Disclaimer: FFVIII and its' characters belong to square, this fic belongs to me.
Everything in Nothing
i. run
She is running again, running away from him and looking back with fear in her eyes. Almond eyes that once looked at him with passion. Her lips curve and move, bewitching him as they always have, but he can't hear what she's trying to say. It's muffled against the bloodcurdling screams that make the hair on the back of his neck stand up.
In a blink of an eye she's gone.
The dark hair he longed to feel between his fingers, gone. Her slender body that twisted and turned with the grace of a ballet dancer, gone. Her vanilla face and coral lips with a smile that held the key to his heart, gone.
The nightmare is the same.
He's standing alone in the dark under her control. It's cold, and there's a hint of mildew in the bitter air that forces him to hold his breath. She grows more powerful, more deceitful, more ruthless and unsatisfied.
Ultimecia.
She wants to destroy everything that he has ever had, everything that he has ever loved. She wants to murder her right in front of his eyes.
And every night he awakes to the realization that she almost did.
-xx-
She hadn't seen him since the war, but Rinoa Heartilly felt him everywhere. He was in her dreams, her thoughts and in a padded cell in Garden. Seifer Almasy was a shell of himself; he wasn't the same after the war. He was in a catatonic state the first three weeks after the compulsion. When he actually slept he had nightmares about the war. The cries that would come out of his mouth every night were the same terrifying calls repeating her name.
Rinoa.
Dr. Kadowaki thought it would be good for Rinoa to help Seifer with the PTSD. He had made substantial progress around week six, and she wanted to expedite the improvement in any way possible. Squall protested, but she didn't care. Rinoa agreed to help, it could have been any one of them in this state.
He lost weight. That was the first thing Rinoa noticed when she entered the grey padded room. He was sitting at the edge of his bed. His moss colored eyes, once bright and confident, were now broken and weak. Seifer wouldn't look at her as he fiddled with his fingers trying to conceal his shaking hands.
"How are you?" she asked as she sat beside him still uneasy with how dreadful he looked.
Silence.
"Dr. Kadowaki said if you keep the progress up you won't have to stay under surveillance much longer."
He nodded at her still not meeting her gaze. His hands were still trembling.
"Seifer..." she grasped his hands interlocking her fingers with his as they use to hoping it would relax his nerves.
"I'm sorry Rin," he said interrupting her. "I would never hurt you, I hope you know that I wasn't myself."
-xx-
She's running to the place where she planned on meeting Squall. The safe space where they promised to reunite. A place where her heart feels full, a place that only they know. With Squall she can overcome anything including the overwhelming power of being a sorceress. Squall will protect her because he is her knight. Their promise and bond cannot be broken. But she feels the evil around her.
This is a dream. This is a nightmare.
The humid air thickens further and she knows she's not alone. She feels his presence, so powerful and deep, like fire burning through her chest and lungs.
And it isn't Squall.
-xx-