Subject: Final Fantasy VIII

Character/Pairing: Squall Leonhart x Quistis Trepe

Warning(s): Mild Language

Her face paled and drained of all vigor. Her azure eyes faded into colorless orbs. Her breathing hiccuped and gasped with each passing second. I grabbed her shoulders and squeezed them. Trying my best to craddle her. To keep her hanging on.

"Quistis, keep looking at me."

She winced but a thin smile creased her crimson stained face. Her mouth moved but her words were silent. They fell on deaf ears. I couldn't handle it. I didn't want to confront it. I refused to face the facts. I refused to see the woman I loved disappear before my very eyes.

There was nothing I could do. I had failed as a SeeD. I failed as a knight. I failed as a man. The heaviness I felt in that moment...it was as if I had failed at everything I had ever attempted in my entire life.

How did this happen? How could I let this happen? I should have seen this. Why? Why! I shouldn't have used the last Phoenix Down on Zell. We shouldn't have battled Griever so ill-prepared. Damn you, Ultimecia. Damn you! It was all my fault. I shouldn't have been so stubborn and rushed into battle thinking we could win. If I knew the consequences. If I knew the risks. If I knew that all the beauty I had ever known would die...