Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VIII, or its characters.
Warning: Character death; insanity
Author's Note: The first part takes place shortly after Time Compression. The second takes place a year or two after Time Compression.
Don't Leave Me
Rinoa ran through a vast wasteland, looking for her knight.
'Please be okay, please be okay…Oh Squall, where are you?'
The green sky flickers overhead, and panic begins to fill her as time continues to pass. She saw him here; he was here, but where? It was a desert, he could be anywhere!
As she continued, she saw something in the distance. An odd hill in the middle of nowhere, it looked oddly like a person…
She turned pale. "Squall!"
She ran faster, until she reached his side and fell to her knees. Tears streamed down her face as she gazed upon her knight, white fur framing his face as he lay.
She gently shakes him. "Squall…Squall, we made it! Squall…Oh Hyne, please don't leave me…Please," she begged his silent form.
Her head fell onto his chest as she sobbed, and suddenly the wasteland was enveloped in a cloud of feathers. Flowers appeared where there had been only parched ground, and fluffy white clouds and a light blue sky replaced the slightly ominous green sky.
She brought her head up, and gazed around in awe as the changes were performed. In the distance stood a small building, falling into disrepair. Her eyes lit up.
"Squall, we're at the orphanage! Look! We're home; everything's going to be okay!"
She smiled at him through her tears, trying to ascertain that everything was all right. But she couldn't shake a horrible, heavy, bone crushing feeling that something was definitely wrong.
Irvine grins at the bouncy young girl standing before him with a video camera. Hamming it up, he starts to try to dance with former instructor Quistis, a strict woman who had the dubious pleasure of growing up with him. She just watches him in amusement, a soft smile dancing around her lips.
The sound of laughter echoes around the room as everyone enjoys the party, and the young girl with the camera flips it around to face her. She waves excitedly.
Behind her, Irvine puts his arm around Quistis. She pushes him off, and instead heads over to a stocky middle-aged man with glasses.
"Having a good time sir?"
Headmaster Cid smiles softly at her as a young woman with dark hair walks up to them.
Quistis smiles and nods to her. "Matron."
Matron stands next to Headmaster Cid, and it's quite obvious they're a couple. Before Headmaster Cid can answer, the cowboy Irvine strolls over and takes off his cowboy hat, bowing to him and his wife.
Irvine then turns to the camera and steals it from its owner, Selphie. She appears in front of the camera, smiling happily with his black hat perched on top of her head. She and Quistis grin at the camera, which slowly pans away from the two girls to focus in on a group of other girls.
Selphie turns red with anger, and stalks away to Quistis to bother a fourth member of their gang, a tattoed young martial artist by the name of Zell.
Zell is in a corner at a small table with his girlfriend, a brunette girl in pigtails. Quistis and Selphie laugh at him as he pigs out on hotdogs, apparently trying to eat five at the same time.
Scarfing them down, he predictably begins to choke. Who wouldn't? The three girls rush towards him, patting him on the back to try and dislodge the hotdog from his throat.
"Zell, are you okay?" asks a worried Selphie after Zell has recovered.
"I had it handled!" he complains, throwing a precious hotdog in their general direction, which is somewhere behind the camera. It barely misses the camera in its flight.
Irvine pans the camera around the room once more, zooming in on a smiling Rinoa.
"Well, I'll be. Lookit that."
Quistis and Selphie look in the same direction, and can't help but stare in shock.
The battery begins to die, and Irvine hits it in a panic.
"Don't die on me now…"
Rinoa turns, and smiles brightly, pointing her finger up at the sky. And then, the screen goes blank.
Quistis looks at Selphie worriedly. "Do you think…?"
Selphie pales. "Oh no."
The trio rushes over in time to see Rinoa embracing…air.
"Rin…what are you doing?"
She smiles at Irvine. "Celebrating with Squall," she replies, turning to the smiling young man in leather beside her and gesturing towards him.
Irvine, Quistis, and Selphie exchange looks. Where Rinoa had gestured, there was nothing.
Rinoa turns back to her knight, smiling into his eyes, while Irvine quietly summons for Cid.
In her eyes, he had never left.
Halfway across the world, a lone grave sits in the midst of a meadow near a pile of rocks that had once been a beautiful orphanage. Near the top of its face is a familiar lion symbol, above the words.
Squall Leonhart
Aged 18 years
Commander of Balamb
Garden
Beloved Knight of
Sorceress Rinoa
He will never be
just a memory
End