Fujin stood silently amid a torrent of rain and lightening, the wind tearing at the long, slinky black dress, pulling her silver tresses from her face. She watched lightening arc across the sky. The heavy blackish blue clouds blanketing the horizon seemed to stretch into oblivion. The clouds matched her soul. Nothing was left now. The ocean raged hundreds of feet below her; Quistis' funeral had been over water. It had been a beautiful ceremony. Everyone had attended and said some heartfelt words about the 'beloved instructor'. Of course she had been inundated with thousands of people proclaiming how sorry for her loss they were, and how if there were anything they could do to help.

Fuck them all.

They cared not for her, nor her fallen love. They only wanted to be in the spotlight, to satisfy their own sense of morality. Someone had died and they wanted to say they cared because it was not they who had died. The part that hurt the most about that was that it was Garden's fault. It had been suicide mission from the beginning. Fujin blinked through the driving rain and ignored how heavy her dress was getting. Quistis had volunteered to go, and she went alone. The utmost secrecy was required for this mission, get in, kill the guy, and get out. Fujin imagined how the mission must have gone.

Quistis, sneaking along, killing guards as she went, raising no alarms, making her way up to her quarry; him catching her by surprise, ripping a fist-sized hole in that beautiful woman's side. She'd barely had time to use her blue magic; a Shockwave Pulsar took care of him and most of the building. By the time Fujin and the rescue team had arrived, Quistis had been beyond help.

// I still recall the taste of your tears//

Red streaked tears laid tracks down Quistis' cheeks as Fujin laid eyes on her. The pain and agony of someone who was not all there was dim compared to knowing she would not see the silver haired woman again. Fujin bent to kiss Quistis' cheeks.

//echoing your voice just like the ringing in my ears//

"W...where are my legs...Fu?" she asked as Fujin knelt beside her.

"Not matter." Fujin replied quietly. Rocks and other debris lay in a circle around them, and the groaning of the haphazardly placed stones rang alarms in Fujin's mind. Quistis hadn't even been able to proclaim her love one last time as death took her.

//My favorite dreams of you still wash ashore//

Fujin closed her eyes searching for better memories of her dead half. Her smile, the way she pushed hair from her face, the feel of her full lips flush with her own, all still so vivid in her mind.

//Scraping through my head 'till I don't wanna sleep anymore//

All she could think about was Quistis, the loss of her, the emptiness left behind, the nothing she now had. Her dreams were full of the sight of her, her blood, her lower half a few feet away. Nothing was as it should be.

Slowly Fujin turned to see Seifer standing a few feet away. He held out a hand to take her in from the storm, away from her torment. She could see the pain in his eyes too.

//grey would be the color if I had a heart//

Fujin suddenly found she did not care about him or his feelings. He hadn't lost himself when Quistis died, he couldn't understand. She glared at him and turned her back. His retreating footsteps were lost in the raging winds. Fujin returned to staring at the ferocious ocean below her.

//in this place it seems like such a shame// //though it looks so different now// //I know it's all the same//

Garden had seemed so lonely without Quistis' infectious laugh and charming smile. Everything seemed shaper, dangerous without her protective love. People seemed to pity her, hate her, and like her all at once. No one was the same, and yet nothing had changed. Garden life went on as usual, which seemed so wrong to Fujin.

//everywhere you look you're all I see// //just a fading fucking reminder of who I used to be//

Fujin turned her crimson gaze to the unforgiving heavens. For a moment she thought she saw Quistis' shape in the clouds. She shook her head and looked to the cold metal of the Garden's hull. The way the water streamed down in small runnels reminded her of Quistis' hair. The wind swirled about her, playing about her soaked dress drawn skin-tight. Quistis' hands were on her. For once she felt a small twinge of something deep in the absence of her soul.

A small cry escaped Fujin's lips as her tears mingled with the rain. Despite her hoarse voice she began to scream into the night.

"Why did you die!?" Fujin's hands formed fists as she cursed the heavens and Quistis herself. "You've left me all alone! All alone to wither and die! I'm nothing without you and you knew it!"

Fujin fell to her knees, slipping a bit on the slick metal surface. "Don't you understand?" she sobbed quietly.

//you make this all go away//