It was late at night in the SeeD dormitories at Balamb Garden, and all was quiet and dark. Except in Squall's quarters, where it was merely dark. Discarded clothing littered the room, including a short, tight dress that now lay draped over the back of a chair.
The owner of that dress was half the reason that the room was not quiet - or perhaps, given Squall's nature, far more than half. The only reason he was making any noise at all was because of what she was doing to him.
"Mmmm... Squall..." Riona purred, digging her fingernails into his thigh.
"Oh... oh, Rinoa!" Squall cried out.
"Rinoa?" Riona's eyes narrowed in anger as she pushed him off of her. "My name's Riona! Who's Rinoa, Squall?"
Squall stared up at her in shock. "Uh... er..." he began, looking confused.
Pulling her clothes back on, Riona hit him over the head with one of her high-heeled shoes. "You jerk! There's another woman, isn't there? How dare you!"
"I uh... er... uhm..." Squall stammered, covering his head to fend off Riona's vicious attack.
"Who's Rinoa, Squall?" Riona demanded, hands on her hips. "Tell me who she is so I can go rip the little hussy's hair out!"
Squall peeked out from underneath his hands to see if it was safe yet. "...I... don't think that's a good idea."
"Oooooh!" Riona hit him over the head one last time before she put the shoe on and left.
-------
It was also dark in the hallways of Balamb Garden as Riona ran sobbing through the wings of the dormitory, from the SeeDs' rooms to the student quarters, where she'd been staying since she came to Balamb several months before. She didn't even notice that she wasn't alone until she knocked into someone taller than her, and much sturdier than she was in her high-heeled shoes.
"Hey," an irritable voice said as she sat down hard with a thud. "It's after hours, you're not supposed to..." Suddenly the voice grew a little softer. "...Oh. Are you okay?"
Riona looked up through her tears into the uncertain eyes of her ex-boyfriend. "Seifer..."
"What are you doing running around at this hour?" he asked. To most, his voice would have sounded callous, but Riona knew that it was just gruff with concern. Seifer had never been good at letting anything show. He peered at her a little closer. "Are you... crying?" he added, incredulous.
"No." He'd probably laugh his head off at her, she thought as she turned her head away from him, trying to hide her face. Despite her efforts, though, a faint sob escaped her throat.
"Oh Hyne, you are crying..." Seifer muttered. Much to her surprise, he knelt down next to her. "Hey... what's wrong?"
"It's... Squall..." she began, then halted. Seifer and Squall hated each other, she knew that, and Seifer would just give her the "I told you so" routine if he learned what had happened.
Touching the underside of her chin, Seifer drew her face back upwards to look at him. "What did that loser do to you?" he asked, almost gently for him.
"He..." Riona's body was wracked with sobs again, and she instinctively wrapped her arms around Seifer's shoulders for comfort. "There's... another girl..."
Seifer's body tensed for a moment, then one hand slowly lifted to stroke her hair as the other wound around her waist. "I told you he was no good," he told her bitterly. "Listen, he's just a jerk. He's a pathetic excuse for a boyfriend, and a pathetic excuse for a knight. He has no idea how to treat a girl, much less a sorceress... If he's got someone as beautiful and sweet and brilliant as you, and he's still messing around with other people, he's nothing but a fool."
Sobbing into his coat, Riona clung to him fiercely. Despite how cold he'd acted after they broke up, Seifer could be so warm and protective, just like he was now... She shook her head, trying to dispel the memories of a time long ago. "I'm sorry... you're probably the last person that wants to see me crying over him..."
Seifer sighed slightly. "...Actually... I guess it's selfish of me, but... I don't mind at all." Riona raised her head to look at him curiously, and he looked back down at her, his eyes for once showing some emotion. "In a way, I'm glad. This means maybe I have another chance with you, now that he's showed you how much of a screwup he really is."
"Seifer..." Riona tried to get the words out - I love Squall now - but somehow she just couldn't. And when Seifer's head lowered to claim her mouth in a rough kiss, she forgot them entirely.
After many months of Squall's cautious, shy kisses, Seifer's ferocity and passion was a welcome change, and she returned it hungrily. Seifer's hands gripped her hair, tugging at it impulsively, but not hard enough to hurt, and she slipped her hands under the long coat, pulling his body tight against hers.
Finally Seifer ended the kiss, drawing back to look at her with fire in his eyes. "My room," he whispered firmly. She nodded and allowed him to drag her to her feet, leading her quickly down the darkened hallways.
Once inside, he wasted no time in pulling the tight dress up over her head, tossing it aside and going to work on her undergarments. Likewise, she busied herself unbuckling his pants, removing them with a practiced ease. As Seifer lowered the two of them to the bed, he moaned. "Oh... Rinoa..."
Riona froze. "...What did you say?"
"I knew you'd come back to me someday, Rinoa..."
Taking advantage of his pantsless state, she kneed him hard. As he doubled over, she stood and glared down at him. "My name is Riona. Not Rinoa! I can't believe this same girl got to you too!"
"W... Wha...?" Seifer stammered faintly, clutching himself and sobbing.
"Who is Rinoa?" Riona demanded.
"I... I thought you were..." Seifer groaned. "Look like her... sound like her... oh, Hyne..."
"So some stupid little whore is going around looking like me and stealing my boyfriends? Tell me, where is this Rinoa person?"
Still sobbing and clutching himself, Seifer didn't seem to be in the mood to reply. Riona dressed herself once more and stalked out of the room angrily.
-------
Only SeeDs had private rooms in the Garden, and Riona hoped against hope that her roommate would not be in tonight. She'd never actually seen her roommate face to face, for although they shared a suite, they had separate bedrooms, and neither of them actually spent much time in their suite. Sometimes they would hear each other moving around, coming or going, but they'd never actually talked. Even so, Riona didn't want anyone to hear her crying.
Her roommate's bedroom light was still on when she entered, which surprised her a bit. She never came back to her room this late, so she'd never known her roommate was a night person. Closing the door as quietly as possible, Riona glanced into the bedroom to see if her return had been noticed - and did a double-take as she saw the girl sitting at the desk.
Her roommate's shocked expression was the mirror image of her own - as were her face, body, and hair! The girl in the bedroom looked exactly like her in every way, down to the reddish streaks in the bangs, the necklace strung around her neck - and Riona even had blue pajamas exactly like the ones the girl was wearing! "...Am I dreaming?" the girl asked in disbelief.
"...Or am I?" Her voice was familiar as well, and it took a moment until Riona recognized it as sounding exactly like her own. "Who are you?"
"My name's Rinoa... Rinoa Heartilly," the girl said, getting to her feet to look Riona over more carefully. "Who are you?"
Riona didn't even hear the question. "You're... Rinoa?"
The girl nodded. "Yes, and you are...?"
With a shriek of rage, Riona launched herself into the bedroom, scratching at the girl and pulling her hair.
-------
Dr. Kadowaki did not enjoy being roused first thing in the morning to deal with students' petty scuffles, and as she dabbed antiseptic on the two girls' faces, she said so quite plainly. "Really," she sighed, "You'd think that sisters could get along better."
"Sisters?" they both exclaimed in unison, staring at each other in disgust.
"You're not sisters?" Dr. Kadowaki looked back and forth between the two of them. "Cousins, then?"
"We're not related," Riona said distastefully.
"I've never seen this slut before in my life," Rinoa agreed.
Riona's jaw dropped. "Slut? Where do you get off calling me a slut?"
"Oh please," Rinoa said, rolling her eyes. "You came back into the dorms at like two in the morning, wearing a tight dress and high heels. How's that for slutty?"
"How's you sleeping with my boyfriend and my ex for slutty?" Riona demanded.
"Squall sure didn't sound like your boyfriend a couple nights ago," Rinoa said with a smirk.
"He sure didn't sound like yours last night," Riona retorted. Of course, then she remembered that he had in fact called out Rinoa's name. Suddenly she was just depressed, not angry.
"Girls, girls!" Dr. Kadowaki put in, holding up a hand for quiet. "So you're not related at all? Very curious... what was your name, dear?"
"Riona."
"Hmm..." Dr. Kadowaki tapped a pen against her lips thoughtfully. "And how long have you been at Garden?"
"About seven months."
"Almost the same as Rinoa," the doctor murmured. "Hmm, very curious indeed..."
"Dr. Kadowaki..." Riona spoke up anxiously. "Why is it that you don't remember me? I've come to see you plenty of times, and you've even examined me - remember? I thought I was pregnant..."
"Oh dear," Dr. Kadowaki murmured. "I had no idea that there were two identical students here at Garden - I must have assumed you were Rinoa... a good thing you weren't pregnant, or I'd have been wondering why Rinoa wasn't showing yet."
"Wait a second!" Rinoa spoke up furiously. "You mean that she's been messing up my medical records too?"
"All my fault, I'm afraid," Dr. Kadowaki said with a nod. "But how could I have known? The two of you are identical... in fact, I recall seeing Rinoa come in twice one day for some upper respiratory bug that was going around, and the second time I told her to go home and take the medication I'd already given her! Which one of you was it who refused to leave until I'd given you what I thought was a second bottle of pills? I'm dreadfully sorry, this is quite a mess."
"I believe I can explain everyzeeng."
The three turned to look as an odd little man with a strange accent and a stranger outfit entered the infirmary. "Doc Odine!" Rinoa exclaimed, recognizing him.
"Yes, eet ees I," the man confirmed. "I fear zis ees all my fault. You zee, zere were no more evil sorceresses in ze land, and I was out of a job. And zo I turned to another area of research - cloning! Everyone loved zis Rinoa girl zo much, I decided she would be my first subject."
"What?!" Rinoa gasped in a sudden burst of outrage. "How could you do that without even asking me?"
Riona, on the other hand, was not so much angry as heartbroken. "You mean to say... I'm... I'm a...?"
"Eendeed," Doc Odine said with a nod. "You are a clone - and perhaps too good a clone, at zat. Not only are ze two of you genetically identical, but your personalities are alike as well. Riona, you even went zo far as to live ze same life as Rinoa, to do ze same things and to fall een love with ze same people! I eemplanted an eenternal microphone into you vhile you vere still in ze lab, so I could keep an eye on your progress, and vhen I heard zat things had become confusing, I came as fast as I could, but..."
"So... I'm just an imitation..." Riona said slowly, her eyes filling with tears. "Just a copy of someone else... What do I do now?" she asked the scientist desperately. "If I can't even have a life of my own, what am I supposed to do? Do I just... go back to the lab with you? What do I do?"
"Calm down, my dear," he urged her. "Zere ees no need for you to return to the lab, necessarily - you may yet be able to assume an independant life. Do you eenjoy your life here at Garden?"
"Well, yes..." Riona admitted. "But without Squall... or Seifer..."
"Wait a second," Rinoa interrupted. "Seifer likes you too?"
"Yes," Riona said tearfully. "I'm sorry... I didn't know that I wasn't really the person they loved..."
"But," Rinoa asked, thoughtful, "do you love Seifer?"
Riona thought for a moment, her face falling. "I do... maybe even more than I love Squall."
Rinoa's face, on the other hand, lit up. "Perfect!" she declared. "Then you can have Seifer, and I can have Squall! And maybe Seifer will stop driving me and Squall crazy!"
"...Really?" Riona stared at Rinoa in disbelief. "Thank you..." she said, beginning to cry. "You're so kind."
"Then so are you," Rinoa said with a mischievous grin as she leaned over to hug Riona. "After all, you're me, right?"
"Ahhh, zo my experiment was not zo bad after all!" Doc Odine said cheerfully. "Everyone eez happy now! I guess I didn't need to come all ze way from Esthar after all... Ah well."
"Wait..." Something troubling occurred to Riona, and she turned to Doc Odine. "That internal mic you put in me... you were listening to it a lot?"
"Yes, I vas," he confirmed. "Often I recorded vhat I heard."
Suddenly very uneasy, Riona peered at the little old man more closely. "...Even late at night?"
Doc Odine's wrinkled face widened in a toothy grin.
-------
The next few weeks were difficult for Rinoa and Riona as they sought to accustom themselves and their friends to what had happened. Seifer finally stopped bothering Rinoa and Squall, as now he had a girlfriend of his own, but others stepped in to take his place.
That too stopped, however, when Doc Odine decided to allow Irvine, Raijin, and Quistis to date his other experiments: Renoa, Rinnoa, and Rinia.
-------
"I can't believe you agreed to this!" Riona said cheerfully as Squall removed her shirt.
From her place beside the bed, Rinoa grinned. "Well, it's not really a threesome if two of the people are the same person, is it? Besides, I'm sure Seifer will have a great time tomorrow night too!"
Riona frowned suddenly. "Rinoa... Squall wasn't supposed to know about that."
"Oops!" Rinoa covered her mouth with both hands in embarrassment. "I, er..." Fumbling for an excuse, she noticed that Squall was continuing to grope Riona, and not paying the least bit of attention to what they were saying. "Squall... you don't even care if Riona and I have a threesome with Seifer too?"
Squall shrugged, and Rinoa was pulled onto the bed along with her boyfriend and her clone. "...Whatever."
-------
Dropping by Doc Odine's lab for a short visit, Laguna peered at a test tube sitting on the scientist's desk. It seemed to have something small and embryonic floating in it. "I thought you gave up cloning Rinoa," he said curiously.
"I deed," Doc Odine confirmed, picking up the test tube and placing it with a flourish in a rack with three others, all identical. "I now have zis new project - presenteeng Sorceresses Edia, Idea, Idia, and Adia!"
Laguna folded his arms across his chest and nodded approvingly. "Now that's an experiment I can get behind! Need any grants or anything?"
~Fin!