Until The End: Dormant

by Sanity Demolisher

UNDERGOING RE-WRITE What creates a monster? Is every villain evil from birth? More often than not, prejudices create the very monsters they fear. What can be done in the name of love and still be morally good and how many bonds can be broken before they are irrevocably damaged? How long does it take when the world is against you before you turn their hate back on them?

10. Part 1: Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"I accepted who I was. But you never did, Squall. You gave up on me."

It hadn't taken Radeen long to discover that his black-haired stranger worked in the large Estharian labs in the center of the city. The Odine laboratories. He would enter the building every morning and leave it periodically to drive other people around the city. When he wasn't driving people around, he spent his time on the third floor.

Radeen's mother had warned him about staying away from the man Odine and his laboratories, and he had for the most part, only occasionally dropping by to look in on the black haired man.

But she'd also told him to stay on SeeD's trail, and his lead had led him back here.

He supposed they were getting desperate if they had gone to Dr. Odine for answers, the supposed expert on the magical powers. Radeen had read copies of the man's work in the castle library. The man was no expert.

But he wouldn't judge them, not when they were doing his work for him, tracking down the girl sorceress.

At the moment however he wasn't interested in the blonde man with the mark on his face, or his brunette partner, or even the friend's apartment where they had been staying. His black haired stranger had exited through the doors and was headed straight towards him. Well… not straight at him, since he was sitting on the roof of the store across and perpendicular from the labs. Even so, he felt himself holding his breath until the man stopped almost underneath him and turned to lean his back against the wall.

Radeen laid an elbow on his thigh and leaned forward to look down at the black hair. He still marveled at the color each time he saw it. The man was looking at a small device in his hands and moving his fingers over it but Radeen didn't know what the little device did besides upset the man. As expected, he cursed and slid the thing into his pocket, before sighing. Unexpectedly, however, Radeen suddenly found himself staring into the man's eyes as he tilted his head back.

They stared at one another for a second and then the man gave a startled shout and ducked forward, raising his arms over his head. He lowered them after a moment and twisted to look up at Radeen again. "Geez, I thought you were falling on me!" He had a singsong voice, low and melodious. Radeen liked it immediately. "What are you doing up there?"

Radeen straightened and place his hands on either side of his knees on the edge of the roof. "I'm watching," he replied, nervous but also a little delighted at this possibility of conversation. He'd talked to people outside of the castle since his escape, but never to someone that made him feel like this man made him feel; curious and enchanted.

The man glanced around himself and then looked back up at him. "Watching what?"

"You."

The man blinked at him blankly, his body tightening, and Radeen pulled back a little wondering what had been wrong with the statement. He'd gotten that look before and was beginning to understand that it occurred when the person got uncomfortable. They never stayed long after they gave him that look.

He didn't want this man to leave. He struggled to find something to say, something to salvage the sudden silence. But before he could come up with something the man spoke. "Oh." It was more a sound than a word. Something to fill the silence. "Well…" he coughed, looking away, and Radeen felt his stomach falling.

But then, the man shoved his hands into his pockets and glanced back up at him under his lashes. There was something in that glance; something that gave Radeen hope. "My name is Radeen," he supplied.

The man's lips twitched slightly. "I'm Kantos."

Radeen said the name to himself silently, treasuring it.

"How did you get up there?" Kantos said suddenly, and Radeen blinked him back into focus. Then he glanced around himself, at the roof he was sitting on and the street below him. "More importantly," Kantos continued. "How are you going to get down?"

This was treading dangerous ground. His mother had been very explicit about him keeping his magic hidden while he was away from the castle. And he didn't want to scare Kantos away. Not when thigs were only just getting interesting. He looked down at the ground beneath him. A jump and a flap of the wings would have been perfect. He'd never jumped from so high without the aid of his wings before but it wasn't that far.

He glanced at Kantos and smiled reassuringly, then pushed himself off the roof.

He heard a shout of surprise, a whoosh of air and then his feet connected with the earth. He bent his knees to absorb the impact and that's when it went wrong. One ankle twisted underneath him and he crumpled over it with a grunt of surprise.

He hardly had time to process what had happened before there were hands on him, pulling him up and patting at him. "Hyne's Balls, you jumped!" Those hands moved to his ankle and Radeen hissed as pain laced up his leg at the contact. "It feels sprained," Kantos said, looking up from where he was kneeling in front of Radeen. "You're lucky it's not broken. What were you thinking!"

Radeen was busy regarding Kantos's hands which were cradling his ankle. The grip was gentle and warm, something he hadn't felt in a long time. He tried to focus on the words asked. Sprained? A Curaga or two and it would be fine. But Kantos didn't know he could heal it himself. So he simply said, "It'll heal," not knowing what else to say.

Kantos glanced back at the Odine laboratories, then turned back. "Come on," he demanded. "There's a clinic on the first floor in that building there. They'll have something that can help." He stood and held out both hands.

Radeen placed his own hands in the other mans' and let himself be pulled up on his good foot, wondering how the man thought he would get them across the street. His question was answered when Kantos moved in close to his side, wrapping a hand around his waist and draping one of Radeen's arms around his shoulders. "Alright, let's go," he said and took a step forward.

Radeen followed his lead and let the shorter man support him since that was what he seemed to want. They were close, really close. Kantos' black hair was just under her nose and he couldn't help but inhale a clean woodsy scent. It was intoxicating.

He shifted closer to the man, and wondered what all his redhead childhood companions would think if he brought this black haired man back with him.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Zell was watching the gloomy sky outside of Quistis' impressive apartment windows when Irvine sighed on the other side of the table from him, his forehead cradled in his interlocked fingers. He'd been staring down into his coffee mug for the last half hour with that melancholy expression. Zell couldn't guess what was going through his friend's head, but he recognized a headache when he saw one. Taking pity on the guy, Zell dug into one of his jacket pockets for a packet of pain relievers and offered them over. Irvine thanked him softly and swallowed them down with a chug of the coffee.

The table between them was scattered with past SeeD reports. With no lead at the moment, they'd backslid into rechecking anything and everything submitted by internationally stationed SeeD. Now that they knew there was possibly a second sorceress alive, XU had conjectured that there might be information regarding her existence in a report, originally disregarded as unrelated.

Zell had only made it through two years of reports though before he found himself reading the same sentence over and over again. There were too many other contemplations fluttering through his mind for him to concentrate, and he'd given the task up as a lot cause. Irvine had given up even before he had. They'd both been locked in their own thoughts ever since, Zell staring out the window and Irvine staring into his coffee.

The sigh had brought Zell's attention back into the room however and to the miserable expression on Irvine's face. He bounced his leg as he considered it. He was fairly certain that whatever was bothering Irvine had to do with whatever he'd seen when he'd had Ellone take him back into Squall's past. He'd brooded in this exact manner after he'd gone back the first time to confirm their friend's deaths.

Now it turned out that he'd lied about the manner of those deaths and kept the details to himself. Which meant, if he was brooding again, that he had once again seen something shocking and was keeping to himself. A good friend would ask, would offer to share the burden. But Zell didn't want to. Learning the truth about the facts Irvine had hidden the first time had hurt.

When he'd received that call about Squall's missed communication, when he'd arrived on the scene to see the evidence of his friend's battle and ultimate ends, he'd lost some of his optimism and joyfulness for life. The tragedy had stolen his innocence and replaced it with cynicism. It had aged him like nothing else could have.

Irvine's reveal that Squall had knowingly tried to drown the mother of his child and that Rinoa had used the very magic that had bonded the two of them together to bring him down… It had taken away even more of his now small reserve for lightheartedness. What was the use of lightheartedness in a world where two people could be reduced to such a point? In a world where love could be transformed into such animosity?

He wasn't sure his lightheartedness could survive learning that there was more heartache to be known.

He had an uneasy feeling that he was going to find out, whether he wanted to or not.

The feeling increased the moment Quistis entered the apartment, a worried expression on her face. She dumped her bag on the couch and came over to the kitchen table they were sitting at and pulled a chair perpendicular to each of them out so she could drop into it heavily. "Well, Ellone is alright," She said as she took her glasses off and rubbed her eyes. "It doesn't look like she's slept all that much. But she assured me she'd be coming back into work tomorrow." She looked over at Irvine with a dark look. "I doubt she'll ever want to speak to you again however. Whatever the two of you did together, it's messed her up pretty badly."

Irvine winced slightly and they both saw it. "What exactly did you make her do?" Quistis asked suspiciously.

"I didn't make her do anything," Irvine answered with an irate look. "She agreed."

"What happened?" Quistis repeated tolerantly, her voice softening. Zell recognized the big sister approach she'd just reverted to, something she did when she was worried about one of them. She had been as aware of Irvine's moodiness as Zell had been. But while he was content to let the brunette fester in it, Quistis would not. He clenched his hands on his knees under the table.

"She got through the block," Irvine finally confided, glancing up to gauge their reactions. "She… shoved me in. But… Squall felt it. He told her to stop, to leave."

Quistis sucked in a breath. "Oh, god," she whispered, her expression stricken. "After all that time where she refused to help because of his request…and then to have him know…" Irvine sighed and went back to staring into his coffee, and Quistis shut her mouth. Zell regarded Quistis, silently pleading with her to leave the topic alone.

Of course she didn't. "Tell me you found something in the memories, something useful? Please tell me you didn't traumatize Ellone for nothing."

Irvine turned a stark look full of horror on Quistis but a second later it was gone. Zell had seen it though. He felt sick. He wanted to leave the table, leave the conversation unfolding behind him, but he couldn't move; his body was frozen. Irvine was shaking off his moody thoughts, sitting up and preparing to give them the important details while keeping everything else quiet, and Zell found that he couldn't move.

"It helped." Irvine answered. "It's why I called for the meeting with Odine."

"You're questions about Adel and Time Compression causing a different reality?"

"Those," Irvine nodded. "I had a lot more. But he got me distracted with the idea of a second sorceress. And then…" he waved a hand in a vague motion. And then Laguna had interrupted the meeting and stolen the doctor away. None of them had seen either man since, and Laguna's aide had said that the president was busy and couldn't be disturbed today.

"Well?" Quistis asked. "What did you see? What added questions did they give us?"

"Ellone skipped through a few memories," he started, "from the time Rinoa told Squall she was pregnant up to the day she put the block on his memories. That I did confirm." he added with emphasis. "Rinoa used some kind of magic to block us out when she realized we were looking into Squall's past. Actually…" and here he looked a little bewildered. "I think I'm the reason she did. I was in a memory when Squall mentioned Laguna's fairies, and that's when she created the block."

Zell tried to work that through his head. Rinoa had prevented them from looking at Squall's memories some time five years ago. But Irvine had only successfully tried looking at memories before the block a few days ago. "So, you went back to find a way around the block and in the process caused Rinoa to create that very block?" he asked, pulled into the conversation despite himself.

Irvine's expression shuttered briefly but then returned to normal. "She just wasn't herself."

"She was pregnant. Every pregnant female is a little testy."

Irvine shook his head. "It was more extreme than that. I think Ellone was concerned, because she took me back to where we both remembered Rinoa acting normal – back right after the war. Then she pulled me forward through a series of memories to try and see where it changed. But there was no one point. It just got progressively worse the further into the pregnancy we went." Here he paused and looked at Quistis. "Quis, did you ever think about the implications of the amber eye color?"

Quistis leaned her elbows on the table. "Of course. They were constant on Ultimecia, and on Edea when Ultimecia possessed her. There was nothing in the records that Selphie and I combed through but we assumed that the color manifested when the magic got the better of their bodies. Zell mentioned that Rinoa's eyes were amber to Dr. Odine? I assumed that you meant during the fight between her and Squall. After the birth." She phrased her last sentence as a question, reading in Irvine's tense posture than something was up.

"It's something I wanted to clarify with Odine." He admitted, looking back and forth between Quistis and Zell. "I wasn't referring to that last memory," he finally said, directing the statement to Quistis. "That was something else I confirmed. I saw Rinoa with amber eyes while she was still pregnant. It was the amber eyes connected with the way she was acting that made me realize it."

"Realize what?"

He leaned forward, lowering his voice. "The amber eyes. What if they're an indication of madness? Of insanity?"

Quistis blinked at him, then stole a glance in Zell's direction. He looked away.

"Think about it," Irvine urged. "Wouldn't you consider wanting to compress time so that you're a living god to be insane?"

"Mad for power. Sure," Quistis answered.

"And Edea. Do you remember the orphanage? Do you remember Edea's outbursts?"

Quistis' brow furrowed. Zell's did too. "Vaguely…? Now that you mention it…"

It started to come back to Zell too. It was how it worked with any of the memories they'd lost while junctioning the Guardian Forces. It took someone or something to trigger the memory back into focus, and even then, the memories were vague, undetailed. But he could vaguely remember something about Edea shattering a cup on a table somewhere.

Irvine watched them struggle with it for a moment. He never had junctioned, even during the war, refusing the implant when it had been offered. He shook his head at them. "Well she had moments where she lost control – froze things by accident. And I remember. Her eyes were always amber when she lost control."

"I don't know if I'd call that insanity, per say," Quistis argued.

Irvine shrugged. "Maybe. All I know for sure is that when Rinoa was at her worst in those memories Ellone took me through, when she was the most… hateful, her eyes were amber. I could see it, looking out from Squall's eyes; see that she'd… lost a regard for morals and consequences." He leaned forward over the table again, grim. "She was looking and acting insane to me, months before she gave birth. I think Squall saw it and that's why he took her to the vacation house."

Zell looked down at his hands, still clenched on his knees. Squall… he was only beginning to grasp the depth of the secrets his friend had kept.

Quistis shook her head. "I concede that something must have gone wrong mentally for her to attack Squall like she did, but you can't convince me Rinoa was truly insane for longer than that day with so little information. You keep saying she was worse. What exactly do you mean? What did Squall see?" Irvine leaned back in his seat and shook his head. "Whatever you think I don't want to hear, I was her friend too," Quistis stated harshly. "I-" she glanced at Zell, saw his grimace "-we, deserve the truth."

But once they had it, would they truly want it?

"Maybe we could wait until Selphie-" Zell started, a last ditch effort to avoid the conversation verbally since he couldn't seem to leave it physically.

But Quistis shook her head, interrupting his plea. "Irvine?"

Irvine stared at her. "You don't want to know. And there's really no point-"

"You're withholding information about the investigation." Quistis interrupted. "I could have you pulled for it."

"Quistis," Irvine sighed, looking pained.

"More importantly," Quistis continued in a softer voice. "I can see it's tearing you apart inside. You don't need to keep it all to yourself. It is not your job to shield us from the truth."

Irvine looked down into coffee mug, avoiding looking at them. He opened his mouth, then closed it. Whatever it was, it was bad. Zell unclenched his fists, placed his palms on the table, trying to brace himself.

Irvine opened his mouth again, slowly. "She was abusing him, mentally and… physically."

Zell heard Quistis' breath leave her in a whoosh. He stared at Irvine and his friend stared back, eyes heavy with sadness. Zell jerked his eyes away from it and stood up, his chair scraping along the floor behind him. Neither Quistis nor Irvine said anything as he stalked away from them to the windows and leaned his head against the glass.

He hugged himself, trying to contain his despair. Rinoa? Abusive? That was beyond anything he could have imagined. It was inconceivable. It was madness.

"I don't understand." Quistis said from the table. "Rinoa would never…"

"Exactly," Irvine replied quietly. "Rinoa wouldn't. But an insane sorceress could and would. It's the only way I can explain what I saw. And it made me think of all the other times I'd seen amber eyes on a Sorceress. What if they're connected? What if there's something about being a sorceress that causes the sorceress to go mad?"

Zell toned out of the conversation after that. Could it be explained so easily? Rinoa went insane because she was a sorceress? Could all this heartache be blamed on something so simple? Something so small?

Did it affect all sorceresses?

The thought brought him back to his earlier contemplations, before Quistis had arrived. About the child sorceress.

He was almost certain now, after having compared the sketch of the child to Rinoa's face.

The child was Squall's and Rinoa's.

The best that he could guess was that Rinoa had had twins. One had survived and one hadn't. One had been buried, and the other had received Rinoa's magic.

He had no proof. He could be wrong. He could be falling into the trap of ignoring the facts in front of him simply because he didn't want to see them. He could just be seeing what he wanted to see because he wanted there to be something left of his two friends, taken from this world so cruelly.

But if he was right, there was a child out there with the genes of two of his friends, a continuation of them both. He grasped the idea close now. Despite what had happened, despite the appalling things that his friends had ended up doing to each other, something beautiful had come from it all. It gave him a sort of comfort.

Except that he wasn't sure he should. A child was a beautiful thing, yes. A child of Squall's and Rinoa's was even more wonderful. But this child had sorceronic power, and that made her a target to SeeD, no matter who her parents had been.

He'd seen Ultimecia's world. He knew there was a very high possibility that the child would become the woman. But if she didn't, and she was Squall and Rinoa's child…

Would she go mad, like it seemed her mother had?

He'd been trying to decide whether or not to tell the gang his theory. Trying to decide if it would change anything to know. Was he doing the exact same thing that Irvine had done, keeping things hidden because he didn't want to cause his friends anymore undue pain? Because, deep down, he feared it would bring more pain than joy if he was right about the girl's parentage.

Because, deep down, he doubted that it would matter in their world of fear.

Zell stopped the thoughts there. He didn't want to think too closely on what would happen once they caught up to the child. First things were first. He needed to see the child with his own eyes and confirm his theory. He wanted to make sure what he was seeing in the sketch was there in reality.

Of course, they'd have to get through the man before they could reach the girl. It was the man that truly baffled Zell. Where had he come from and how had he become involved? It was clear from the last witness's account in Timber that the child considered the man as a father. That argued that he'd been with the child for a while, possibly from the very beginning.

Had he known Squall and Rinoa or was he just a stranger? Had he stumbled on the crime scene and found the second child, alone and an orphan? Had he realized what the child was, or had he discovered it later after taking her in? Did he keep her after the inevitable discovery out of affection or greed?

He didn't know. What he did know was that the man had raised her. He had taken care of her. Zell had seen the house they had lived in, had seen the normalcy of it. The witness had described a functional, clean, happy child and a caring father.

Zell hated him for that, for having that connection to Squall and Rinoa, when he didn't.

"And Rinoa's transfer?" Quistis asked suddenly from behind him. Zell started and glanced over his shoulder. He had no idea what Quistis and Irvine had been saying to each other while he'd been lost in his thoughts, but something had shifted in their tones. "That's why you convinced Ellone to take you back into Squall's memories in the first place, wasn't it?" Quistis continued. "To see if Squall knew anything about where this girl who she gave her magic to came from?"

Zell kept his silence.

"You didn't find anything did you?" Quistis accused when Irvine didn't answer right away.

Irvine grimaced. "If there's any information, it's still hidden behind that block."

"Ellone is not going to give you another chance."

"I know," Irvine snapped. "I'm not going to ask." He looked away, fiddling with his coffee mug. "I don't think it's possible to get through the block, anyways. Not without hurting Squall; physically I mean. It's… not worth that."

So that was it. Irvine's grand plan, broken and ground underfoot. He'd been so sure that he'd find the answers he wanted in Squall's memories. It had helped by sending them to Dr. Odine where they'd learned about the presence of a second sorceress. And it had added credence to Zell's then undeveloped theory. But it wasn't what Irvine had hoped for. And in regards to any details on the child sorceress it'd given them no new leads.

Quistis was looking at the papers scattered on the table as if only then realizing they were there. She picked one up, scanned it and laid it back down again. "This is crazy," she announced, leaning forward into a braced hand. "How are there suddenly two sorceresses?"

"If Dr. Odine is right that Rinoa couldn't have received Adel's power because she already received Edea's, then we have whoever she transferred to and this girl that Rinoa transferred to," Irvine stated.

"I know, I know," Quistis retorted, annoyed, and lifted her face from her hands. "I remember what the doctor said. It's just… all these years and we never even knew?"

"It's not like the transfers are visible," Zell spoke up from where he stood. "We assumed Rinoa had received them because she was the only female there, but it's not like there was a ball of light that passed from one person to another." He turned to face them but didn't move from the window. "We thought there was a distance restriction because Rinoa was near Edea when she got the magic, and Ultimecia traveled literally to Edea's side to transfer her magic, but…"

"But maybe not," Quistis finished. "Do you think it transferred to someone outside of that room?"

"It had to have," Irvine commented. "But did it attach itself to the next closest female or did it find someone farther away? How far away would someone have to be?"

Quistis looked down at herself, her expression troubled. "Do you think it's possible that someone might not know they'd received the powers?"

Irvine guffawed. "It's not you, Quistis."

She looked up and scowled at him. "I know that. But what if…?"

He shrugged. "Well, Edea didn't seem to realize that she'd transferred her magic to Rinoa when we almost killed her that time in Galbadia Garden. She was still worried about Ultimecia possessing her until she tried to use the magic in Esthar and realized it was gone. But Rinoa seemed to know fairly quickly that something had changed once she woke up."

'Well Ultimecia had just possessed her and freed Adel," Zell added wryly.

Quistis removed her glasses so that she could rub at her eyes again. "So what are the facts that we know for sure?" she asked as she replaced her glasses, and held up a hand to tick off. "We know that there are two sorceresses now. We know that a sorceress can't die without giving her magic to someone, and so must be sealed."

"Those are the two things that matter the most," Irvine stated before Quistis could tick off another finger. "We can sit here and question everything to death, but what's the point?

Zell's phone vibrated in his pocket. He reached for it.

"One of us needs to call Selphie," Quistis added from where she sat. "If Dr. Odine was right about there not being any records on Sorceresses because Adel had them all destroyed then it's pointless to have her combing information for references.

Zell couldn't imagine that XU would like that bit of news at all. The 'wall' in their strategy room that Selphie had been working on for years at least made it look like they were making some kind of progress. He accepted the call, not recognizing the number. "Hello?"

"Dincht? It's Carey; on the collection team. About the Timber possessions you called in to have picked up for evidence? We came over to pack them up but there's nothing here."

"What?" Both Irvine and Quistis looked over sharply at his tone.

"There's nothing here." She repeated. "The landlord says a woman by the name of Alina Kristatis picked it all up for a thrift store delivery."

"Thanks Carey," he said and snapped the phone shut. He glanced at Irvine. "We just got our lead. He's in Deling."

"Deling?" Irvine repeated hungrily, shoving aside his coffee and standing.

"I'll explain on the way," Zell answered. "Right now, we need to find a woman named Alina."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Mira? Eva? Nora? Lillian? Annabelle?

Squall sighed and lifted his arm off of his eyes so that he could stare up at the ceiling above him. Annabelle? Chayla and Annabelle? No, Annabelle would inevitably get shortened to Anna or Ann. Chayla and Eva? Eva wasn't too bad. It was short, cute.

Eva?

He whispered it aloud, hesitantly.

Chayla's play chatter stopped briefly and he turned his head sideways to look at her. She had been playing on the floor to the side of the bed, various toys scattered around her, but now she was looking at him with her head cocked. "Eva?" she repeated.

He shook his head and turned back to stare at the ceiling and a moment later her play chatter began again.

Would there be anything left? Would the grave still be there?

He dragged his arm back over his eyes to block out the light. Of course not. SeeD would have swept that place dry. Everything would have been taken in as evidence. He had even counted on it, in the beginning. No one had known there would be twins. They would have found the bones. They would have had no reason to go searching for anything. Child accounted for, mother accounted for, father… well that had been a gamble but with the Blue Dragon prints he had hoped that his death could be explained if not proved.

It had, somehow. The feeling of "fairies" he'd gotten occasionally throughout Rinoa's pregnancy, when someone from the future had been looking back at his past, had never returned. No one had come looking.

Not until two years later. Not until a civilian had seen Chayla's wings in Esthar.

His first daughter had given them that. She had given them those two years. But her remains would have been found, tested… taken.

He only had the memory of her to mourn.

He rubbed a hand roughly over his face and then sat up and left the bed. He didn't have the luxury of mourning. Not now. There were too many questions that needed answers; too many things that were getting out of control. He needed to talk to Alina before SeeD decided to come knocking again. He needed to prevent any knowledge of his and Chayla's presence here getting out. He needed to finish his conversation with Harren so that the man would unjunction himself and leave Squall to his own mind. There were a million things to think about. But, first; he needed to double check on something.

He closed the blinds in the room, then went and shut the bedroom door. Once the room was closed in and he was sure it wasn't possible for anyone to see anything, he sat down in front of Chayla and crossed his legs underneath himself. Chayla grinned at him and put one of her dolls into his hands, instructing him to play along. He moved the doll around indulgently for a little bit before he set it aside gently. "Chayla?"

"Hum?" she responded, pausing in her play and looking up at him with her big grey eyes.

He reached forward and smoothed back her hair from her face. "Have you been feeling okay?"

Her brow scrunched up a little in confusion. "Yea."

Squall drew in a long breath, trying to decide how to word what he wanted to ask. "You haven't felt… angry, at all… have you?" he finally enquired.

Chayla made a face and cocked her head. "No. Are we supposed ta be mad at someone?"

"No." Squall leaned forward and gently pulled the dolls out of her lax hands, setting them aside with the one he'd discarded. "Chayla? Can you do something for me?" Chayla nodded instantly. "Can you bring out your wings for me?"

Her expression shuttered a little. "But… you said ta never open them."

Squall swallowed and nodded. "Yes. And you've been really good at keeping them hidden."

"'Cept when we had ta move," she mumbled, looking down, but not before he caught a glimpse of the shame in her look.

Squall put a finger under her chin and urged her face up so that he could look at her. "That was an accident, Chayla. We all have accidents sometimes. You didn't do anything wrong."

"Yea?" she asked, hopeful.

"Yea," he repeated and her face lit up. Mistake 96, he noted wearily to himself. Don't assume a child won't blame herself because she's young. Next time he'd have to make sure he assured her right after it happens.

Next time… he realized what he was thinking and shook the thought away.

"Daddy?"

"Yes?" he asked, refocusing on her.

She stared at him unhappily. "Do we haf to leave again? Even though I was good? Are the bad guys here?"

Squall sighed and rubbed a hand over his face, cringing silently at her last statement. "They're not bad guys, Chayla."

"But they're after us." Squall nodded. "And they'll take my wings away. And lock us up in dungeons. Those are bad guys' daddy. It's in all the books."

Squall huffed out a laugh, and shook his head in exasperation. "Alright. I guess you're right." There was time enough later to explain it, when she was older and would be able to understand it a little better.

"Do we haf to leave again?" Chayla repeated.

"I don't know," he said truthfully. "They might not know we're here."

If they had only followed Alina here because she had been their neighbor, it could still be safe. Alina just had to stay out of their hands. The thought sent a million others cascading through his mind. Could Alina lie convincingly enough? SeeD were trained to detect lies in body language and tone. She'd never been able to lie convincingly enough to him. Could she stand up against Zell?

Zell…

Squall closed his eyes briefly, derailed by the thought of the blonde SeeD.

He shook it off and opened his eyes. He'd talk to Alina today; decide on how to proceed. But first he needed to make sure that Chayla was alright. The talk with Harren during the night had awakened a long lost burrowed fear that his daughter had inherited Rinoa's madness.

"We'll have to see what happens," he concluded. He braced a hand on his knee and leaned forward slightly. "I know I said that you had to keep your wings hidden, but sometimes, when it's just you and me, we should check them."

"How come?"

"To… make sure that they are still just as beautiful as you are."

Chayla accepted that readily enough and scrunched her eyes closed. A second later they were there, appearing through her shirt and stretching out behind her back, displacing the air with their sudden appearance. Chayla sighed in happiness and opened her eyes as her wings stretched to their full capacity before curling back in a little, as if reveling in the sudden freedom.

Ignoring a twinge in his own back, Squall took them it carefully, trying to ignore his sudden anxiety. It was always a little startling to see them attached to his daughter. There was something fundamentally disquieting to see the wings he'd so often seen on maddened women on a child; on his child. He tried to shake it off and focus on the color.

Pure white. There was no suggestion of any discoloration.

He leaned up on his knees for better reach and nudged one wing back a little so that he could see the spot where feathers and shirt connected at her back. No hint of grey or black there either. He let out a sigh of relief and sat back.

'Well?" Chayla asked, craning her neck to try and see the spot he'd searched.

"Still beautiful," he told her, smiling. "Can you put them away now?"

"Do I have to?" Chayla pouted and her wings stretched out again, one brushing up against the bed.

Squall exhaled heavily. "Please Chayla. It's not safe to have them out."

Chayla looked away, sullen. "When will it be safe?"

"Someday," he promised. When that didn't produce a response he tried again. "Someday I'll take us up into the mountains where it's just you and me, and you can have them out all afternoon."

That seemed to be good enough because Chayla nodded. There was still disappointment in her face but the wings disappeared when she concentrated on it. A scrunch of the eyes was all it took. She opened her eyes and glanced at him and he nodded in gratitude.

And then Rinoa appeared, sitting on the ground next to Chayla. For a moment, he just gaped – the suddenly obvious similarities between mother and daughter hitting him like a punch to the solar plexus. Then he surged forward and pulled Chayla away from her, tucking her against his stomach and twisting a little as if to hide her from the woman.

Rinoa raised an eyebrow.

Harren had been wrong. He'd thought Squall had been on the threshold of fracturing his mind. Squall knew he'd already passed that point a long time ago.

For him it had been a gradual process. Something inside of him had broken that day he'd pushed Rinoa's head under the water. He'd felt it; a crack through his very being. He'd been watching the psychosis develop ever since.

But as long as it didn't affect his ability to keep Chayla safe, he hadn't seen the harm in it. He'd done his research and he knew what his options would be if he sought out some kind of diagnosis from doctors. At best, he'd be medicated up to his gills and useless. At worst he'd be confined somewhere and Chayla would be taken away from him.

No, it had been better to just let it run its course.

Although he supposed it was a little ironic, his checking Chayla's wings for hints of insanity while he was staring his insanity in the eyes.

"Where are your wings?" Rinoa asked in a curious tone.

"My what?"

"Daddy?" Chayla asked, squirming in his hold. "What is it?"

Rinoa stared at him, her eyes turning hard like she thought he was hiding something. "Your wings."

"I don't…" but then he realized. The last time he had seen her had been that night he'd seen those shadow wings during the storm. A twinge of pain coursed through his back at the memory and he winced. He reached behind him with a free hand to place it on his lower back in unease. "I don't have wings," he told Rinoa softly.

Rinoa disagreed. "I saw them. Where did you get them?"

"Daddy?" Chayla whispered and he realized she'd gone completely still against him. He glanced down at her, at her wide eyes focused on him.

Squall cursed to himself silently. He looked up at Rinoa and jerked his head towards the bedroom door. She rolled her eyes but stood up and strolled towards the door and then through it. Slightly surprised that she had acquiesced so easily, he waited until she had disappeared through the door before he loosened his hold on Chayla and shifted her back to the floor by her toys.

"Here," he said, nudging her princess doll into her hands. "Go back to your playing. Daddy's going to go get some medicine for his head."

"Is it an angel?"

Squall was halfway to his feet but he froze and glanced back at his daughter. "What?"

"Hailey says that angels come down from heaven and talk to us sometimes. Is that who you were talking to? Do you have an angel?"

Squall tried to smile for her but was doubtful about its success. "No, Chayla. It's not an angel."

"What is it then? Is it cuz of what happened when you were fighting the monsters?"

Squall settled back on his knees and sighed, letting go of the flimsy hope that he'd be able to get away without explaining. He should have been more careful. Any child catching their parent talking to empty air was going to pry. Chayla was young enough that any made-up excuse would satisfy her but he knew how lies that big always came back biting.

But what did he say? Even he wasn't sure exactly what was real and what wasn't.

The memories. Those were real. He relived events that had happened, whether they were his own or someone else's. He didn't know why he could, or what it meant, but it was real.

The voice in his head. Harren; or Odin. If the memories were real, then Harren's memories he'd seen were real. Which made the man – or guardian force – in his head real. Him being pulled into his own mind was still a mystery, but one for a later deliberation.

The shadow wings. Those had been a hallucination. He had no doubt about that. He'd recognized each pair of wings: Ultimecia's, Adel's and Rinoa's. The ache in his back had been the only real thing that night, and that had no doubt been connected to the splitting headache that he'd fallen asleep with.

And finally, Rinoa.

No one else could see her. He couldn't see her reflection in any mirrors. But she seemed highly aware of his surroundings. She could see everyone else, even if they couldn't see her. He'd seen her staring at Chayla before. She'd threatened Chayla before. And yet she couldn't touch anything. There had been a short time where he'd revaluated his skepticism in the supernatural and wondered if she was a ghost, haunting him. But she proved that wrong herself every time she did things like mention that she could see his hallucinations. That suggested she was just a part of those same hallucinations.

Besides, she was different. She was more lucid than Rinoa had ever been at the end. And she had Rinoa's brown eyes, not the sorceress amber eyes. She was not the same Rinoa, mad with power, who he had killed to save his and his daughter's lives. But she was not the same Rinoa, innocent of cruelty, that she had been before her pregnancy either.

His version of Rinoa was neither Rinoa Heartily nor Rinoa the Sorceress, but something in between.

He rubbed a hand over his face. Great. He had finally taken the time to consciously go over each of the oddities in his life. It didn't help him figure out how to explain to a four year old why he'd been talking to someone that she couldn't see. It didn't help him figure out how to explain that he thought he was a little insane.

"Chayla, I'm…" he looked around the room, trying to put it in the simplest terms he could. "I'm… sick," he finally concluded.

Her eyes widened and she looked him up and down. "Cuz of the Ton-Tonberries?"

"No," he said, rubbing the back of his neck in agitation, wishing the conversation was over already. "Sick inside here," he finally said and pointed to his head. "It makes daddy see things sometimes, things that aren't real."

"Is that why you take medicine?"

"Those… help," he acquiesced hesitantly, then leaned forward and kissed Chayla's forehead. "It doesn't stop me from taking care of you. It's just something that I have to take care of, okay?"

"Okay," Chayla agreed.

Squall lingered for a second, but she just watched him, so he stood and walked to the door. He turned back before he opened it. Chayla was watching him still, worriedly, but she smiled bravely when she saw him looking and gathered her toys around her more securely, picking up two dolls. Not sure if he'd done either of them a favor with the truth, he opened the door and slipped out into the living room, closing the door behind him softly

Rinoa was strolling around the perimeter of the room. She glanced over her shoulder at the sound of the door clicking shut. "Sick?" she repeated. "You think that's what this is?" He stayed in front of the door. Rinoa trailed a hand through the couch as she passed it and cocked her head at him. "You can stand down. I'm not threatening her."

"You have before," he replied, not moving. He knew that she couldn't hurt Chayla, guessed that his mind had conjured up the threat for whatever reason, but he couldn't bring himself to not react to it. It was his job to shield Chayla from any and all threats, no matter how unlikely they were.

Rinoa shrugged "I can't do much in this form, can I?" she said as she continued her pacing along the wall. "Besides, why should I care anymore whether she incinerates the world? No," she added "I've decided I'd rather watch you struggle." She glanced over her shoulder and smiled at him. "You'll destroy yourself trying to suffocate what she's destined to be."

"She's not Ultimecia," he disputed, following her away from the door.

Rinoa turned to meet him. "She's a monster."

Squall stopped in his tracks when she turned towards him and frowned. "Monsters aren't born. They are created."

"Oh?" Rinoa purred and took a step closer. "And what made me the monster, I wonder." Squall stared at her, at a loss for words and Rinoa leaned towards him further, conspiratorially. "Are you sure they don't just evolve? Maybe from an infection?" She smiled and turned away again, continued her pacing.

Squall put a hand on the wall to steady himself. Was that true? Could simply having the magic doom a person into becoming a monster, mad with power? No, he couldn't believe it. Edea hadn't fallen that far and she'd held her magic for almost two decades. Harren had said that Larissa was never as far gone as Adel had been. He'd seen the difference between monstrosity and simple instability; between Ultimecia and Edea, and more recently between Adel and Larissa.

Not all sorceress were monsters.

…So what had pushed Rinoa to that point?

"There are two others out there," he called after her, shying away from the question "two other sorceresses that could be Ultimecia." She didn't seem to hear him, even though he knew she could. He wondered if she'd known already, or if she just didn't care. He licked his lips. "Who did you transfer your magic to?"

That stopped her. She twisted and stared at him. "What?"

"When you died; who did your magic transfer to?"

Rinoa faced him fully, and quirked an eyebrow. "Seeing as how I was choking on all that water in my lungs, I can't say that I know." She shrugged, looking unconcerned. "It was an undirected transfer."

So there would be no help there. Squall didn't let it bother him. As long as this second or third sorceress kept out of his and Chayla's way, he didn't really care who it was. "I notice you don't have any pictures of the family on display." Rinoa said, making a show of looking around the room. "Worried someone will see and put the pieces together?"

"Why do you hate her?" he asked softly.

Rinoa disappeared and appeared right in front of him, causing him to start back in alarm. "Because, you chose her," she snarled. "Not me."

"I didn't-" he started to deny but she swiped a hand at him, through him viciously, and he cut off.

"You did," she hissed, then retracted her arm. "She was supposed to be sealed if she inherited the magic."

"And you were supposed to transfer your magic to Edea so yours could be sealed," he snapped back. "But you didn't!"

Rinoa smiled, suddenly at ease again. "That was when I truly became the monster in your eyes, wasn't it? When I stopped that old witch's heart. After the two of you tried to trick me." He turned away from her expression, sickened, but she followed him around, getting close so she could look him in the eye. "I accepted who I was. But you never did, Squall. You gave up on me." She shrugged her shoulders. "I didn't mind, not really. What I did mind was that you thought she could do any better? Even after what she did to your first daughter."

It was like a punch to the gut. "Rin," he whispered. "I…"

She crossed her arms. "You think that if you love her enough, she'll be able to resist the corruption? Why? Do you think that I became the monster because you stopped loving me? You're giving yourself too much credit. I become the monster long before you stopped loving me."

"I would have found a way, for all three of us," Squall said, backing away from her, trying to find some distance from the revelation of her jealousness.

"Oh?" Rinoa asked. "What were you going to do? Try to explain to SeeD how love could solve everything? Take me with you when you fled and hope I didn't kill the baby?"

"You never gave me a chance to decide," he rebuffed, angry again. "What were you going to do? Reincarnate me into a guardian and then what? Turn her in? Kill her and let the magic transfer to some other unsuspecting person?"

"Been talking to someone with information, have you?" Rinoa murmured.

"How did you know?" he questioned. "That killing me would reincarnate me?"

Rinoa shrugged. "It was a hunch."

"You mean you didn't know it would work?" he asked incredulously.

Rinoa smiled. "I was a monster, remember?"

Squall turned away from her and leaned on the wall. Had she really not known for sure? Had Edea ever known? She'd never tried to reincarnate Cid, ever. He'd thought that was because she hadn't become as insane as Rinoa had, but maybe she'd never known. Ultimecia hadn't stuck around to explain anything to Edea when she transferred her powers.

He rubbed his eyes and then turned back, leaning his back on the wall behind him so that he could watch her. She was standing in the middle of the room, staring down at one of Chayla's abandoned books. With her in profile she looked softer, more like the Rinoa he remembered from early on in the pregnancy. It caused his chest to ache a little.

There was a deeper reason why he had never done anything about his madness. In truth, he didn't want to get rid of the hallucinations. There had always been ways. He could have stolen medication. There had been opportunities and he had the skill. But trying to fix his madness could cause Rinoa to disappear.

It was probably madness in itself, but, despite her threats to his daughter and the way she brought back feelings of hurt and guilt with just a few words, he didn't want her to disappear. She was his only connection to the Rinoa he had once loved; his only connection to the life he'd once had.

He didn't want to lose that.

He took a step away from the wall. "Rinoa?" She looked up at him. "I'm sorry. For… how things turned out."

Her brow furrowed then tightened. "For killing me you mean?"

"For all of it."

She stalked towards him. "I. Don't. Want. Your. Apologies!" She was right in front of him by the time she reached her last word. "I want you to suffer for what you did," she snarled and shoved her arms towards him in angry frustration. Both of them expected her hands to go through him, so when they impacted against his chest and shoved him into the wall, both his breath and Rinoa's stopped. He stared at her and she stared back.

Her hands were cold against his torso.

He looked down at them, but at that same moment the feeling vanished and her hands melted into his chest.

Rinoa jerked them out and took a step back. He pushed a hand against spot that she'd touch, finally gasping out a breath and looked up. "What…?" Rinoa's shocked eyes met his and then she shook her head and disappeared. Squall glanced around the room, but she wasn't in sight. He rushed to the bedroom and yanked open the door. Chayla looked up, but she was alone. Rinoa was gone.

He leaned on the doorframe and rubbed at his chest. The call to Alina would have to wait. He needed to sit down.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Alina watched the phone until it stopped ringing and then sighed. She didn't think she was ready to speak with Shane yet. She needed a little time after Centra to take everything in.

Centra had shown her exactly the kind of life that Shane lived. Not the family life or the life of raising a daughter as a single father, but a life full of monsters and weapons and unknowns. And it had been very clear that she did not fit into that kind of life.

She'd been powerless when that Tonberry had come after her. It was very likely that the dome had been the only thing that had saved her. She didn't' know anything about fighting or defending herself, let alone protecting someone else. She'd been willing to try and lure the monster away to protect Chayla, but she doubted it would have done much in the end. She'd have just gotten herself killed and Chayla would have been alone.

Squall had known what he was doing when he'd outfitted the car with that dome. It had saved hers and Chayla's lives. But it wouldn't have needed to if she had known how to handle the situation. She hadn't. Instead she'd rushed out like she could save Shane, like she could do something; and then realized too late that she couldn't. She'd jeopardized them all with her foolishness.

She'd seen Chayla looking at her from inside the dome; like she didn't understand why Alina was so weak and incompetent. And compared to her father, Alina was. She was useless.

Shane didn't need her. He'd had everything under control long before she'd come along. If she hadn't been there, Chayla would have still been fine. She wouldn't have been able to get out of the dome, but the man would have shown up still and gone into the ruins after Shane.

It would have all turned out the same, regardless of if she'd been there or not.

Right?

She got up from the couch she was sprawled on and walked into the kitchen. No, she decided as she opened the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water. She was falling into a cycle of self-pity, and that never got anyone anywhere.

She took a sip of the water and stood at the counter, looking out the window above the sink. So she couldn't fight. Maybe she didn't have the right to push herself into excursions like that. But that didn't mean that Shane didn't need her.

Shane didn't know anything about things like zoos and bowling and playdates. She was his connection to a world that his past, whatever that was, hadn't prepared him for; to a civilian world? And Chayla always enjoyed having her around, Alina knew. She was a healthy part of their lives.

But was their life healthy for her?

This was the painful topic that kept creeping up on her. The reason why she wasn't sure she should take Shane's call. She'd spent years and years getting over what had happened in Timber when she was a girl, burying the emotions and nightmares. But one afternoon with Shane had brought it all rushing back in full force.

And her actions lately? He was making her do crazy things, trying to rescue him from something she didn't even know anything about. She was in the dark, and she was beginning to think that she always would be. Shane wasn't going to tell her anything important. Not unless something irreversible happened. Or would he fill her in, even then? Maybe he would just leave her behind. Did he think of her as an essential part to his and his daughter's life? She honestly couldn't say. But she could guess.

Something had happened in Shane's past that had caused him to build an impenetrable wall between him and the rest of the world, and she didn't think he was ever going to bring those walls down. Not for her. If he hadn't already, after two years; after all she'd done; after what had happened in those ruins, he wasn't going to.

It was time she accepted that fact.

Was she fooling herself then, thinking that she could do something? Anything? If he wasn't going to open up, what chance did she have of helping him? When did it stop? When was it enough?

She had just wanted to be a friend. She had just wanted to have a friend. But maybe Denna was right. Maybe Shane wasn't the kind of friend she should be associating with. Friendship was two way street, and Shane hadn't given her anything in return but secrets. He'd accepted her; gotten used to her always butting in; had even accepted her help occasionally with Chayla. But he hadn't ever given her a genuine reason to stay.

She'd been following her emotions this whole time. Maybe it was time to do the logical and smart thing.

So what was the smart thing to do?

Her thought process was interrupted by the buzzing of her phone. When it only vibrated once, she knew it was text and not a call. That meant it wasn't Shane. He'd never grasped the art of texting, preferring to make calls instead. Not that he'd ever called her before.

She put the water on the counter and walked back out to the living room where she'd left the phone on the coffee table. It was a text from her sister. She'd left for the library earlier and had been gone most of the day so Alina was glad to hear from her. –On my way home. I've been thinking. We need to talk.-

Alina typed out a quick message. –Agreed. I also need to talk to you.- Maybe talking aloud about it would help her decide what to do.

She was putting the phone back down on the table when there was a knock on the door. She looked at the wood for a second, wondering if she could ignore it. It was for her sister no doubt. She didn't know anyone in Deling who would be visiting her. But she rolled her shoulders and headed for the door. Just because she was in the middle of a life-altering predicament at the moment didn't mean she couldn't be polite and take a message.

She opened the door on two men and immediately suspected that she shouldn't have.

They weren't big men, and they weren't in any uniforms, but intimidation and conviction were rolling off them in waves so potent that she shivered. "Alina Kristatis?" the blonde one asked. He was familiar. He'd been the blonde in the black car; in Timber when she'd gone back for Shane's things. She could see in his eyes that he recognized her too.

"Yes?" she replied, looking between the two men and trying to keep her expression perplexed. Whoever these men where, they weren't here for her sister. "Can I help you?"

"We have a few questions, if you don't mind," the brunette answered, staring at her.

"Who are you?" she demanded, unnerved by the stare.

The blonde, obviously taking the lead, pulled some papers out of his pocket. "We work for SeeD, ma'am." He handed her the papers and she looked down at them in alarm. SeeD? There would be only one reason why a governmental military organization would be looking for her.

Words flashed up at her from the papers as she glanced through it. Legal authority… ability to detect and prosecute crime against the government... Title 28, Section 157… against the law to resist questioning… She felt her breath coming out faster.

"Alina?" she looked up into the eyes of the blonde man. He leaned forward slightly. "Did you, or did you not, take possession of your neighbor's belongings in Timber and bring them here to Deling?"

Aline stared at the blonde man. She wasn't prepared. She was nowhere near prepared for this possibility. She sucked in a breath and tried to shove the door closed in a quick motion, wondering if she could reach her phone. A moment. She just needed a moment. But a boot blocked the door and it was shoved open again.

"Grab her," one of them said, and suddenly she was on the ground gasping, while one of them rolled her over onto her stomach.

"Wait. Wait!" she gasped as her arms were pulled behind her back.

"You'll only be detained for as long as it takes to answer some questions. You will not be mistreated or hurt." One of them was saying while something metal and cool wrapped around her wrists.

Faster than Alina could process, she was being pulled outside of her sister's home and into a car. She had time to see Denna, a block away on foot, watching in horror before she was shut in.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Squall was heating up dinner when the pounding on the door began. He looked over at it, frowning. There were only a few people who knew where they lived, and fewer still who would be pounding on the door like that. He lowered the heat under the skillet and moved to the door, glancing once to determine that Chayla was still lying on the couch with her picture book, and then looked through the peephole. Denna was staring back through it, her attire rumpled and her expression black.

Squall unlocked the dead bolt and opened the door, dread already starting to crush in.

"They took her," Denna stated as soon as the door was open between them. "They have her in custody." She didn't have to say who. Squall's hand tightened on the doorknob until it was painful but he couldn't make himself let go. The air was being sucked out of his lungs.

"They left this," she snarled and shoved a piece of paper at him. He looked down at it briefly: SeeD's arrest jurisdiction form. "I'm going after them," Denna continued. "If you're going to leave town, you better do it soon. They're already cutting off the major roads." With that she turned and ran for the stairs.

"Denna," he whispered.

She was at the top of the stairs but she stopped and turned to look at him over her shoulder. "I'm sorry," she said, then disappeared down the stairs. He knew what the sorry was meant for. He'd told her a secret. If it freed her sister, Denna was going to spill that secret.

But she had come to warn him, first.

For a moment all he could do was lean on the door and stare at the wall across from him, trying to comprehend what he'd just been told. Then he stumbled back into the apartment, and slammed the door. He looked around the room, at the living room and kitchen just recently furnished again, taking in the warm glow of lights and the smell of food on the stove.

"Chayla" he said roughly. "Go pack some clothes. Now." He turned and hurried to the kitchen, shutting the stove off with jerky motions. When he turned back Chayla was where she'd been, staring at him. "Now, Chayla!" She jumped, her face crumpling in confusion, but ran off to the bedroom, abandoning her book on the floor. Squall ran to the closet and pulled out a few duffel bags.

What's wrong? Harren asked, pushing into the front of his mind. You're saturated in fear.

He ignored Harren; he didn't have time for him. The man would just have to watch out of his eyes and figure it out. How long did they have? How long before SeeD closed off all the exits out of town? An hour? A few minutes? Panic and horror began to creep down his spine.

He raced around the living space, collecting all the stashed gil he'd hidden and shoving them into one bag, then grabbed all the weapons he'd hidden in the bedroom closet. He dropped a bag down next to Chayla who was pulling clothes from the bottom dresser drawer and then put the third bag down and started to stuff it will his own clothes.

"Are the bad guys are here?" Chayla asked in a small voice behind him.

Squall moved to the table by the bed and dumped the last of the money and the box with his personal possessions in it on top of his clothes. "Yes. We have to leave now. Grab a few toys and put them with your clothes." He left the bags on the bed and rushed into the bathroom. He grabbed what he could and bought them back to dump into the bag as well. His eyes kept skittering around the room, cataloguing everything he was leaving behind, wondering if any of it would incriminate him. But he didn't have the time to wonder.

Chayla had shoved her bag full of clothes and toys and was trying to pull the blanket off of her bed. Squall swung his two bags onto his shoulder and hurried over. "Time to go," he demanded. Chayla was crying, but he didn't have the time. He grabbed her bag from the floor, her chocobo doll from the ground beside it and then yanked the blanket off the bed. He folded it around her and swung her up into his already full arms.

She hugged him around the neck obediently but cried into his shoulder as he rushed them to the door and yanked it open. He checked his pocket for keys and wallet, and then they were out. He paused on the other side and looked back into the home they'd had for only a few weeks. The home that might have meant the most. Gritting his teeth, he tore himself away from the sight and shut the door. He didn't bother locking it.

At the bottom of the apartment stairs his foot caught on something and he stumbled into the railing. He hissed as it jabbed into his side.

"Are you alright?"

Squall's heart stuttered, wondering if SeeD had already gotten there. He straightened and jerked his eyes towards the voice. It was a man with long red hair. Nobody he knew or remembered. But he'd been gone a long time now.

"Do you need help?" the man asked, taking a step closer.

"No," Squall snapped then took a breath. "No," he repeated in a less harsh tone. "Thank you." He stalked around the man, waiting for something, anything. The man just smiled and stepped back to give him room on the sidewalk. Squall looked him in the eyes, uneasy, then turned and hurried to his car.

He unlocked it and yanked open the back passenger door, dumping all of the bags on the floor and settling Chayla into the car-seat, rushing to get the buckles lined up and clicked in. He tried to be gentle but knew he was scaring her.

He finally got the last buckle in and tugged on it to make sure it was secure. Then he took a second to stop and look at Chayla. "It's going to be okay, Chayla. I'm going to keep us safe, alright?" he wiped away a tear from her cheek, then another from her other cheek. "We just have to be strong." She nodded through her tears. He nodded back and shut the door so that he could run for the driver's side door.

He looked back towards the apartment while he started the car. The red-haired man was still standing there, watching them. But if he'd been searching for them, he would have done something by then. Squall looked away and pulled the car out onto the street.

"Where are we going to go?" Chayla asked with a tremble in her voice.

"I don't know," Squall answered, tightening his grip on the steering wheel. "I don't know."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Until the End Playlist, Song 10: P.O.D – Sleeping Awake