Author's Note: This story is dedicated, in it's entirety to my friends, who I could not live without. To everyone else, please enjoy this fic. I have been working on it for a very long time, so I hope you have as much fun reading it as I did writing it! Please leave a review!

IMPORTANT: This fanfic is a sequel to a previous story of mine, 'Open Your Eyes'. If you haven't read that fic, this one probably won't make that much sense to you. But, it's not essential, so feel free to read them as you like!

Pas Ilmund tu Livonde

Squall brought down his gunblade across the robotic soldier's head, and watched it fall to the floor with a triumphant look in his eyes. He stepped over the sparking remains of his opponent, then rushed to his goal, seeing the digital clock above him ticking ominously. He only had a few more seconds.

Squall glanced around, looking for what he was supposed to be doing here. Then a powerful force struck him in the back, knocking him over. He turned over on the ground, glancing up at the clock.

Twenty seconds.

He seized his gunblade from the ground next to him. He'd come this far; he wasn't going to fail now. The huge robotic nightmare standing over him didn't look friendly.

He brought his gunblade up this time, literally slicing the robot in half. Squall then stuck his gunblade into the floor and used it to pull himself up.

Twelve seconds.

He glanced around the room again, then saw a giant red button in the wall opposite and rushed over. He put his hand on it and pushed. But it didn't move. It was stuck.

Seven seconds.

He put both hands on the button and tried again. No luck.

Four seconds.

He pushed his body weight against it. Nothing.

Two seconds.

He had to keep pushing...

One...

He glanced up again at the clock as the button finally went in. He breathed a sigh relief as the clock ticked to zero.

As the door opened, he stood and greeted his friends with a hearty wave.

"VIRTUAL TRAINING SYSTEM COMPLETE."

"Well done, Squall! Another perfect lap!" Quistis clapped as her friend emerged from the door. "So... who's next?"

"Me! Me!" Selphie said, jumping up and down with excitement.

"I'm gonna call it a night, guys." Squall said, making his way to the door.

"Good night, Squall!" Quistis said, as she, Selphie, Irvine and Zell waved to him.

Squall gave them a small smile, then left.

Selphie watched him go with mournful eyes. "Gee... he's really taking this hard, isn't he?"

"Can you blame him?" Zell shrugged, shaking his head.

"Well I would've thought that the Garden's new virtual training system would have at least made him feel a little bit better..." Irvine said, glancing at the huge contraption that was now restarting itself.

Quistis tutted at Irvine's remark. "No, I didn't expect it to. You have to understand, Irvine; she was the love of his life."

Selphie nodded, her eyes now filled with tears. "Yeah... and don't forget: he has Lianne to think about now."

Squall sighed as he trudged back to his dormitory. Even though he was still grieving the loss of Rinoa, he now had to look after his daughter. Sometimes he wished he didn't have all that responsibility, just like the days he was shoved into a position of leadership. Those days seemed so many years ago. Sixteen years to be exact.

With sixteen years between those times and now, a lot of things had been forgotten. But one thing was rattling around Squall's head that night, something he hadn't heard for fourteen years. Pas Ilmund tu livonde.

He could hear it echoing around his eardrums and reverberating around his brain. He had no idea why. Old sorceress language wasn't something he thought of often. Besides, since Rinoa passed away, Squall had distanced himself from magic.

As Squall banged his dormitory door shut behind him, he felt like he wanted to kick something. He threw dirty looks all around his room, then threw himself on to his bed. He lay there and stared at the ceiling.

Rinoa's death on that mission might have been seven years ago now, but lately, Squall had been thinking about it more than ever. He kept seeing that horrible day playing out in front of him every time he closed his eyes. He could see Rinoa's face in the raindrops that fell from the sky, and in the tears that fell from his eyes almost every day. Some days, it was so bad for him, he couldn't even look his own daughter in the face. Those large brown eyes of hers were so much like her mother's. She had the same gentle smile, the same quirky mannerisms, and the same strong-willed nature. Squall saw Lianne as an exact mirror image of his lost love. So much so, that Squall distanced himself from his own child, just as he did to his friends sixteen years ago. But Squall knew Lianne didn't understand. As far as he knew, she thought he was a terrible father. Squall gritted his teeth in annoyance. It just wasn't fair, the way things were now. He did love Lianne, he just wished she knew. And he wished she could understand how hard things were for him. He had tried to explain things to her, but he had never been good at these things.

Lianne didn't remember her mother – she had only been seven years old at the time of her mother's death, meaning the memories she did have of her were short and few. Squall often tried telling Lianne stories about her mother, mostly of her inspirational times, and of her kind personality. He told her all about the Timber Owls, how she survived in space with a terminated life support system, and many others of his fond memories. But Lianne wasn't interested. Apparently, she couldn't care less what happened to her mother. In fact, she even resented her. Squall was hurt by this, but he thought he knew why. It was because of her powers. Lianne thought the powers her mother had passed on to her branded her a freak. A weirdo. A witch. She didn't want to learn how to use her powers, how to harness them and understand them. It was because of those powers that she found it so hard to make friends, and why she got picked on so much. The memories of the last Sorceress War still lived on, and magical abilities like Lianne's made her a potential threat of evil, in the eyes of the people who didn't understand. Why didn't people understand? Squall sighed to himself. If Lianne hadn't been there at the time of Rinoa's terrible death, she wouldn't have those powers in the first place. It was strange. Lianne used to care. She used to get very upset sometimes, but after she grew up and started being rejected by everyone around her, she just wanted to forget about her mother and her powers.

Squall's eyelids began to droop. It had been a long time since he had had a good night's sleep. He had done enough thinking for one night. Without even bothering to turn off the light, he let his mind slip into a peaceful sleep.