The Path Of Time
Chapter Two
"Most people change kind of slowly. They're who they are and then after a while, they're someone else. But some people know the exact moment when their lives changed. They saw the person they were going to marry or the look in their baby's eyes the first time he smiled. For some people, it's not the good things in life that made them change. It's something they've gone through that makes everything they look at from that moment on seem very different from how it had always been."
Allie Keys (Steven Spielberg's Taken)
She was nothing more than a child.
That was the first thought which entered the General's mind. He studied the girl for a moment, she had long scarlet hair that made it's way down her back, and her eyes were an emerald colour; he guessed that she was no older than twenty. President Deling had been right about one thing, he thought grimly, she was young and harmless. She looked innocent, so incapable of such powers that his colleague had described so strong the day before. Yet he knew from experience that he would not be fooled by her looks, he made it a priority to make sure that she did not get too much publicity.
The President walked forward, with the young Sorceress by his side, towards Caraway. "This is Eve," he said, beaming at the General. He turned to the young woman, "Eve, I'd like you to meet one of my best soldiers, this is General Fury Caraway."
The General forced a smile, holding out his hand in a polite gesture, "It's nice to finally meet you," he spoke, forcing kindness in his voice.
"I've heard a lot about you from the President," she spoke, her young voice hit Caraway's ears. "I appreciate what you and President Deling are doing for me." She shook his hand, smiling up at him all the time.
I wasn't the one who trusted you, Caraway thought to himself. Behind Eve he could see the President giving him a hard look, a look that he realised meant to go along with what she was saying. "It was the least we could do, you healed a lot of my army," he said with another forced smile. "And it's about time people stopped living in fear from Sorceress'."
"Yes…" she smiled, suddenly looking uncomfortable. "I heard about your daughter," she said, almost in a whisper. Her words were soft, but they sent a sharp pain to the pit of his stomach. He felt his heart sink slightly, the friendly shell he had built towards the girl now felt cracked. "I'm sorry. If the time comes, I will see if I can help her." She gave another warm smile.
"Thank you," he said gravely. There's nothing you can do for my daughter.
The President stepped forward, turning to Caraway. "I have business for you to attend," he said, taking on a more serious tone now that all the formalities were over. He realised that it was a big mistake allowing Caraway to meet Eve at such short notice. "I want you to go to Esthar. They're keeping Rinoa in Odine's laboratory, I want you to take your army there and bring the Sorceress to Deling City. She doesn't belong in Esthar."
For a brief moment Caraway saw a flash in the Presidents eyes. It was a look that his father once had. The hunger for power. It angered the General that he was already discussing such matters in front of a Sorceress. Eve stood looking uncomfortable between the two. He watched for a brief moment as she stared out a window, playing with her hands nervously, and then turned his gaze back onto the President. "Esthar agreed to take care of her, you know that."
"I also know what she did to my soldiers," he said callously. "Esthar have nothing to do with this. It's between the Sorceress and us. You know that as well as I do." His voice took on a slightly softer tone. "We all just want to establish what happened. She'll be less of a burden in Deling City."
The General nodded his head reluctantly. He knew that nothing he said would change the Presidents mind. He saluted, showing that he was willing to abide the mans orders.
"You are to go at dawn tomorrow," the President said. "Get your soldiers ready for then."
Caraway saluted once more, then exited President Deling's residence. He felt slightly nervous about the idea if taking his daughter. In the last four years he had seen Rinoa a few times. For a while they even developed a small bond together, he even made her smile like he used to be able to do on one occasion. However their relationship faltered when they had a disagreement. It seemed that over the last year without word from his daughter he had given up hope on ever being a father.
The day passed slowly. He briefed his soldiers on what their mission was and made preparations for the rest of the day. He knew that there would probably be a battle within the next twenty-four hours. He could sense that the Estharians would not give up a Sorceress that easy, no matter what the consequences.
By early evening he found himself with nothing to do, so decided to take an evening walk. He often did this when he felt troubled. He'd walk deep in his thoughts, usually finding himself stood at the foot of his wife's grave. The General stared down at the engraved letters delicately engraved in the marble stone. A part of him wished deep down that they would lose the battle tomorrow. He felt like his daughter was safer if she was kept far away from Deling City. Even though she was in a laboratory, he felt that even such conditions would be safer than having to face the consequences for her actions.
He wished that he knew what Rinoa was thinking. She had always been unpredictable, but to kill someone in cold blood? That was something that just seemed alien in his mind. How could she do something like that? He longed to hear news that it was not Rinoa that had caused all of the damage over the last few months, yet he knew that it would never happen. She was there in the building. Alone.
The General looked down at his wife's grave as if it held somewhere within it the answers of what was going through his mind.
"You shouldn't suffer like this."
Caraway turned around to the familiar voice. The tall slender blonde woman stood looking at him with a worried expression. The reason why Rinoa had stopped speaking to him.
"I'm not suffering," he said to his fiancé, turning away from the grave. "Have you been following me?"
Maya shook her head. "Richard told me about your mission tomorrow," she started. She was a close friend to the Deling family, although she was nothing like them. Since Richard Deling had become President, the Caraway had got to know her. She was a kind and understanding woman. She made him feel confident just by being with him. It seemed that Rinoa didn't feel the same about her when he told her the news. He only blamed himself though; he had kept the engagement from her. Rinoa had thought that they were simply close friends, and she wasn't too keen on the idea then either. It pained him to think that he lost his daughter over this woman. Maya took his arm as they walked out of the cemetery. "You don't have to go if you don't want to," she said softly.
She felt his arm stiffen slightly. "I must," he said, the previous thoughts returning to him once more.
The sun was shining through the gaps between the blinds, refracting the light as it hit the floor of the room and cast shadows across the bed. He had been by her side the whole night, and a part of her knew that she should be grateful. He could have left her or not even bothered to come in the first place with the perception that she was a corrupt Sorceress. She should be happy and grateful that he was here. But she wasn't. It only made things worse.
The guilt had enveloped her what seemed like aeons ago. She had been living in fear of herself for a long time, but that was not enough to stop her from doing everything. Her body ached for sleep as she lay on the bed. She hadn't slept for so long, deeply afraid of the dreams that haunted her. If only they were dreams, she thought to herself. They were real. Her guilt made sure that she never forgot what she had done. It was like a parent grabbing your hand and showing you what a mess you made when you drew on the walls. Look at what you have done. That was what her mind was telling her whenever she fell asleep. No, it was not going to give her the satisfaction of letting her rest peacefully. It wanted to twist her mind until she woke up screaming in fear.
No longer did she want to sleep, she felt she didn't deserve it for all that she had done. Sometimes she wished if she would torture her body enough it would fail her completely. But it never did. She sometimes dozed, but even then sometimes the images would come back vividly. She had not slept properly in months, ever since she had messed up. Made a terrible mistake, which had started everything off.
She closed her eyes, tired off looking at the sterile walls that surrounded her, and the silhouette of Squall in the corner of her eye. She refused to look at him. She did not wish him to be dragged into all of her wrong. The darkness almost seemed comforting for a moment. Then the images came.
At first it was the laughter. The innocent laughter that she still remembered so clearly. She opened her eyes and saw that she was no longer within the white room. She was back in Dollet. A place she had visited a few months back. There was something growing deep inside of her, her head began to pound as she sat down on a bench within the town. The innocent laughter had distracted her from her thoughts. She looked up to see a young girl playing outside with a ball.
The laughter continued, it suddenly became twisted until to Rinoa, it sounded awful. Irritating her ears. It was like someone scraping their nails down a chalkboard. Suddenly she felt like she hated this girl. She hated the innocent look on her face as she played in the sun. One day she'll hurt someone, the thought came to her. She'll mock and taunt and laugh. "She won't be this innocent anymore," Rinoa finished out loud. "She needs to be taught a lesson."
Rinoa stood slowly from the bench, the headache from earlier now long forgotten. Her only thoughts consisted of this girl. This innocent little girl. She stepped forward, approaching the young girl.
"I'm trying to see how high I can throw the ball," the girl said as she noticed Rinoa stood beside her. The wind blew through her curly locks of blonde hair.
A vision suddenly swept over Rinoa, and the scenery melted away. For a brief moment she was left in darkness. Then she was stood above a bed. A young woman was sleeping in the bed next to a man. She knew who the girl was, the long curls of blonde hair travelling down the girl's back showed Rinoa exactly who this girl was. The man the girl was lying naked in bed with was supposed to be in love with someone else. The girl's friend was unaware of what was happening behind her back. Rinoa stopped in her thoughts for a moment. No, she had had doubts, but she had pushed it to the back of her mind. It was as if she was the girl's friend, looking on as she saw the two of them together. A smile delicately fixed on the blonde woman's lips. She got what she wanted.
It felt like Rinoa was the one being betrayed, as if she were the one being betrayed by her friend. Stood at the doorway, feeling the love for the man melt away and form into anger. An icy wind blew on Rinoa's face and she was back in Dollet, stood watching the girl. What was that? A small part of her mind told her that she was just being paranoid, that her mind had made up the situation in her anger. Yet a bigger part of her knew that what she had just seen was the truth. The cold wind numbed her skin once more; it was as if the wind wanted to show her what the girl would become.
Not so innocent anymore.
The girl looked up at her expectantly, the ball grasped between her little pale hands. "Do you want to play ball?" the pools of watery blue eyes asked her. They were naïve, unaware of what they would become.
A sudden burst of anger swept over Rinoa; the first time she realised what it was really like to feel hate and anger. The images of her cherry lips smiling as she lay in the arms of the man swept back into her mind again. She lost control. Her hand slapped across the child's face with a loud clap. "You bitch," she screeched, no longer feeling that she was only a little girl.
For a moment there was silence. The ball had dropped out of the girl's hands at the blow to her face, and was now rolling away from the two. It rolled away from the young Sorceress, as if it knew what was to come. The girl raised a hand to her reddening cheek, a wail starting to erupt from her throat as the tears began to make tracks down the girl's face.
There was another terrified scream as a woman came out of a house nearby. She wore a horrified expression as she looked from Rinoa to her daughter. Her breathing was quick and shallow. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" she yelled as she pulled her scared child close. Her eyes kept shifting from the girl's red and drenched face, and then back to Rinoa.
She could have left it there and walked away. But no, she had seen what this stupid girl was going to grow up like, and she wanted her to suffer. Deep inside her body Rinoa could feel her Sorceress powers bubbling as if they were boiling within her. No, she wanted this girl to suffer badly.
"She needs to be taught a lesson," Rinoa said, hearing her own voice seem more dominating than usual. It seemed so full of energy. For the first time in her life, she wanted to hurt someone badly. She really wanted to. "Your daughter is a betrayer," she said hearing a conversation between the two girls in her mind. She said he wasn't her type, but secretly she was jealous of her friend.
"Who are you?" the woman asked in desperation pulling her daughter closer to her. "Stay away from my daughter."
Rinoa held out her arm in the air, she had never really used her Sorceress powers very often, but it was if her mind already knew how to use them. She pulled her arm to the left, and the woman was pushed away by an invisible force. All the time, a foreign excitement was growing inside of Rinoa. She couldn't help the smile forming on her lips as she watched the terrified girl stood alone on the path. Her cheeks moist and her eyes wide in fear.
She could feel the bubbling powers building up within her arm, until a fireball flew out and blasted at the girl. Rinoa stood still, crossing her arms over the chest and watching as the girl ran around the street screaming in pain as the fire burnt her skin. She stood watching as other people looked on in horror, and tried to help the girl. All to no avail. Rinoa was taking control, and no one was going to stop her. She watched the girl burn until she fell on the ground and eventually stopped moving. The girl's charred and lifeless face starred back at Rinoa. She didn't feel it back then, the power within her was like ecstasy then, but now that blackened face haunted her.
She left Dollet, feeling weak after the strong use of her powers. It was a feeling she began to grow used to as she developed; yet the feeling of satisfaction had been within her. The first person she had killed was an innocent child.
She forced her eyes open and looked around the sterile room. She let out a small scream as she saw the young girl stood before her bed. Her blonde curls of hair were burnt to her scalp in various places, the remaining strands were drenched in dried blackened blood. The girls scorched and blistered face looked down at Rinoa.
She felt her heart pumping wildly beneath her chest as her eyes filled with tears of guilt. The girl always came back with the guilt, never letting her forget. "Stay away from me," she screamed. She launched towards the girl, feeling the soft skin between her hands and bury beneath her nails.
"Rinoa…"
Rinoa looked around her, suddenly seeing that the girl was gone. Her hands were clasped around Squall's face. Red scratches from her nails were beginning to bleed from his cheeks. She ran away from him as he tried to hold her. She had seen the look of sympathy within his eyes. Kneeling down next to the wall so she could not see him, she began to cry. Mourning the girl that she had killed along with all the other people that she had tortured. There were too many corpses lurking within her mind.
She cried in fear of herself.
Authors note: Sorry it took so long to update! School has been taking up too much of my spare time, unfortunately. Hopefully I should be able to update sooner, but at the moment it's hard to find time to write so just bear with me. Oh and from now on I might be using quotes from the TV program 'Taken' by Steven Spielberg as seen above in this chapter because they're very inspirational and I love them. They also seem to fit into my story quite well so it's all good!
Thanks to those who reviewed: IttanMomen, Lioness Heart, Rin and Steven. Thank youu!
