This one came to me after listening to my law enforcer friend's tall tales and Red Fraction (opening for the anime Black Lagoon). Hope you'll enjoy this!

Rinoa Caraway held her breath as she opened the window to her room.

Biggs had sent her an invitation the other night. A rave party by the sea, with all the booze, wild music and hot men. There was no way she was going to miss the party of the century. She was going to attend, without her bodyguards, without her father's permission.

She sighed. Being a Galbadian General's daughter was hard.

Surveillance cameras were installed across the different areas in the Presidential Manor. She knew their placement, visible and hidden ones. She wasn't scared, but if her father caught her sneaking around, she was going to be grounded, and she wouldn't like that idea one bit.

At the age of twenty-one, Rinoa had enough. She was sick and tired of her father's over protective pampering, of his insistence she stay at home at all times, of telling her friends to ask permission from him whenever they asked her out. Caraway wasn't selfish. He clearly understood her daughter's need to socialize—at a price.

Unless she was chaperoned by a dozen bodyguards, she was free to roam as she pleased. Her friends were cool with it, but allure didn't last, and Rinoa found herself excluded from group outings and parties.

She sighed. It was no fun being General Caraway's daughter, but tonight, things were about to change.

She was an adult woman, and it was time she did adult activities on her own.

No one would know she ever escaped, and a little adventure wouldn't hurt. It wasn't as if her father killed the bodyguards for allowing her to escape.

Using a fake ID, she rented a car and drove all the way to the beach near the Tomb of the Unknown Brothers. She could hardly find Biggs given the large volume of skimpily-clad party goers, and she instantly wished she had worn a more provocative outfit, not the conservative blue-black wardrobe she usually favored. But she could hardly escape the Presidential Mansion in a two-piece bikini.

Biggs was pleasantly surprised to find her among the crowd. "Where are your bodyguards, Rin?" he teased.

"I ditched them." she replied.

"Won't your father get mad?"

"He's on Official Travel in Balamb now." She reasoned. "And I didn't come here to talk about my dad and my bodyguards. Where's Wedge? Come on, let's party!"

The night was what Biggs exactly promised. Booze, loud music, bright strobe lights…And men, really hot men. The likes who never had the chance to hit on her because her bodyguards would kick their balls. Maybe she would talk to one now, or maybe she wanted to get laid, have a little adventure, or maybe a little violence in her life. Maybe she was asking for things she never experienced in life.

And she had no idea she was going to get just that.

With the party over, Rinoa drove back to Deling City, with a wasted Biggs and Wedge sitting sleeping on the backseat. She had drunk alcohol, but not enough to cripple her driving ability. As long as a police car didn't flag her down, she was safe.

Droplets of rain splattered against her windshield, and she switched on the front lights, illuminating the highway. Dark clouds hung over the horizon despite her watch telling her it was six in the morning. She was running at 80 kilometers per hour, and the roads were free of traffic, thank heavens. She certainly hoped she drove fast enough to return home before the maids discovered she was missing. But she had to escort Biggs and Wedge to their houses first. Return the rented car, second. Retrieve the fake ID, third.

It was no fun being General Caraway's daughter, she grumbled.

Then a figure appeared in front of her. "Shit!" she screamed, slamming on the brakes, hoping it wasn't too late.

She was too late.

The car was too fast, the roads too slippery and her luck a little bit rotten. She rammed against the figure, the body flying across the road. Even the impact was strong enough to wake her companions from their drunken stupor.

"What the heck happened Rin?" Biggs said in a slurred voice. "Did you run over somebody?"

Wedge laughed. "It's not a big deal. Her dad can always pay the family off, won't he Rin?"

"Good thing Rin strapped our seatbelts, or we would have been goners." And they dozed off again, oblivious to the environment. Oblivious to Rinoa's distress.

Rinoa would have kicked them if there weren't drunk, but she wasn't in the mood to quarrel with her drunk friends. She had just run over a person. Shit, shit, shit. This couldn't be her first case of reckless driving. There was the family name to protect, and General Fury Caraway wouldn't be pleased if he knew what she had done.

Rinoa got off the car and approached the unconscious body of the person. Her hands trembled as she tried to awaken the victim. "Hey, hey, can you hear me? Can you tell me your name?"

The woman groaned and turned her head and Rinoa gasped.

Even if she was drenched in the rain, the woman was unearthly beautiful, with golden eyes reminding her of a cat and a mane of finest platinum silver. Rinoa wondered how the woman managed to reach the highway outside of Deling City, given how flimsy the fabric of her red robe was. But all question flew out of her head when she saw the blood seeping from her head and chest.

"I don't want… to die," the woman whimpered.

Rinoa held the woman's body. "I-I'll take you to the nearest hospital" she promised rashly, forgetting the scandal if Deling knew General Caraway's daughter ran over a woman.

"I cannot die without passing my powers, or the Great Hyne… will curse me."

Rinoa had never seen a sorceress in her twenty-one years, but she had heard tales of their powers. The ability to control elemental forces without the aid of Guardian Forces. The ability to inspire fear among non-magical humans. The influence they wielded among the political powers in the world. Her nanny used to scare her with stories of sorceresses who ate bad children, but she was too young and gullible to realize it was a tale crafted to control disobedient children.

Rinoa had imagined sorceresses to be tall, evil, with red eyes, long curling horns and a face inspiring fear. But the sorceress she held in her arms was almost goddess-like in beauty.

And dying, because of her.

"I'll take you to the hospital." Rinoa tried to budge the sorceress, but her body was too heavy.

"I cannot allow them to succeed in killing me…. Without passing my powers." The woman uttered, as if not hearing what Rinoa said.

She was starting to irritate her. "We'll talk about passing your powers later, right now, you need to be treated in the nearest hospital—"

The woman clutched Rinoa's hand. For a dying woman, her grip was deathly tight. "Receive my powers, little girl." She whispered ominously. "Or the Great Hyne will curse my soul, and I will haunt you for the rest of my life."

The fine hairs on Rinoa's neck stood as her heart pounded against her chest. "That is not a good joke, lady!" She was tempted to ditch her on the road and leave for Deling immediately. But there was the family name weighing on her shoulders, and it was a weight too heavy for her to handle.

"Receive my powers, little girl!" the woman screamed, her fingers digging deeply into Rinoa's flesh, making her cry out in pain. A strange white light emitted from the sorceress' body making Rinoa close her eyes. Strange symbols hung in the air, circling around them.

Then Rinoa felt it, a strong surge of power flowing into her body like a snake, filling her very being.

Scenes flashed in her mind, memories of a different person.

A dark figure with a pistol in hand pointing the muzzle of a gun in her chest.

The pain as the rapier pierced her body.

The flash of bright light before the car rammed against her bleeding body.

"No!" Rinoa screamed. "Let me go! Let me go!"

The grip loosened, and the woman's golden eyes were blank. She lay on the ground. There was no one around. No one who had seen her hit a woman. No one seen her receive the sorceress powers. No one..

Slowly, she retreated and hurried back to her car. She switched on the engine, running away all the way to Deling Mansion. Hoping everything was a bad dream.

She couldn't afford to taint her father's name. She couldn't afford. And so, she ran, unsuspecting of the two figures observing the scenario.

Leviathan had failed to exterminate the Sorceress' Powers, Shiva thought grimly. Even if Ultimecia's physical body had died, her powers still lived. Thanks to a mere delay, Ultimecia had successfully passed her powers to a passerby. It was not good. Why couldn't have Leviathan succeeded in his job? He only had one job, Shiva sighed.

"I'm sorry." Leviathan bowed down before Shiva, their leader, who was obviously not pleased with the news.

Shiva tapped slender fingers against the table and looked at the figure beside Leviathan "You were with him. What happened Alexander?"

"Killing the new sorceress would draw the Galbadian Army's attention."

"Who is the new sorceress then?"

"The daughter of General Fury Caraway."

Shiva hissed. Things were not going according to plan. "It doesn't matter if she's Caraway's daughter. She's still a sorceress on our hit list."

"What should we do then?" Leviathan asked.

"Fix the job you botched," Shiva sneered.

Shiva didn't care whether Leviathan looked hurt or not. The Forces of the Round, as they called themselves, hid their identities with a black helmet and a black cloak. It served a purpose. As long as the Sorceress' they killed never knew their sex, they were protected from receiving their powers. Only females could receive the powers of a dying sorceress. If there was no female in periphery, then the power would die out, and the sorceress would pass in grief.

The Great Hyne would then curse their soul for failing to find a successor.

Good for them, Shiva smirked.

"I think we should welcome our new sorceress." Alexander proposed.

Shiva chuckled. "I love that idea."

Rinoa shut her eyes, trying to forget the scenes flashing in her mind. The memories came anyway. The memory of that cold July night.

Rinoa sat in her room. Soothing darkness, holy silence. Darkness was comforting. Darkness had been her friend for the past weeks since she had killed the Sorceress. What was her name?

Oh, yes. Ultimecia.

Caraway had scolded her after discovering her escapade. No, she was too kind. Scolding was an understatement, Caraway was livid! Thank Hyne her father had never resorted to slapping her, or worse. But she felt disappointment that he hadn't even bothered to notice her distraught look.

The shower had only managed to wash the blood from her body, but it couldn't wipe the fact that she had killed someone. There was no way she could tell her father.

She looked outside her window. It was night time. The sorceress' body would have been found, and her cause of death would finally be determined.

It was only a matter of time before the police came to arrest her.

Everything was going to be okay, she told herself. Her father was a rich and powerful man, and he would protect her. Hadn't he promised to, after assassins had killed her beautiful mother, and nearly her as well?

Silence could be bought, and they weren't lacking with money.

So why was she still hiding in her room?

Maybe because it was the frightening dreams.

Or the memories that weren't hers.

Or the Sorceress' last words. The Great Hyne will curse me unless I pass my powers.

She heard a soft knock on her door.

"Enter." she whispered.

The young maid handed her an white envelope. For Rinoa Caraway, the elegant script lettering stated.

"How odd." Rinoa opened the envelope and took out its content.

A small white business card with colored text as if written in blood.

She paled.

888888888888888888

You're next.

8888888888888888888888888888

"Is something wrong, lady?" the maid asked

She dropped the card, trembling.

The maid crouched to pick the card, but Rinoa snapped. "Throw it away, burn it if you can!"

Without question, the maid followed Rinoa's orders, wondering at the woman's reaction to the card. Perhaps the card was from an admirer. Perhaps not. It was none of her business.

The next day, a similar envelope appeared on their doorstep, and the maid dutifully brought it to Rinoa.

88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888

Burning our message doesn't change the fact that you're still next, Sorceress.

88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888

Only then did Rinoa sink to the floor and cry, calling for her father's name.