Hello there! For those who have clicked this story, just give it a try, yeah? I know there are many over powered OC stories out there, this is one of those stories as well, but let's try it first before turning away, yes? The plot has been in my system for quite a while and I just need to get it out. This is one of those reincarnation stories but I promise you this won't be a crack fic and the plot won't be shallow either. So, at least give it a try if you don't have anything else to read!

Disclaimer: RWBY is not mine, only my OCs are.

Chapter 1: Waking Up | Dreaming or Reality

"Oh dust, no… Aria! NO!"

A pained scream forced her bright red eyes to shot opened with a start. The first thing she had noticed was neither the crushing weight nor the helpless look from above her. It was these beautiful eyes the color of honey with specks of gold that she had committed to her memory as the light inside started to dim.

It happened again, it had happened again.

Staring back into those tearful eyes that she had become accustomed to in the past three days, she bit back a sob from escaping the confine of her throat. Even with dirt and filth marring her face, nothing could hide her gentle features as the corner of her mouth slowly curved into a relieved smile.

She wanted to cry…

Oh, she wanted to cry so much, but she can't.

She couldn't.

"I'm so glad you're safe, my little rose…"

That shaky smile had burnt itself onto the back of her eyelids as many more screams drowned out the quiet whisper from those bloodied lips. The one she had grown to care in the past three days coerced her trembling arms into pushing herself up. However, to no avail, a crushing weight fell down upon her, burying her weak form under the corpse of the one she loved so much despite the short time they had spent together as a bodyguard and her ward.

"Aaea…"

She wished to call her name out properly just like how this person had wanted her to do, but she could not even cry out. She wanted to return all those smothering embraces she had ignored with one of her own, but she was unable to even move. She begged and prayed, to whatever entity that was out there and watching, just even a minute or even a second, she wanted to cry for her so bad her heart ached.

Why did this have to happen?

Why her? Why them?

Why…?

"Kid! Get up, we need to get out of here!"

She could finally breathe once again when the weight of the dead body was off her. However, her moment of freedom was short lived as she was ripped off the ground by the owner of this firm grip on her right wrist. For a moment there, she was unable to stop herself from crying out the name that had been introduced to her tongue. Kicking and screaming, she pulled against the strength of the firm hand she had been accustomed to no different from the one on the floor back there.

Then, the next moment she blinked, instead of the corpse of one Ariana Esther, she was greeted with a pained look from a young woman with eyes the same color as her own. Looking around with panic gripping her heart tightly, she realized that they were nowhere near the clearing they had been in a mere second ago.

She was brought out of her own thought as she flinched against the warm embrace, not that different from the one before but not altogether the same. It was gentle, but not as caring as it was firm. Pulling away from the hug, her trembling hand came up and wiped the blood off her big sister's face.

"Wiwidd… hwurt?"

"'Tis but a scratch," she gritted out. "Heh, always want to say that."

"Wiwidd…"

Her whimper was stopped as she came face to face with the owner of the name that she couldn't address properly. She found it fascinating, how Lilith's eyes would turn golden whenever she used her Semblance to travel from place to place in her ghastly form. In fact, she could still see a wisp of smoke blurring her worried features as they had just stepped out of intangible state a mere second ago.

"They did this to you… Those monsters, they'd better be burning in hell or else I will roast them all myself, dust damn it!"

She was pulled closer to Lilith as those strong eyes roamed across her bloodied and battered body, inspecting her shaking frame for any bruises and cuts she may have received along the way. She was positive that it was neither illusion nor tricks of light when she saw Lilith's red eyes turned demonic, especially at the sight of the gaping hole in her punctured tongue.

"As much as I want to kill them all with my bare hands, I doubt we are in any position to double back with that blasted sniper on our tails… shit!" That curse word came out almost like a pained grunt as gold flickered throughout her vision before something collapsed. Her red eyes were immediately drawn to Lilith's bleeding right hand, the same hand that had deflected a bullet shot from an unknown source…

No, not unknown…

She knew who had shot at them.

She knew who had orchestrated the stampede that destroyed the lab she was in, the one who had issued kill on sight order on her family, and the one who had subjected her to that inhumane experiment.

"ARTHUR WATTS!"

Lilith's thunderous roar made her flinch in surprise, both at the volume and the emotion hidden beneath the pain. It was then that another gunshot had nearly deafened her ears, the same gunshot that echoed from within the woods as Lilith's head jerked to one side. The bullet had gone straight through the blonde's temple without any interruption, burrowing itself into the ground with sizzling smoke and leaving a trail of blood down the side of her face.

It had just nicked a millimeter of the flesh beneath her skin before continuing onward as her body became intangible. It was such an unfair Semblance to anyone else, but it was one last hope for her who couldn't do anything as Lilith struggled to even breathe. It was one last straw she was willing to cling onto as she begged and prayed that the last of her little family survived this ordeal.

And right now, she was alive, she was still alive…

"Wiwidd… Wiwidd…"

Lilith Orabelle opened her eyes and chuckled at what was supposed to be her own name, and her eyes softened greatly as she realized what was before her. Lips trembling weakly, eyes clenching shut, she then gave her a forced smile as she mouthed something in silence. It was hard to read with all the blood, but…

'I'm sorry,' was not something she had been prepared for.

The mild nausea she had been associating with how Lilith phased in and out of corporeal state attacked her once again, and this time it was so strong that she had to close her eyes instinctively. The next instance she opened her eyes however, was the instance that she had to burn yet another scene straight from nightmare into her memory. She lost all her strength, any will to fight, as those eyes became dull and lifeless as another deafening roar echoed through the woods.

All it took for her to realize something different was two seconds flat. The sound of gunshot was not as loud nor was it as far, in fact, it seemed to even be in the vicinity. It was then that another bullet was fired, this time it phased through where her head was supposed to be and hit the corpse before her in the gut.

She felt that nauseous feeling again.

It was Lilith's power…

How?

"What a magnificent Semblance each of them had, what a waste. Truly, it was such a waste to kill them all… Ariana Esther and her ability to shape and reinforce silver at will, with that kind of intricate control, she could go far. Now, the ability to manipulate the tangibility of the thing she had touched? Miss Orabelle right here had a bright future ahead of her. Had the two of them not defended you, they will surely become someone great. But alas, what a waste…"

An unfamiliar voice forced her to whirl back with a loud crack from her thin neck. What greeted her as she adjusted her eyes to the sun shining down on them was a sight of a man, a certain man with a ridiculous mustache.

She knew this person.

Not from this life, but she knew him nevertheless.

Arthur Watts.

The transition from her blood boiling and turning cold in mere second was not the most pleasant, but then everything was scalding hot as she felt the blood of her family burned on her healing skin. The blood of Oliver Greene, Yuri Farran, Squall Marlowe, Violet Hunt, Ariana Esther, and Lilith Orabelle. They all burned because of this man, all because of a pet project the Queen had tasked him with…

It was all because she had been born…

"Three teams of Huntsmen and Huntresses in training, the best of the best from the Academies across the continents, along with four other professional and accomplished Huntsmen… all wasted. A failure like you shouldn't have woken up at all, however, my Queen should still be happy with these results."

The man's green eyes bore down into her smoldering reds before they moved away, forcing her to follow. Then, it was as if time had come to a stand-still as he pulled out something she had become quite familiar with, considering they were the things she had had a chance of holding with her small hands.

They were a pair of heavily customized revolver used by the leader of the team that sheltered her. Squall Marlowe had this passive kind of Semblance that made him the best marksman of the team. Adding to the fact that he once had a good head on his shoulder before it was blown clean off, it was said that he could sniped a target from two klicks away even with how the gun was supposed to be inaccurate at longer range. Considering that the guns had enough firepower to be confused with anti-material rifle, it was not farfetched to be called hand cannon.

It was strong enough to blow up the top half of an Ursa, after all.

The one in the man's left hand was a silver revolver handgun with a black accent. It was customized by Squall Marlowe himself to dealt high impact damage with a low rate of fire and was fitted with a design that seemed to be more appropriate for a close ranged fight. With jagged blade lining under the barrel to catch any other bladed weapon and a small talon-like hook under the handle, it was named Violence. Fitting for a gun with a ridiculously high Grimm kill count, if what the young man had boasted himself held any hint of truth.

Then there was its evil twin, Slumber. This one had a more royal design comparing to its counterpart with black coloring and golden accent. The reason why it was called as such was because its concentrate firepower and controlled area of effect that was more appropriate for a longer ranged firefight. It could be said that this one was akin to a mini sniper rifle with how it worked. The name Slumber came from the fact that this gun was mainly used to deal with human enemy, considering that unlike Grimm, human only needed a single clean shot to kill.

To see these beauties in the hands of an enemy like this…

"Squall Marlowe, the Leader of Team SLVE (Silver) of Haven Academy. He was quite a find for Headmaster Lionheart of Haven, not only because of his leading skill and his flawless combat capability. It was his marksmanship and his Semblance that almost make me feel remorseful of killing him. His ability to calculate bullet paths in the middle of battle was one thing, his Semblance however… The ability to accelerate moving objects was one of a kind, Miss Rose."

Squall's Semblance didn't amount to much for her when he was dead, shot in the head by a sniper of higher caliber whose bullets also killed two of his other teammate right before her eyes. If it was Arthur Watts before her then the sniper must have been either Hazel Rainart or Cinder Fall herself, but considering that the man before her still looked quite young, younger than what she had remembered, it should be the former instead of the latter.

Wait, did he just…?

"Wose?"

"Rose, Briar Rose, since we had used the DNA sample of the Silver Eyed Warrior herself to create you, why don't we give you the same surname? As for the name, it was quite fitting considering that unlike other test subjects, you took your sweet time waking up in those preservation tanks. Sleeping Beauty, indeed."

So that was why Ariana kept calling her little rose…

"It was a pity you didn't have silver eyes; my Queen would have been ecstatic if you did. Keeping the bane of Grimm itself right beside the Queen of Grimm, I could imagine quite a long list of how you could be useful to us. But alas, your eyes are red. All I could blame is heredity, I assume."

She could only watch numbly as Arthur Watts checked the cylinder of Slumber for bullets before taking all of them out, replacing six with one and spinning it before clicking it back in place. And in the next moment, out of all the possibility of what could have happened, he threw the hand cannon he had just took bullets out down onto the ground before her. It was as if he was testing her…

With Violence hanging limply at his right, he stared down onto her.

"Out of all the test subjects of this project," he started as if monologued. "You are our best chance at completing this project with both physic and auric capabilities at the top. However, you showed no sign of manifesting your Semblance no matter what we had done to you. While the others did, they died because their bodies could not handle the artificial soul we have engineered to suit our needs. It was a waste that I must kill you, so I will give you a test. The possibility is one out of six, if you could kill me, you will live. On the other hand, if you couldn't…"

He left the fact hanging in the air with a shrug and waited for her to crawl over and pick the gun up. Her body was clearly underdeveloped, her tongue and throat having no ability to help her talk properly was an apparent fact of her liability. When she held Violence and Slumber back then, she was in Squall's lap and he was guiding her hands with gentle care. There was no way she would be able to hold the gun, less so aiming properly. Yet, she still tried it all the same.

She could change things with this, she told herself quietly in her mind. If she could kill this man right now then Salem will have one less pawn, it would be easier for the good guys like that. If she kept telling herself that, then she might have believed it one day when she lived to see the light of tomorrow.

It was heavy, the gun in her trembling hands, the weight of those who had died protecting her, the weight of those whose lives lost because of this experiment. The weight on her shoulder was making her hands shaking like a leaf, causing her aim to falter as she tried her damnedest to line the sight with his face.

She pulled the trigger.

Instead of a deafening noise she had become familiar with as she watched Squall fending off Grimm after Grimm, the only thing that came out from the contraption in her hands was a quiet click. One out of six, it was just one out of six and yet…!

She pulled the trigger again.

Then again, again, again, again, and again…

It was supposed to be one out of six, and yet why did…

BANG!

One moment she was kneeling on the ground with a familiar hand cannon in her weak grip, aiming to shoot and kill the man standing in front of her with a cold smirk. Then, in the next moment, she was already on the ground, missing the left half of her torso to the smoking barrel of Violence which was aimed at her.

"Aa…gh..aarg…kh," was all she could croak out at this point. It was then drowned under the man's hysteric laugh as he hunched over with his free hand covering his face. He was cackling with a series of high pitched laugh that would make even Tyrian Callows blush in shame, he was laughing at the confused little girl on the ground, drowning in her own blood as she struggled to breathe.

"The chance was one out of six, one out of six that you would find an empty shell that I have replaced the fire dust bullet that I've shot you with. Do you really think that once you've killed me, you would be able to survive from the sniper that have ended your little troupe of bodyguards? Ha! Hahahaha…!"

It didn't hurt. It was supposed to be so painful that she wanted to scream her lungs out, but she couldn't feel anything below her neck. It was a blessing in disguise that she was unable to feel any pain from having a huge chunk of her torso blown off by a miniature cannon. The fire dust didn't help, it didn't cauterize her wound at all considering that it was too big. She was bleeding out…

No, she was drowning in her own blood.

There he was, leaning in her face while spouting whatever the hell he wanted. The fact that she was not in her right mind to listen and everything in her head was ringing madly seemed to elude him as he kept going on and on about his evil plan.

It took the man a short while before he noticed that the girl's red eyes had already glazed over, and her ragged breathing had come to a stop. Everything around her gradually became muted and dull as her eyes finally lost all the light they once held. All the senses that she had taken for grant left her one by once, starting from her numbed touch, then the taste of iron in her mouth, the harrowing sounds all around her, the scent of dirt and blood, and then darkness…

Death didn't seem as scary the second time around.

The darkness, the nothingness, the silence…

It made her mind wander.

Blinking her eyes open, she was greeted with a familiar ceiling she had been staring for the past two weeks. Her half-lidded eyes wandered to the side, taking in the fact that it was already half past one, and simply surrendered against the combined effort of cold air and warm comforter. It was not even fully summer yet, and she had already felt fatigued enough to just stay in bed the whole day.

The nightmare – her past – didn't help much to motivate her into moving away from this comfort either. Snuggling closer to her hug pillow, she let her mind continue to wander as she thought back to what had entailed in the dream.

It was the usual.

Reliving everything from the moment she first met Ariana to the point where she drowned in her own blood, such was what her nightmare had entailed. It was the same, every dialogue between them, every smile and every hug, it was all the same as what happened seven years ago. She would wake up inside a preservation tank full of oxygenated chemical, she would look at that small palm pressing up against the glass, then she would stare into those honey colored irises and realize…

She would realize that this was but another dream.

Waking up from one dream into another, or so she had thought. It was an untimely heatstroke that had turned into something much worse that woke her up from that dream into this one of bloody evolution. With fifteen years of memories full of sorrow and a body not even a year old, trusting was not something she associated herself with, at least until she decided to open up to them…

Even when it was already too late.

She was weak since her birth a lifetime ago with a severe heart condition that had her strapped to hospital bed, draining her parents of their fortune. While it was true that their love for their only daughter was unconditional, she still felt like she didn't deserve even an ounce of their affection. More so when she had done nothing but troubling them since her birth, like a fruitless investment she had become.

But when she lived out her childhood in hospital, it was inevitable that she would start to wonder of the possibilities outside of those four white walls that was her world. How would her life become if she was healthy? Will she be able to enjoy delicious food? Will she be able to enjoy every little thing that come into her life?

She wondered…

Wanting to know about the life outside the hospital, she started to read the stories coming from the point of view of others. It started out with a simple book her mother had brought her one day after she had asked for something to while her time away. She had already forgot about its title, but she knew it by heart that she enjoyed it nonetheless. Perhaps it was that enjoyment that drove her to seek more stories in any kind and form possible, whether it was just a gossip around the hotel, a funny story from her doctor, a sappy drama from her nurse, or even a life experience from the elderlies who came in for checkup.

She loved… She was addicted to that feeling.

When there were no more stories for her from the people in her life, she started to find more enjoyment out of something else when no one had times to indulge her. Starting with literature, she went from fact to fiction, and continued onto something else like television drama and cartoon. It was the best time of her life, sitting around in the children ward, watching the show and playing with the kids.

Not long after that, she found something even more fascinating.

Anime became something that kept her afloat.

She loved how artists breathed life into their drawings, how voice actors and actresses gave those characters personality, and how they all interacted and created all kind of stories. From rather immature stuffs through teenage ones to the ones with heavy and thick plotline, she loved all of them.

It was something that painted this monotonous life of her more colorful. She was not at the point of carving human contact, but she still enjoyed these interaction between characters and between people all the same.

That, it seemed to be a part of her soul.

It was something that made her tick, something that seem to be the cause of her life in that hellish experiment carrying out by the man serving the Queen of Grimm. She had woken up as a designed child, a genetically modified lifeform with an artificial soul engineered to suit varying purposes, and was subjected to many inhumane experiment at the hands of mad scientists. It was a living hell for her instead of reincarnation, the reason why still escaped her to this date.

Had she not woken up as Briar Rose, this wouldn't have happened.

Had she not shown Ariana and her friends in Team SLVE of what she could do while hiding it from those wicked researchers, the outcome wouldn't have been like this. All those lives lost because of her selfish desire to become free, it still weighed down upon her shoulders like a wide range of mountains.

She hid her Semblance from the one who had created her, she hid the only thing they wanted the most from them.

Officially, the purpose of that research was to create a perfect soldier to fight against Grimm instead of risking lives. The experiment regarding genetically engineered lifeform was practically frowned upon. It was the reason why all of this was kept out of public eyes with the ones in the know being quite high in the hierarchy of each Kingdoms. The peace of mankind and the future of the next generation, those were the bullshits they were going with in the research facility situated in a tundra region near the edge of Atlas.

Well, at least on the paper.

With how they had gathered DNA samples from many of accomplished and well-known Huntsmen and Huntresses as well as their family, it was already fishy enough that some darker things could be carried out unnoticed. If messing with DNA sequences was already bad enough, soul engineering couldn't be any better.

The true purpose of the one in control of this facility, Arthur Watts, was to create another tool for the Queen of Grimm herself. What kind of tool, one would ask, and the answer would be the kind of tool that could take control of Human and Faunus without any discrimination. Like how a Geist could possess inanimate object, the end goal of that research was something much worse.

She could reanimate corpse.

Not only that, if the memories of vast sky when that little bird came back to life in her hands could mean anything, it meant that no one will be taking any secret with them to their graves any time soon. Had Watts known that the experiment was a success, a single drop of poison in that mug of coffee and Ozpin will be no more.

That guy might as well be immortal last she knew, but…

Eh, there's always a possibility.

Squall had called it Gravedigger, Lilith also came up with a classy Marionette, and then there was the sweet Ariana who preferred the term Puppeteer for her lovely little rose. At least, that was until Violet who was Team SLVE's resident Aura expert noticed something odd before trying and actually unlocked her Aura.

Her Aura…

What was that book Blake read again?

No! Not Ninjas of Love!

The Man with Two Souls…

She had already come to term with how her desire to enjoy the story behind every little thing in her life was given such twist and became something so dark. So, imagine when she felt another source of warmth within her core, she cried for the first time in this world of Remnant out of relief.

Said relief was short-lived, however.

Because at the break of the new day, all the Huntsmen and Huntresses tasked with the security of the research facility finally saw some action. Originally, their job was to guard a supply convoy, but they were held back due to the increasing Grimm activity in the area. It was on their last they before the military would arrive and take over when a certain Grimm practically erupted amidst the woods.

A Grimm Hydra, the same one as shown in the manga rendition she had read not too long ago in her last life, and it did not come alone. Thousands of Grimms destroyed two dust quarries and few dozens of frontier settlements on that day, and it was because one man deemed everything there was a waste of time. She had no idea of the number of casualties caused by the stampede, let alone bandit and Grimm problems that will come after.

She knew however…

That it was all Watts's fault.

"Was it bad dream again?"

Frowning at an extra weight on the mattress, she unwillingly opened her eyes and looked back over her shoulder. Blinking owlishly at the intruder to her room, she let her sleep induced brain process the scene a little bit before coming to a conclusion. Reaching out and tugging on his sleeve, she invited him into the bed with her like no sane woman would have done.

"Can I say no?" He laughed dryly.

"You can't," was all she allowed.

It didn't take long for her to ditch the hug pillow and snuggled into something much warmer. He smelled like a combination of wood and herbs, something that oddly calm her down after that bout of nightmare almost every time it happened. He was always there, like a knight in shining armor for the princess atop the tower.

"Where is Aria?"

"Out on a grocery run in the town with Lilith, it's already been quite a while thought. I'm sure they will be back soon… What's wrong?"

It was pitiful, talking to herself like this. She mumbled quietly to herself before looking back up to the one she had been using as a hug pillow, or rather him using her as one considering that she was now in his embrace. In fright, she almost saw a part of his head missing as her red eyes met his silvery blues. It made her heart sink as she thought back to what had happened in her dream – her nightmare.

"Your body is hard, it's uncomfortable."

"Ehh? But you dragged me in here?"

She chuckled weakly at his whining before burying her face down into the crook of his neck, breathing in that herbaceous fragrance like a starving animal. As her left hand sneaked up his torso, she remembered how one Ursa Major had ripped him to shreds. Tracing her sweaty palm against his slightly cold cheek, she remembered how his smile was encased in eternity as the light in his eyes faded. Then she grinned weakly as she combed through his messy hair lazily, remembering how a single bullet had ended it all. The dream she saw, it was almost too real.

"You died," she started with a shaky mumble. "You put yourself between me and a huge Ursa, and it tore through you like your Aura was nothing but a wet tissue. You grinned at me, telling me how glad you were that I was safe and sound. Then, then it happened. A single bullet through your head and your smile was cold, plastered there on your bloodied face forever. It was scary…"

Her fingers stopped as she finally found it.

"You do know that it's not a dream, yes?"

A wry smile escaped her trembling lips as she traced her fingertips along the scar hidden amidst his dark messy hair. The evidence was there, mixing imagination and memory into a dreadful concoction called nightmare. She could only whimper pitifully into his neck as he enclosed her small frame into a tight embrace, as if to protect her from anything harmful that was to come.

"You died because of me," she muttered.

"I died for you," he corrected. "I died so that you could live on for all of us. We live on in your dream, see? I'm here with you, Briar. Aria and Lilith are out right now but they will be back soon. As for Violet, hmm, we can only hope that she doesn't mess up with Atlas. Oliver will be back from Mistral with Yuri in a week as well, I just hope they bring something for us as a souvenir."

"But you all are just a part of my Semblance, I brought you all back from dead. I'm practically talking to myself right now…" There was a twitch in his hand as he stopped rubbing circles across her back. She knew that it was true, she was talking to a ghost of her family, an illusion her mind had conjured.

It was all just a dream.

"We live on within you, no? I am not the Squall Marlowe you once knew, but I am still Squall Marlowe nonetheless. I am a ghost, but I am also your family, yes."

She flinched slightly as he abruptly stood up with her still in his embrace. Her legs automatically wrapped themselves around his waist as he walked out of her room and down stair to the first floor, all the while humming softly a tune he had taught her back then when he was still her Squall.

He was still her big brother, but…

She tightened her hold on him as she snuggled close, buried her face into the crook of his neck again like she would a soft pillow. Letting the warmth of his body enveloped her small frame like a thick comforter in winter, she let out a content sigh as she pondered the meaning of her existence.

A sick girl with a short life who had been freed of her shackle only to be pulled into another torture. However, instead of hellfire, brimstone, and all that jazz, she had woken up into a world full of conflict and constant war, into this World of Remnant.

She had woken up with a power like no any others.

It was more of a curse, in her opinion.

Semblance was said to be the manifestation of one's innate and personal power as an ability unique to each individual. It was also noted as representing an aspect of their character as well. She couldn't look at herself in the mirror for a while, thinking that Gravedigger was all she could have.

At least until her own Semblance manifested two years ago…

She called it Lucid Dream.

In an enclosed space, she could affect anything with her thought.

While Gravedigger was a part of her that she had learned to appreciate, it was still a morbid and unnatural Semblance that let her breathe life back into the husks of her family. She had to rip her own soul to pieces and used those little parts to hold their escaping Essence back inside the container.

But looking at Squall right now, she didn't see herself in his eyes.

Her real Semblance, Lucid Dream, it had changed how Gravedigger worked. When she said she could affect anything with her thought, she really meant anything. Whether it was the law of physics or the law of nature, she could bend reality to her will once she was in an enclosed space. They did die when she opened the door, but she had taken care of it with Gravedigger's ability to mess with soul and body.

That was how she dreamt them all back to life, using a piece of her own soul and the Essence of theirs.

He was not Squall the leader of Team SLVE, but he was still her big brother nonetheless. While she did not know him prior to their meeting in that facility, she used whatever memories Gravedigger had given her to breathe life back into him.

It was still her inside, but it was also him.

That was why he said that they had lived on within her.

It took her some time to finally see them as who they were and not her posting as the dead. Her big brothers and big sisters were there with her when she needed them the most, they had been with her all along even when she thought she had lost them. They were there alongside her with every step she had taken.

Now they were not the dolls she had made them out to be…

No, not anymore.

Looking aside at the man whose warmth she reveled in, she didn't see herself in him. It was just like he had said before, he was not the Squall Marlowe she once knew, not the older brother she never knew she wanted. He was still Squall Marlowe though, just because he had died once didn't mean that his will couldn't live on. Her soul and his essence had merged together into something else, into something – someone – that she wanted to see.

He was not the leader of Team SLVE, not anymore.

He was her brother, Squall Marlowe.

"You're staring at me," he muttered with a smile. "Did I do something wrong? Or perhaps, do you want to get down? I know how much you want to just stay happy in your bed forever, but you have a reason to be here, no?"

His question at the end cleared her mind instantly as she perked up and snapped back so hard that she heard a pop from her neck in tandem with a series of knocks on the door. She didn't even have enough time to look back at Squall as he had already reached for the doorknob. All she could do was to wait with a bated breath as her older brother pushed the door open, revealing the form of their visitors.

What came to her mind when she finally took in the appearance of their guest was not the blonde kid hiding herself inside the white cloak, and surely not the toddler in the woman's arms. The sweet scent from the basket hanging from the woman's arm did make her become conscious of her empty stomach, but that was it.

It was those silver eyes…

"Hello, neighbors! Welcome to Patch!"

It was those bright and beautiful silver eyes…

Author's Note

And there you have it! First chapter of what has been in my mind for quite a while. If you read up until this point then it would be great if you could leave a review or follow/favorite this story of mine! Thank you!