Disclaimer: I in no way own Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy VII or Kingdom Hearts. Don't sue; I'm simply an E6 in the USN, therefore I have no money. Ha.
A/N: Challenge fic, delivered via one flame lit under my buttocks on LiveJournal. This one's for you, TheinCatVu!
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Prelude
Compression
Gray eyes stared bleakly as darkness encroached upon the surrounding environment once again.
An ill-repressed sigh leaked to the young man's lips as he turned his gaze first to his left, then to his right. He watched as everything he'd just interacted with, everything he'd experienced, faded into the obscurity offered by the shadows of the past. Vanishing as swiftly as the imagery of a pleasant dream upon awakening, he stared with apprehensive silence as everything washed to black. His eyes refused to blink as he watched those colorful flowers, that emerald grass, the glimmering white buildings' walls, the ivory and black image of his dear Matron drift from his sight.
He shivered violently as the chill of nothingness crept slowly along his flesh, its icy tendrils crawling under his skin and feeling along his bones. Gripping his biceps with his leather-coated hands, the thick leather of his fur-trimmed bomber jacket wrinkling under his tight grip, he clenched his teeth as his actions did nothing to grant him any warmth.
Casting his gaze once again around his surroundings, he felt a surly frown turn his thin lips. Once again he stood without companionship in darkness.
'I'm not alone,' he silently reassured himself. 'If I call out, they will answer.'
Squaring his shoulders, he forced his eyes to blink against the darkness and took a deep breath.
"Where is everyone?" he shouted into the still air, listening carefully for any reply that was destined to reach him.
As his voice was crushed by the heavy weight of the surrounding blackness, he took another deep breath, the action shaken by the fact that no sound, not even an echo, had reached his carefully attentive ears.
"Rinoa! Where are you!"
He swallowed harshly as nothing met him.
Panic washing over his thin frame, the teenager burst into a run, his shoes making horribly loud and thunderous bangs as they collided with the invisible ground underneath him.
A turn to the left, a glance to the right, a sudden stop and twist of his positioning to the direction he'd looked and a swivel of his gaze to his off-hand did nothing to change his perception of his surroundings. With a thick gulp, he readied his voice again.
"Rinoa!"
Nothing met his ears.
Leaping into motion once again, he ran swiftly a good twenty feet away.
"Zell!"
He ran and ran, certain that the hyperactive martial artist who'd been at his side since his days (so very recent, not so far removed from present day as he'd like) as a cadet, would readily answer.
He'd even let him have a play-session with his gunblade if he'd show up.
"Irvine!" he cried next, desperation coloring his wild shout as he willed for the violet-eyed sniper to appear beside him.
A quick turn on his toes to change his direction swept him further from the black spot he'd occupied when the imagery of the past had faded into nonexistence.
"Quistis!"
His wild run slowed.
"Selphie!"
Without ceremony, his fleeing came to an end.
Staring at the ground, he grimaced and willed the stinging that plagued the back of his gray eyes to leave him be.
A few rapid blinks sent cold and silent tears slithering down his cheeks.
'… Am I… alone?'
He closed his eyes against the unending vision that was destined to be his.
Kicking his feet idly against the ground, he clenched his hands tightly once again. 'Rinoa? I want to hear your voice. Which way…'
A tremulous sigh leaked from between his slacking lips. '… do I go? I can't make it back… alone.'
His shoulders shook with repressed sobs that died in his clenched throat. Shaking legs barely kept him upright as he resumed walking, even as his forced-open eyes leaked their piteous tears onto his chilled face.
'Rinoa? Am I… all alone again?' he remorsefully thought, unwilling to shout his mind's wonderings to the atmosphere that smothered him for fear that silence would affirm his suspicions.
His steps slowed and finally completely stopped as his wanderings came to an end.
He sat down heavily on the hard ground, unable to convince his body that continuing his journey would eventually lead him to those he was praying so fervently to see.
As cold seeped past his clothes, his skin, his flesh to ooze into his bones, he shivered violently.
'Is this all that is destined for me? This bleak land? This loneliness?'
"Is this my future? Is this my fate?"
As his voice was decimated by darkness once more, he let a quivering sob leak from his lips.
"Is this… my future?"
Hugging his knees tightly, the young teenager let his tears flow freely and his cries of destitution come free from his throat, unaware and uncaring that the lands around him, built by the magic of sorceresses and the wills and questions of those who dwelled within it, were responding to his questioning wishes.
The air around him thrummed audibly, the blackness shoved with violent suddenness away from the leather-clad child.
The barreling of warmth and light across his frame stirred the teenager from his self-directed pity, forcing him instantly to his feet.
Gray eyes narrowing, Squall Leonhart stared with fearful anticipation at the sprawling brick-built town, the distant machination-flooded castle that crested across the horizon, the scurrying shadowy creatures fleeing from pursuing rings of digitized light and the spiky-haired blond man with the giant sword standing directly before him.
to be continued…
Reviews are, as always, appreciated! (promise this one'll be short. 3-5 chapters at most. No BCD length this time, no siree!)