, "will stay as statues forever."
"What makes you think I have to obey you?" he smiled wickedly, "What makes you think I won't betray you and take the world for myself."
Adrienne tilted her head up as if she was a noble queen and he was just a pauper, "Hah! You!? No, Seifer. You cannot do that. I have cast a spell on those two. If you obey me and I take off the spell, it will not be permanently gone. I can always cast it again at them and break them in to million pieces with my bare hands. I had learned a lot about you. Because she took over the Sorceress Edea, I was able to extract information out from her to learn about these foolish SeeDs and these stupid humans. You have no choice. Come with me and obey me, Knight."
Seifer grimaced and paused for a while.
"Stop stalling, Seifer! I have better things to do than look at you think."
".......Fine. Take off the spell."
Adrienne casually waved her hand and his posse returned to life. She landed beside Seifer and said, "Good, little boy. I know you'd be very understanding." her cynical comment made him even more angry. Both of them were about to vanish again, but Fuujin saw them disappearing.
"SEIFER!!" she yelled at him, but it was too late. They were gone before she could even stand up. "RAIJIN! RAIJIN!!" she slapped his face twice.
He clumsily stood up, "Ouch! That hurts, ya know?!.... What happened, Fuujin!? Where's Seifer!?"
Fuujin shook her head sadly, "...GONE."


To be continued.......