Chapter 10-Unitl I See the First Star of Fall

"Squall, my knight." There was a small thrill in the Sorceress's voice. "You came."

Sora gazed between the two adults. Leon? Leon was her knight? But she called him by a different name, Squall, and judging from the look on the man's face, Leon was who she claimed he was. Everything clicked into place; lions, storms, and even the flowers.

"I'm here, Rinoa." Leon shifted his gunblade on his shoulder. "Now let them go."

Rinoa ignored his request."You came, like you said you would."

She moved past Sora, who sat forgotten amongst the flowers. Leon muttered something, too low for Sora to hear, but Quistis and Irvine nodded, slowly moving away from Leon, each taking a different direction to circle round the sorceress.

"Sora, are you alright?" Kairi's voice came from his side, indicating her arrival.

"Yeah," he replied, eyes still rooted on the pair, watching as Rinoa stopped halfway between himself and Leon.

"Sora?" Kairi's hand came to rest on his arm, and he shook himself out his trance, turning to Kairi. She looked relieved when he looked at her and smiled, throwing in an, 'I'm fine', for good measure. Kairi's soft smile was his reward. Beside him, Cloud shifted. Sora wasn't the only one paying attention to the lovers' conversation.

Cloud shifted uncomfortably as the confrontation between the sorceress and her knight continued; he just knew that he wouldn't want to be here as they talked.

Rinoa's voice drifted over to them. "You'll take me away."

"Rinoa, you need to stay here." As Leon spoke, Cloud heard a small whispered 'hey' by his side. Looking to his side he saw Irvine crouched beside him. Glad of the chance to take his attention away from the lovers, he focused on the cowboy's words instead.

"Quistis is helping out their friend," and he nodded to Sora and Kairi, who didn't seem to have noticed Irvine's arrival; the centre of their attention was still the two lovers. "When they get here, we'll get the hell outta here."

"What about Leon?"

"He'll distract her." Irvine smile at him. "Leon'll be fine."

Cloud looked uncertainly back at the couple, his previous conversation with Leon returning to him. Leon's doubts, the promise he'd managed to extract from Cloud. The blond trusted Leon with his life – he'd fought beside him last year – but this was different. This wasn't a matter of physical strength, it was mental and emotional. Cloud knew all about inner demons and darkness. After all, he had his own walking, talking, killing 'inner' demon called Sephiroth. His, like Leon's, had physical shape, but unlike Leon's, his wasn't his lover.

"Leon is the safest one here," Irvine reassured him, though he didn't seem that comforted by the idea. "He just needs to occupy her till we can leave."

"You're not yourself, Rinoa." Leon's voice cut through the air to him.

The sorceress laughed. "Not myself? Then who am I?"

Leon's jaw tightened and Cloud looked round, wondering how long Quistis was going to take. How long could it take to get one boy anyway?

"You're not my Rinoa."

"Not your Rinoa?" She sounded amused. "Shall we see what 'Your Rinoa' thinks."

Oh, dear. Cloud really did not like the sound of that. This could not be going anywhere good.

The woman suddenly fell to her knees, a small gasp escaping her lips. Her breaths were emerging more like sobs than anything else.

"Squall?" The name came out in a small moan, a soft, almost pitiful contrast to her previous harshness. Cloud was sure that, if he could see her face, the change would be reflected there as well.

"Rinoa?" There was a more hopeful undercurrent to that simple word then Cloud had ever heard from the older man. As Leon took several steps forward, Cloud's discomfort increased, feeling like an intruder in a private moment. As if he'd walked in on lovers in the heat of the moment.

"Squall, please." She looked up at Leon, her voice becoming pleading. He had no idea what was coming, but he just knew that he didn't want to be here. "Please, kill me."

Leon froze in place, taking on roughly the same pallor as a corpse. All Cloud could do was stop his internal squirming from showing, thinking about how disappearing would be a great option now. This, or something very similar, was what he had wanted to avoid hearing.

"Ready to go." Quistis's voice came from just behind him. If Cloud was a hugging person, Quistis wouldn't be able to breathe now. Looking back at the woman, he tried to distance himself from the scene, wondering how she managed to stay so composed. He didn't what to be hearing Rinoa ask her husband to kill her again, or see Leon look so utterly helpless. He nodded to Quistis.

Turning, with a quick flick of her hand, Quistis opened the doorway back to the guard room.

From the corner of his eye, Cloud saw the sorceress stiffen, the distressed atmosphere draining away. In a steady movement, she rose to her feet and turned towards them. Cloud stood, one hand once again on his sword handle.

"How kind of you to open the door," she began. "But it's not very nice to leave too soon."

She took a step between towards them, and suddenly Leon was there. Standing between his friends and his wife; blocking Rinoa's path.

"Go," he commanded. When they hesitated, he barked, "Now!"

Cloud looked down to the teenagers at his feet; Sora was still gawking at the sorceress's earlier words, his eyes still wide, while Kairi at least had the decency to control herself a little more. He took a handful of the back of the boy's shirt, pulling him to his feet. "You two go first."

This seemed to snap the boy out of it. "But-"

Quistis interrupted him. "Riku's injured his ankle, so I need you two to take him back first." Sure enough Riku was leaning heavily against the older woman, his right foot brushing the tips of the grass. "We'll be right behind you."

"Trust us," Irvine added, giving them a little push in the right direction. "We don't wanna stick around."

"Squall," the sorceress sighed. "You'll let them get away."

Sora took one of his friend's arms. "You'll be right behind us?" Kairi imitated his action, taking Riku's other side.

"Irvine will be right behind you."

As if to prove her point, Irvine stepped forward, right behind the youths. Taking the hint, they disappeared through the doorway.

Irvine glanced at Quistis. "See ya in a minute – just don't forget Romeo over there," and he too disappeared.

Quistis turned to Cloud, but he cut her off. "I'll get Leon. You go first; I've got the closing key anyway."

"They're almost gone. You're not being a very good knight. You're supposed to listen to what I say."

Perhaps it was because she didn't have time to argue, but reluctantly, she agreed. "Just make sure he goes first or you're holding onto him."

Cloud didn't wait to see her leave, turning to the last remaining person that they wanted to pass through. Leon was backing away from his wife, towards Cloud, but his action seemed more automatic then a conscious action.

"Did you hear that, Leon?" His call received no answer, just the continuation of a slowly retreating back. "Leon, hurry up."

It was Rinoa who spoke instead, but not to him. "You'll stay, won't you Squall? My loyal knight. Stay and all is forgiven."

Cloud stepped forward and to the side, allowing him to see Leon's face. The man's entire attention was on the woman in front of him, but unlike before, his expression had weakened, more uncertain then ever, pushing Cloud to new measures. "Squall!"

He wasn't sure if it was his voice, the use of his real name, or perhaps the slight hint of panic that ran in his voice, but Leon blinked, and looked sideways at him.

Relaxing ever-so-slightly Cloud continued. "We need to go."

Leon nodded, and made to turn back.

He wasn't sure how it had happened, maybe he blinked, but mid-turn Rinoa had moved to her husband, white wings spread wide, feet not quite touching the ground. She smiled, and, placing her hand on the other man's cheek, turned his face to look up at her. Leon's eyes widened, locking with the woman's, his gunblade dangling forgotten in his hand.

"Squall," she whispered.

"Leon!" Cloud called again, but there wasn't even a flicker of recognition in the older man's eyes, "Leon! Squall!" It was useless; the man was oblivious to everything but the woman in front of him. He pushed down the increasing frustration growing from his panic. He took a step forward, ready to grab the man and physically drag him back if need be. "Leon, this is not the time to get reacquainted with your wife."

His arm was extended half way to his friend, when the sorceress raised her arm up, her gaze never leaving Leon's. As if on signal, Cloud stopped, his eyes trained on the arm, but before he had a chance to act further, she made her move. He had barely registered the flick of her wrist when something hit him square in the chest. The force of the blow sent him flying backwards, not only across the meadow, but also through the gateway.

This was bad. The gate closed around him as he went through, locking him out and Leon in. He flew out the other side and across the room. The room blurred past – that was, until he hit the wall. He felt the air rush out of him as his back painfully smacked against the wall, but not half as painfully as when the back of his head followed suit. His legs crumbled under him as he slid down the wall, taking deep breaths as he failed to right his world before it went black.

(&)

Leon's eyes were locked with hers, filling his head, chasing away all other thoughts.

"Squall." The voice was deeper then he remembered, but it was hers, and it seemed to drag him deeper under. He could ignore the unnatural aura surrounding them if he just kept looking into her eyes. As they moved towards him, they seemed to swallow him whole, making the world fall away. He was unaware that anything else existed, until soft lips brushed against his. The gunblade fell, unnoticed, from his grasp and he reached up to cradle her head, deepening the kiss. He felt her smile and the kiss grew more passionate until he had no breath left and his mind spun.

He broke the kiss, taking great gulps of air. Even after his world stopped spinning, he continued breathing heavily. Something was wrong, very wrong. He was taking vast gulps of air, and yet none of it seemed to reach his lungs. His weak legs gave way under him, sending him crashing to his knees. Something else seemed to reach his lungs instead, and it didn't stop there. It spread through his body, hungry to consume him.

He saw Rinoa's feet by his side and he looked up, realising what was happening. She smiled patiently back.

"I can't have my knight ignoring my wishes, now can I?"

He didn't know how she'd done it, but she may have, quite literally, given him the kiss of death.

End of Chapter 10

Only a few more chapters left, and all of them are now written and waiting to be typed up. I was hoping I'd be done before I went back home, but it looks like it's not to be. Never mind.

Yes, I have given my chapters titles now. It was bugging me, but as I suck at this kinda thing I'm just borrowing the lyrics to the title song. Some of them fit surprising well (especially considering I didn't even bother trying to match them up).