Rinoa quietly stepped foot upon the desolate and barren wasteland where Squall had ended up. Seeing him lie motionless upon the dusty and deserted plain, the sorceress bent over to check on her love. Trying to keep her tears in check, she wrapped her arms around him and frantically searched for a pulse before finally breaking down and crying.
Suddenly, the empty void they were once in lit up in a blink of the eye. The dreary clouds and skyline that once loomed overhead were now gone, replaced by bright blue skies, radiating sunlight, and puffy-white clouds. Flower petals and feathers swirled and danced with the wind all around Rinoa, who suddenly looked up at her new surroundings. A rustle in her arms immediately drew her attention back down, and an expression of relief, joy, and puzzlement all mixed into one dawned upon her dainty face.
"I told you I'd be here waiting," the suddenly conscious man choked out as he slumped upwards off of the ground. "I'm sorry I took a detour."
The raven-haired beauty wore a smile that beamed for miles upon miles at the last comment and said, "I'm here too, just like we promised," gesturing her hand towards the rich landscape they suddenly found themselves in.
"I thought that I had lost you," spoke the brown-haired man slowly, still trying to get over the terrible images that flashed in his mind during time compression. "I don't know what I would've done without you."
Rinoa, touched by the heartfelt words that rarely came out of Squall, was speechless for the first time in her life. Finally, unable to formulate anything as touching as what Squall had said, she hugged him and said, "I'm with you now, and will be for as long as we are together." For eternity I hope….
Squall, clutching onto Rinoa as if she were about to fall a thousand feet, quietly whispered, "I hope so too."
The sorceress helped him onto his feet and said, "Let's go meet the others."
*****
As they entered Balamb Garden, with Squall leaning on Rinoa's small frame for support, the gang was asleep at the front gate, along with Mr. Johnson, the gatekeeper. Zell was leaned up against the gate, snoring loudly. Selphie was asleep and snuggled up next to Irvine, who was talking in his sleep. "Bang, bang," he blurted out every once in a while. Quistis was sprawled out on a bench, seemingly exhausted from their adventures.
Time to wake them up, Rinoa thought. "Hey everybody, look who I found," blurted the raven-haired sorceress as she spotted the SeeDs.
Everyone jumped up from their temporary slumber in surprise, including Mr. Johnson, as Rinoa spoke. Irvine, still groggy from his nap, simply nodded his head and tipped his hat to the pair as Selphie rushed over to greet Rinoa and Squall.
Zell got up and walked over to Squall, slapping him on his back as a welcome back gesture. But Squall fell to the ground, still feeling exhausted from the aftereffects of time compression, and grunted a few obscene words under his breath at Zell before being helped back onto his feet by Rinoa and an apologetic Zell.
Quistis, sighing deeply upon being awoken from her nap, waved and said hello to the pair before proceeding off to her room, needing some much needed rest, apparently more so than the others, who continued to chit-chat into the early morning hours.