A/N: An idea I've been playing with for awhile. A very different kind of take on Sorceresses, Knights, where that magic comes from, and who is really in charge of it all. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own FF8 or any of the characters or places mentioned in this fic. I'm not making any money from this, I just enjoy playing in Square's sandbox. :)
Prologue
The world is on fire, and that's all Selphie knows.
It's not a literal, fire-and-brimstone burning; at least, not as far as she can tell – not yet. But it's annihilation all the same.
Sis is dying. Her magic is destroying her from the inside out. Magic that they had all thought was just intrinsically part of her. But too many experiments at the hands of a madman and too much time spent in other times, other places – including a world that never existed at all – and her magic is changed. It's wrong now; it's eating away Ellone's mind, and soon, it will start on her body.
Rinoa and Edea are with her now, both preparing to take as much magic as they can from Ellone, in the hopes that it will morph once inside them, as Sorceress magic is wont to do. It's risky, and both Squall and Cid are firmly against it – but it is Sis' last chance. Her only chance.
Ellone doesn't cry or scream; that's not her way. This magic is no longer for her, and she knows that. If she doesn't let it go – if it doesn't let her go – she will go mad, and it will eventually kill her.
Rinoa and Edea are chanting over her; Squall and Cid are steadying them, tethering them to the World.
The rest of them must keep busy; they can't be around to distract the others. Selphie is fine with this – she can't even bear to go near the infirmary right now. There is too much real magic crackling in the air, interacting with her own magic – magic that is different than drawn magic because it really is part of her – making her nauseous and weak in the knees.
She's in the library, playing cards with Zell. Irvine and Quistis are talking quietly off to her right, as they do so often these days. It makes Selphie smile to watch them, in the tentative, early stages of … well, whatever it is they're doing.
As she focuses on her next move in the card game, she feels something inside her change. She ignores it at first, thinking it must be all the tension of the past few days combined with the excess magic in the air causing her to feel so odd. It isn't too worrisome, a mildly annoying burning behind her left eye, and she thinks it's probably just an eyelash in her eye or something.
She blinks rapidly a few times, hoping to dislodge whatever it is, and the feeling subsides. "Are you all right?" Zell asks, looking at her quizzically.
She nods. "Yeah, I think I just had an eyelash in my eye or something. It's gone now, though!" She flashes him a grin and turns her attention back to her cards.
It is then that something within in her bursts, and she can no longer stay upright. She hears a shout from the infirmary, and has a flash in her mind of Ellone sitting straight up in her cot.
As quickly as it came, the image of Sis is gone, and Selphie's mind feels like a void. She can't even remember where she is, or what she was doing. She's doubled over on the floor of the library, and all the contents of her stomach are coming up, and she can't even find it in herself to care because it hurts, oh Hyne it hurts so much. She hears a bone-shattering scream coming from somewhere, and soon she realizes that it's coming from her, as an intense pain rips through her very core. The world around disappears and all she can see before her are swirls in shades of ochre, crimson, and black.
Fire, blood, and death.
Is this madness? As she continues to struggle to find any semblance of home, a foreign, yet all-too-familiar voice whispers through her mind. "Welkome home, Sister. Darkness suits you …"
The world is on fire, and that's all Selphie knows.