Rinoa's eyes fluttered opened. She was now awake, though the corners of her vision were still blurry. Noticing she was on the grassy ground she pushed herself up into a sitting position. She pushed her face into her hand, trying to stave off the headache she felt coming. Rinoa half closed eyes saddened shot opened when she realized—she had no clue where she was. She stood up and looked around, taking in the sight of grass and trees.
Rinoa ended up backing into the side of a giant magnificent crystal tower. She backed away from the tower, gazing upward, taking in its full glory. "Wow" she said in awe of the tower. Rinoa suddenly heard slow footsteps in the nearby grass. She hurriedly pushed her back against the side of the tower, trying to hide and slowly inch away.
She saw a man with long flowing silver hair come into her view. Inching over into a more shadowy part of the wall she was against, Rinoa kept as quiet as she could. Sephiroth stopped abruptly, closing his eyes. All too sudden, a long sword appeared in his hand and he immediately pointed it at Rinoa, making her yelp. "Who are you?" he asked, his sword right under her uplifted chin, just a couple inches away from the small of her neck. Something struck Rinoa then. That very second, she realized-she didn't know her own name. Breathing hard with wary eyes trained onto the long sword she spoke. "I-I don't know"
"I have never seen you before. You cannot possibly be a warrior of Chaos. Therefore, you must be a warrior of Cosmos." He said.
"I don't know what you're talking about" Rinoa said, trying to control the fear in her voice.
"Well," Sephiroth said with a slight smile on his face, "pulling back the long sword, preparing to thrust it forward into Rinoa, "We'll just have to dispose of you, just to be safe."
Right as Sephiroth was about to impale Rinoa with the sword, another blow came from nowhere, repelling the blow and knocking Sephiroth blade from his hand. Sephiroth and Rinoa simultaneously turned their heads to see Auron standing with his blade over his shoulder. "Leave her alone, Sephiroth!" he ordered. He walked over in front of Rinoa, standing between her and Sephiroth. "Get out of here" he said over his shoulder. Rinoa instantly scurried away, nearly tripping over her feet as she jumped into a portal.
Auron assumed his battle position, as he prepared to fight Sephiroth. Auron grimaced as a small smile formed on Sephiroth's face. He didn't even try to retrieve his sword. Auron was about to strike him before several razor sharp arrows materialized around him. Sephiroth grunted mockingly. Ultimecia materialized next to Sephiroth. "Your time is up, Warrior of Cosmos" she said. She snapped her fingers and all the arrows hurled themselves at Auron, impaling him in multiple parts of his body and pinning him to the side of the tower.
Auron's blood trickled down the wall of the tower as he started to hyperventilate in agony. Ultimecia smiled, watching him die. Auron clinged onto life, with his hand wrapped tightly around his sword, not ready to die. Not without a fight. "Troublesome." Ultimecia said. "I absolutely detest it when they refuse to die." She lifted up one hand, and pulled it back, drawing back one of the arrows. Auron gasped in pain as the arrow exited his body. Ultimecia then lazily pointed back at Auron, making the arrow thrust into him. First once. Then twice. Then a third time. Auron cried out in pain as more and more of his blood created a small puddle below him. He still didn't die. "Hmph!" Ultimecia said. She spread both her arms out, summoning all of the arrows, unpinning Auron from the wall behind and making him fall to his knees in the puddle of blood. Ultimecia thrust both her open arms forward, willing all the arrows to lunge at Auron one final time. Before the barrage of arrows coming toward him impaled him completely Auron managed to mutter "Don't let my death be in vain."
Don't let my death be in vain. Rinoa heard Auron's words in the air around her as she ran, not knowing where to. She ran around the halls of the castle Pandaemonium, completely lost. She stopped and leaned against a broken column, letting out one big exasperated breath. "Where am I?" she complained aloud. "Who's there?" a wary voice alerted. Rinoa hid behind the pillar. "Hello?" the voice called out. "I heard a voice, is anyone there?" Rinoa ignored the soft voice that she concluded was obviously female. She tried hiding until the other girl went away. But she grew all too curious to see so she peeked around the pillar and saw a Yuna. She was probably Rinoa's age, with a staff, and a short haircut. She looked innocent enough. Rinoa was going to come from hiding until she heard the sound of a portal opening followed by another voice.
"Well, well, well, well, well, WELL! What have we here? A little lost lingering LOSER don't we?"
"Who are you?" Yuna asked gingerly.
"Oh, meee? Kefka Palazzo, nice to meet ya! Oh wait, wait, wait, and WAIT! You're a warrior of Cosmos. Sorry sweetcakes but you gotta die!"
"Please, just let me pass"
Rinoa gasped and cupped her hand over her mouth. The crazed clown was going to kill that innocent girl. Why? She wondered to herself. And this was the second time she's heard about being a warrior of Cosmos.
Kefka hopped atop a broken pillar, balancing himself there with one foot, glaring down at Yuna. "Goodbye, sweetie!" he laughed flicking a little white orb towards Yuna. It danced around her and suddenly exploded, sending Yuna flying and crashing harshly to the ground. Rinoa heard the explosion followed by Yuna's scream. She peaked around the pillar and saw Yuna, trying to get up but her body was too damaged and she fell to the ground. Kefka hopped down and towards Yuna, a sword now in his hand to deliver the killing blow.
"No!" Rinoa screamed, running toward Yuna. She flicked her wrist at Kefka, sending him flying. She locked in her Blaster Edge, and held it up defensively as she stood in front of Yuna. Kefka crashed unto a wall. "Well that hurt!" he said. "Stay away from her!" Rinoa yelled back. Kefka regained his composure and stood up. "Why?" Toying with your prey is FUN!" he said and spun around and flailed his arms downward. A bolt of thunder showed up about to strike Yuna. On impulse, Rinoa held out her hand at the thunderbolt about to strike Yuna behind her, stopping it. She breathed hard and looked down at Yuna who could've died had Rinoa not acted instantly. She glared back at Kefka who looked shocked. With her left hand still held out over Yuna, halting the lightning bolt, Rinoa flailed her right hand downward at Kefka, summoning her own lightning bolt which struck him where he stood. Kefka was forced to the ground. Most of his clothes were burnt and he had a long scar going down his back from the lightning strike. He was hurt and bad. "I'll be back" he growled as a dark portal opened behind him and he crawled into his, disappearing completely.
Using the hand that was halting the bolt of lightning, Rinoa closed her open palm into a fist, making the bolt disappear. "Are you okay?" she asked Yuna.
"This…Isn't how it was supposed to go" she said.
Rinoa waved her hand over Yuna, making a magnificent white-blue light appear above her, healing her. "You… You know magic" Yuna said.
"Yeah, I'm a Sorceress" Rinoa said. She instantly felt something trigger in her mind. She mentally congratulated herself for remembering that.
"Thanks for helping me." Yuna said. "I'm a Summoner, my name is Yuna."
Rinoa didn't say anything. She just looked down, grabbing her left arm with her right hand. "You… You don't remember your name?" Yuna asked. Rinoa just shook her head. Yuna gently placed her hand on Rinoa's arm. "It's okay. I can help you. Do you remember anything?"
Rinoa looked sad. She lightly shook her head again. "Don't worry, I will help you. We have to get you to Cosmos." Yuna said and began to walk down the halls of Pandaemonium. When she didn't hear footsteps other than her own, she turned around and smiled at Rinoa. "Are you coming?" she asked playfully. Rinoa hurriedly followed after her.
After long moments of walking in silence, Rinoa and Yuna found a big door that led outside into The World of Darkness. Rinoa felt chills down her spine. She didn't like the feeling this place was giving her. She held herself as she walked, not too far behind Yuna. Abruptly, Rinoa stopped. The place was hollow so every footstep echoed. When Yuna stopped hearing Rinoa's echoing footsteps, she too stopped. "Is something wrong?" she asked, turning to Rinoa.
"Yuna?" she replied.
"Yes?"
"Who is Cosmos?"
Yuna pondered on the question for a moment. She laughed. "To tell you the truth, I barely know myself. All I can tell you is that she is the goddess of Harmony." She then stopped. "Don't you know that?" she said. Rinoa shook her head. "I don't know anything." She said. "Everything's a blur. I have faint memories of a couple faces and the knowledge of my Sorceress power and how to use it but that's all. I don't even know where I am or how I got here." Yuna was going to say something but she didn't. She and Rinoa both stood there staring at each other in shock. They both heard footsteps. "Hide!" Yuna whispered to Rinoa, taking her hand and hiding behind a pillar. She and Rinoa crouched down. The foot steps suddenly stopped. Yuna held her hand over her heart, letting out a breath in relief.
Suddenly, something jumped down from high upon a pillar and landed right in front of Yuna and Rinoa, holding a long spear. They both screamed and closed their eyes. "Yuna?" a familiar deep voice said. Yuna opened her eyes slowly. "Kain!" she exclaimed.
"What are you doing? You should not be here" said Kain.
"Indeed" another voice said. Kain whipped around to find the Cloud of Darkness floating towards them. Kain lifted his spear at it. "Stay away!" he warned. "Foolish warrior. You wander into the World of Darkness and expect more than your impending demise?"
"I've not come to slay you, Cloud of Darkness, not this time."
"Hmph. You could not slay us if you wanted too. We, too, have come for more than delivering punishment upon you impudent warriors of Cosmos. We have come… for her" the Cloud of Darkness pointed to Rinoa, making her eyes widen. "No!" Yuna shouted, standing up next to Kain. "We won't let you take her!"
"You haven't a choice. You will either hand her over to us, or die" it said, an absolute indifferent look of complete boredom on its face.
Kain charged at the Cloud, pushing it back and skillfully swinging his staff at it, allowing it to dodge, parry, and repel every attack, just to buy time. "Yuna!" he shouted
"Right!" Yuna shouted back, jumping backward so that she was right in front of Rinoa. She summoned her staff and starting swinging it around, performing a majestic summoning dance. "Ifrit, protect us" she said lowly. Ifrit appeared out of thin air, flames crackling around him, and summoned a wall of fire around Yuna and Rinoa and disappeared into flames.
Cloud of Darkness waved her hand, sending Kain crashing to the ground far away and disappeared into smoke. Rinoa yelped as it reappeared behind her, putting its hand over her mouth. "No!" Kain shouted, pulling himself up by stabbing his spear into the ground and using it to support his weight as he got to his feet, trying to ignore the pain. The Cloud of Darkness simply shot him a look as it disappeared with Yuna and Rinoa as Kain collapsed in pain.