Standard Disclaimer: All characters are borrowed from FF8.
Chapter 2
It had been three years since the defeat of Ultimecia and Balamb Garden was still the same as ever. There were new changes such as Xu being appointed as the Headmistress while Cid retired to the orphanage with Edea, an increase in the supply of hotdogs, more parties and new faces. The card game Triple Triad is as popular as ever, but this semester collecting level 7 cards were no longer the craze, this year it was all about collecting the magazine Timber Maniacs. All students now boast of having at least 2 copies in their growing stash; even Zell, Selphie and Irvine were not spared from the craze.
"Look!! Tee hee, I got the latest edition!" Selphie jumped in joy as she retrieved her copy from her personal mailbox outside her room. Down the hallway, most of the students were busy picking up their own copy and reading the latest article from the hottest columnist, Julia Storm.
"Damn! I forgot to pay for it. . ..guess I won't be reading it." Zell cursed as he slouched sadly in a corner.
"Oh come on Zell, I'll lend you my copy after I'm done with it." Irvine offered as he shrugged in his typical good-hearted way. Immediately Zell brightened up before he started looking depressed again.
"Yo, do you all remember what happened on this date today?" Zell asked in a heavy tone.
Irvine and Selphie looked at each other before they remembered.
Dejectedly, Irvine leaned against the wall outside Selphie's room.
"Yeah. . .I wonder where she is." Irvine answered his tone thoughtful.
"Poor Squall, he's shutting everyone out again." Selphie bowed her head down in sadness.
"At least Quistis is still here for him." Zell said in hope of brightening the mood. It was a bad move.
Irvine sighed. "Squall does not look very interested in her you know. . .hell, he's not dating anyone at all."
Selphie bit her lip. "Do you think. . .Squall misses Rinoa?" She blurted out. Zell and Irvine stared at her before the both of them rolled their eyes.
"Bloody hell, he does and he don't wanna admit it!" Zell said in a frustrated tone.
"He didn't even searched for her." Irvine sighed.
"Maybe. . .maybe Quistis will make him happy." Selphie offered the idea optimistically.
But the three of them knew that the possibility of that was highly unlikely.
==
"Yo, Quisty! Over here!" Zell shouted across the cafeteria. Gratefully, Quistis steered away from the Trepies and carried her food-laden tray towards Zell's table. "Thanks Zell. You're a life saviour." Quistis settled down onto the chair opposite Zell, her tense muscles relaxing.
"No problem." Zell said somewhat incoherently while chewing his seventh hotdog. "So how's your day, Quisty?"
"It's a long one. Some student got lost in the training area unarmed during the Introduction to Dangerous Beasts Class. . ." Quistis paused to shake her head in exasperation. "And I had to stop the whole class to find him."
"Did he get eaten up by a T-Rex?" Zell asked innocently.
Quistis laughed and shook her head. "No, but he did get punished. Xu is making sure of that."
"Xu needs a new disciplinary department soon. This semester is full of scamps and weasels." Zell commented as he proceeded to attack his eighth hotdog.
"Like, the two cousins? Xavier and Leena?" Quistis asked.
At the mention of the two devils' names, Zell shuddered in fear and stopped eating his hotdog. Quistis laughed again at his reaction. Those two are taking lessons on martial arts from Zell and he sorely regretted taking up the mentor ship offer. Those two were driving him out of his mind.
At that moment, Selphie and Irvine walked towards them. To be more accurate Irvine was strolling and Selphie was hopping.
"Hey guys, did you see Squall anywhere?" Selphie asked as her eyes scanned the whole cafeteria for their leader and good friend, Squall. At the mention of Squall's name, Quistis cheery disposition faded. "Yes, he's busy drowning himself in paperwork in his office." She answered briskly in a detached tone before turning her attention to her soup again.
"Oh, what a waste, just wanna ask him something." Selphie sighed.
"Oh come on Sefie, let him off will ya?" Irvine asked as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"Irvy!" Selphie pouted. Zell was definitely very interested in what was happening.
"So whatcha wanna ask him Sefie?" Zell asked loudly, being somewhere in his ninth hotdog.
"I just wanna ask him if he has two pulse ammos. Nida needs it to upgrade his weapon." Saying so, Selphie glared at Irvine.
"Hey, I really ran out of it, Sefie. Don't you believe me?"
"I think I have one, you can have it." Quistis offered. Cheerfully, Selphie chirped her thanks to Quistis.
"Oh come one Sefie, I know why you wanna help Nida." Zell took another big bite out of his ninth hotdog. "You lost your card to him in a card game did you?"
"Yeah and Irvy refused to help me get my card back!" Selphie stomped her foot in disgust at her boyfriend's unwillingness to help her out.
"Oh right, oh right you win. Here ya go Sefie." Irvine threw his hands up in exasperation and tossed her the two pulse ammos he just dug out from his trench coat pocket. Squealing in delight, Selphie then ran off to find Nida leaving Irvine behind to deal with two spectators who were trying not to laugh.
"That will teach you not to mess with Selphie Tilmitt, Irvine." Quistis said with a smile.
"She can be quite a handful, ya know." Zell added his two cents worth before attacking his tenth hotdog.
Ruefully Irvine scratched the back of his neck before he shrugged. "Well if ya can't beat them, join them. Hey Zell, can I have that last hotdog?"
==
Squall sat at his desk, staring at the pile of paperwork. He hated this. He hated being a Commander. He hated today. He hated the memories today brought. To hell with all of it. Grabbing his Lionheart, which was leaning against the side of the desk, he strode out of his office with ground eating strides. A T-Rex now will do him more good than a day's worth of paperwork.
But when he got to the Training Area, his heart ached in pain and he frowned. The memories of training with Rinoa in this Center was painful. The memories of celebrating his birthday here with Rinoa burned inside his head. The more he tried to forget her, the more he remembered. Each smile, each peal of laughter, each frown, and every single angry pout. Rinoa. . .
Irvine and Zell told him to let it go and that Rinoa will never come back again. He knew that they were telling the truth. Nobody knew where Rinoa went, or more likely Sorceress Rinoa, he thought with disgust. Sorceress, they could only see her as a sorceress not a human being. And she, she had tried so hard to control her powers, powers that were beyond anybody's understanding.
"Damn it! Stop thinking of her! She's not coming back!" All the Gardens' informants around the world did not know where Sorceress Rinoa went. It was as if she was never born, it was as if she had died. "No! She's alive!"
Furious and irritated Squall skulked deep into the undergrowth wanting to hit something or anything, just to drive away the pain in his soul, even if it was just for a while. If it were not for his friends, he doubted that he would stay sane. Zell, Irvine, Selphie and . . . .Quistis had been there for him no matter how busy they were. They left him alone to sort his thoughts out but when he needed someone's presence to drive away the loneliness, they were more than glad to hang out with him. Especially Quistis.
Irvine words then started burning in his mind. "Ya know, maybe you should go out again. . .who knows maybe you'll find someone special again." Highly unlikely, Squall frowned at that thought. "Quistis is always there for you, she cares a lot about you. Squall, maybe you should give her a chance and yourself too." Zell's words echoed in his mind. "Squall, someday you'll need to know if Rinoa is the only one for you. . . if she is, go for it! Look for her. I know for sure, that she. . .misses you. I can feel it." Selphie's emerald green eyes burned in his mind. "She loves you a lot Squall. . .for you she would do anything, you should believe in that!"
Confused, Squall shook his head and tried to block out all thoughts. Partially succeeding, he continued his search for a bloody T-Rex.
==
A Sorceress, what does it mean to be a sorceress? Does it mean to be a figure of fear and power? A figure of invulnerability? Or a figure of loneliness and pain?
She sighed as she walked across the rocky ground on the hills nearby Winhill. Rinoa did not know how to answer those philosophical questions. For a moment, she wished she could seek out Edea, but that was out of the question; Rinoa wished to remain hidden from the world. No doubt, there would be SeeDs guarding Edea just in case Sorceress Rinoa popped out. Rinoa frowned at that thought. At her side, a blissfully ignorant Angelo was alert for signs of danger.
In the past two weeks, Rinoa had learnt more about her powers and herself. After doing extensive research, she finally knew why Sorceress were solitary creatures and why they have knights.
"It was because they are lonely. . ."
What she had learnt from an old lady's library had toppled her world apart. The old lady was so old that her skin was almost translucent and her hair as white as snow. Living at the outskirts of Winhill, she was able to pursue her hobby of collecting rare books in peace and... away from the world's prying eyes.
Of course, Rinoa went to pay the old lady a visit because of her library. Digging through the ancient books and translating what little she can, she learnt a lot more about sorceresses than what was known to the outer world. The sorceresses throughout time, as soon as they receive the powers, have a tendency to die young. The power burned them from the inside slowly but surely like poison eating away at their insides. For survival and a longer life expectancy, they had to pass their powers to a successor. Needless to say, the sooner the better.
Due to their powers, sorceresses was not able to get intimate with any man and neither can they give birth. Children of any sorceress usually die in the womb before they were even born. Those that survived were very weak and perished very quickly. Men that were intimate with a sorceress suffered more or less the same fate. Usually, the power consumes any living flesh that forms a physical bond with the sorceress, be it blood bond or sexual bond. For that reason alone, sorceresses have knights to keep them company for the rest of their lonely life. "Now I know why Edea never had her own child. An orphanage by the sea... that's some kind of alternative, I guess." Rinoa wondered out loud. She reached down to pat Angelo's head, as if a simple touch could ease the empty loneliness that stalked her life. Someday, before she could become old and toothless, she would die from loneliness and her power first.
"I have no Knight. Only you Angelo. . ." Rinoa murmured softly in calm acceptance.
==
Chapter 2
It had been three years since the defeat of Ultimecia and Balamb Garden was still the same as ever. There were new changes such as Xu being appointed as the Headmistress while Cid retired to the orphanage with Edea, an increase in the supply of hotdogs, more parties and new faces. The card game Triple Triad is as popular as ever, but this semester collecting level 7 cards were no longer the craze, this year it was all about collecting the magazine Timber Maniacs. All students now boast of having at least 2 copies in their growing stash; even Zell, Selphie and Irvine were not spared from the craze.
"Look!! Tee hee, I got the latest edition!" Selphie jumped in joy as she retrieved her copy from her personal mailbox outside her room. Down the hallway, most of the students were busy picking up their own copy and reading the latest article from the hottest columnist, Julia Storm.
"Damn! I forgot to pay for it. . ..guess I won't be reading it." Zell cursed as he slouched sadly in a corner.
"Oh come on Zell, I'll lend you my copy after I'm done with it." Irvine offered as he shrugged in his typical good-hearted way. Immediately Zell brightened up before he started looking depressed again.
"Yo, do you all remember what happened on this date today?" Zell asked in a heavy tone.
Irvine and Selphie looked at each other before they remembered.
Dejectedly, Irvine leaned against the wall outside Selphie's room.
"Yeah. . .I wonder where she is." Irvine answered his tone thoughtful.
"Poor Squall, he's shutting everyone out again." Selphie bowed her head down in sadness.
"At least Quistis is still here for him." Zell said in hope of brightening the mood. It was a bad move.
Irvine sighed. "Squall does not look very interested in her you know. . .hell, he's not dating anyone at all."
Selphie bit her lip. "Do you think. . .Squall misses Rinoa?" She blurted out. Zell and Irvine stared at her before the both of them rolled their eyes.
"Bloody hell, he does and he don't wanna admit it!" Zell said in a frustrated tone.
"He didn't even searched for her." Irvine sighed.
"Maybe. . .maybe Quistis will make him happy." Selphie offered the idea optimistically.
But the three of them knew that the possibility of that was highly unlikely.
==
"Yo, Quisty! Over here!" Zell shouted across the cafeteria. Gratefully, Quistis steered away from the Trepies and carried her food-laden tray towards Zell's table. "Thanks Zell. You're a life saviour." Quistis settled down onto the chair opposite Zell, her tense muscles relaxing.
"No problem." Zell said somewhat incoherently while chewing his seventh hotdog. "So how's your day, Quisty?"
"It's a long one. Some student got lost in the training area unarmed during the Introduction to Dangerous Beasts Class. . ." Quistis paused to shake her head in exasperation. "And I had to stop the whole class to find him."
"Did he get eaten up by a T-Rex?" Zell asked innocently.
Quistis laughed and shook her head. "No, but he did get punished. Xu is making sure of that."
"Xu needs a new disciplinary department soon. This semester is full of scamps and weasels." Zell commented as he proceeded to attack his eighth hotdog.
"Like, the two cousins? Xavier and Leena?" Quistis asked.
At the mention of the two devils' names, Zell shuddered in fear and stopped eating his hotdog. Quistis laughed again at his reaction. Those two are taking lessons on martial arts from Zell and he sorely regretted taking up the mentor ship offer. Those two were driving him out of his mind.
At that moment, Selphie and Irvine walked towards them. To be more accurate Irvine was strolling and Selphie was hopping.
"Hey guys, did you see Squall anywhere?" Selphie asked as her eyes scanned the whole cafeteria for their leader and good friend, Squall. At the mention of Squall's name, Quistis cheery disposition faded. "Yes, he's busy drowning himself in paperwork in his office." She answered briskly in a detached tone before turning her attention to her soup again.
"Oh, what a waste, just wanna ask him something." Selphie sighed.
"Oh come on Sefie, let him off will ya?" Irvine asked as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"Irvy!" Selphie pouted. Zell was definitely very interested in what was happening.
"So whatcha wanna ask him Sefie?" Zell asked loudly, being somewhere in his ninth hotdog.
"I just wanna ask him if he has two pulse ammos. Nida needs it to upgrade his weapon." Saying so, Selphie glared at Irvine.
"Hey, I really ran out of it, Sefie. Don't you believe me?"
"I think I have one, you can have it." Quistis offered. Cheerfully, Selphie chirped her thanks to Quistis.
"Oh come one Sefie, I know why you wanna help Nida." Zell took another big bite out of his ninth hotdog. "You lost your card to him in a card game did you?"
"Yeah and Irvy refused to help me get my card back!" Selphie stomped her foot in disgust at her boyfriend's unwillingness to help her out.
"Oh right, oh right you win. Here ya go Sefie." Irvine threw his hands up in exasperation and tossed her the two pulse ammos he just dug out from his trench coat pocket. Squealing in delight, Selphie then ran off to find Nida leaving Irvine behind to deal with two spectators who were trying not to laugh.
"That will teach you not to mess with Selphie Tilmitt, Irvine." Quistis said with a smile.
"She can be quite a handful, ya know." Zell added his two cents worth before attacking his tenth hotdog.
Ruefully Irvine scratched the back of his neck before he shrugged. "Well if ya can't beat them, join them. Hey Zell, can I have that last hotdog?"
==
Squall sat at his desk, staring at the pile of paperwork. He hated this. He hated being a Commander. He hated today. He hated the memories today brought. To hell with all of it. Grabbing his Lionheart, which was leaning against the side of the desk, he strode out of his office with ground eating strides. A T-Rex now will do him more good than a day's worth of paperwork.
But when he got to the Training Area, his heart ached in pain and he frowned. The memories of training with Rinoa in this Center was painful. The memories of celebrating his birthday here with Rinoa burned inside his head. The more he tried to forget her, the more he remembered. Each smile, each peal of laughter, each frown, and every single angry pout. Rinoa. . .
Irvine and Zell told him to let it go and that Rinoa will never come back again. He knew that they were telling the truth. Nobody knew where Rinoa went, or more likely Sorceress Rinoa, he thought with disgust. Sorceress, they could only see her as a sorceress not a human being. And she, she had tried so hard to control her powers, powers that were beyond anybody's understanding.
"Damn it! Stop thinking of her! She's not coming back!" All the Gardens' informants around the world did not know where Sorceress Rinoa went. It was as if she was never born, it was as if she had died. "No! She's alive!"
Furious and irritated Squall skulked deep into the undergrowth wanting to hit something or anything, just to drive away the pain in his soul, even if it was just for a while. If it were not for his friends, he doubted that he would stay sane. Zell, Irvine, Selphie and . . . .Quistis had been there for him no matter how busy they were. They left him alone to sort his thoughts out but when he needed someone's presence to drive away the loneliness, they were more than glad to hang out with him. Especially Quistis.
Irvine words then started burning in his mind. "Ya know, maybe you should go out again. . .who knows maybe you'll find someone special again." Highly unlikely, Squall frowned at that thought. "Quistis is always there for you, she cares a lot about you. Squall, maybe you should give her a chance and yourself too." Zell's words echoed in his mind. "Squall, someday you'll need to know if Rinoa is the only one for you. . . if she is, go for it! Look for her. I know for sure, that she. . .misses you. I can feel it." Selphie's emerald green eyes burned in his mind. "She loves you a lot Squall. . .for you she would do anything, you should believe in that!"
Confused, Squall shook his head and tried to block out all thoughts. Partially succeeding, he continued his search for a bloody T-Rex.
==
A Sorceress, what does it mean to be a sorceress? Does it mean to be a figure of fear and power? A figure of invulnerability? Or a figure of loneliness and pain?
She sighed as she walked across the rocky ground on the hills nearby Winhill. Rinoa did not know how to answer those philosophical questions. For a moment, she wished she could seek out Edea, but that was out of the question; Rinoa wished to remain hidden from the world. No doubt, there would be SeeDs guarding Edea just in case Sorceress Rinoa popped out. Rinoa frowned at that thought. At her side, a blissfully ignorant Angelo was alert for signs of danger.
In the past two weeks, Rinoa had learnt more about her powers and herself. After doing extensive research, she finally knew why Sorceress were solitary creatures and why they have knights.
"It was because they are lonely. . ."
What she had learnt from an old lady's library had toppled her world apart. The old lady was so old that her skin was almost translucent and her hair as white as snow. Living at the outskirts of Winhill, she was able to pursue her hobby of collecting rare books in peace and... away from the world's prying eyes.
Of course, Rinoa went to pay the old lady a visit because of her library. Digging through the ancient books and translating what little she can, she learnt a lot more about sorceresses than what was known to the outer world. The sorceresses throughout time, as soon as they receive the powers, have a tendency to die young. The power burned them from the inside slowly but surely like poison eating away at their insides. For survival and a longer life expectancy, they had to pass their powers to a successor. Needless to say, the sooner the better.
Due to their powers, sorceresses was not able to get intimate with any man and neither can they give birth. Children of any sorceress usually die in the womb before they were even born. Those that survived were very weak and perished very quickly. Men that were intimate with a sorceress suffered more or less the same fate. Usually, the power consumes any living flesh that forms a physical bond with the sorceress, be it blood bond or sexual bond. For that reason alone, sorceresses have knights to keep them company for the rest of their lonely life. "Now I know why Edea never had her own child. An orphanage by the sea... that's some kind of alternative, I guess." Rinoa wondered out loud. She reached down to pat Angelo's head, as if a simple touch could ease the empty loneliness that stalked her life. Someday, before she could become old and toothless, she would die from loneliness and her power first.
"I have no Knight. Only you Angelo. . ." Rinoa murmured softly in calm acceptance.
==