A/N: Next chapter's here, so enjoy!
Disclaimer: I own zilch.
Chapter 14: Revelations
"You need to loosen up Yuna, don't be so tense, you have to act like the water," Rinoa corrected her stance and poked at her biceps and calf muscles as she advised her fellow tribute. "You have to be flexible yet strong, but most importantly balanced." She demonstrated her technique, muttering a few words before plucking the water from the small river they'd found and twirling it around in the air. Yuna watched her graceful movements with envy, wishing she could be that fluid in her motions when manipulating the water.
"Try to feel the natural push and pull of the water," she continued to explain, swaying her body back and forth along with the water while keeping it twisting and levitating nicely in the air. "It's kind of like the waves from the sea; they push into the shore and then pull back only to push again. The process never ends and neither should your pushing and pulling movements when you're controlling it."
Yuna watched her demonstrate carefully before slowly starting to copy Rinoa's movements, only without the water. She released a deep breath and closed her eyes, relaxing her muscles and letting the movements become familiar to her until they became automatic yet fluid, like the water. Rinoa watched her out of the corner of her eye and gently passed the water over to her, slowly letting her control slip until it was only Yuna who kept it in the air.
A smile crept onto both girls' faces as the summoner continued to keep levitating the water without failure. She twirled the water around her body and over her head, becoming more confident with every second she kept it up. It was kind of like the performance of a sending, you had to be balanced, relaxed yet focused all at the same time. All she had to do was act as though her body was made of liquid.
"See? I knew you could do it!" Rinoa praised her, crossing her arms over her chest and gazing at her newest pupil with pride. Yuna couldn't help how her smile grew wider at her mentor's words and with one swift movement; she snapped her arm outwards, fingers pointing dead straight, and sent the water crashing into the tree on the opposite side of the river where Rinoa had set up a makeshift target.
"Nice finish," Rinoa complimented her.
"Thank you," Yuna replied with a bright smile. "I think I did something like this with fire once," she said lowering her hands and turning to her friend. "It wasn't much but I kind of made it flicker and twirl slightly, nothing offensive like this though."
"That's still good, fire is one of the harder elements to control," Rinoa praised her again with an approving nod of her head. "Do you think you can do it again?"
Yuna nodded once before lifting a hand out in front of her, palm facing upwards as she closed her eyes and muttered a small fire spell. When she felt the heat on her open palm, she opened her eyes and moved her fingers slightly, managing to make the fire crackle. Flicking her wrist in a circular motion she made the fire curl around her wrist before returning to its place.
"Excellent," the sorceress commended her with a huge smile on her features. "You've really improved; I've never seen anyone learn as quickly as you do."
"Well I have a very good teacher," Yuna complimented her with a giggle as both girls sat down beside the river, to rest for a minute.
Even though they hadn't been practising for that long, Yuna still felt tired. She wasn't used to controlling magic the way Rinoa did and she had never even touched air or earth magic before. Rinoa had been patient with her even with the easier movements she couldn't get. The sorceress had thought the small stream they had accidently come across was a good place to start training and so she was thrust straight into lessons.
Yuna had been amazed at how much she had to learn when it came to the art of black magic and she had been even more amazed at how much Rinoa seemed to know. Unlike Isaaru, who had been rather cryptic and unclear at times, Rinoa answered all of her questions simply and patiently and rather than just letting the summoner learn off spells from a book as Lulu had done, she explained the words of the spell, what they meant and why they were important. It wasn't that Lulu and Isaaru were bad teachers, far from it; she just found Rinoa's way of teaching more… efficient.
It had brought Yuna a sense of joy, despite the situation she was in, to see Rinoa's face brighten up when the sorceress used her talents to help people. She could understand how she felt and could relate to her in a lot of ways. She knew how hard it was not to abuse power and how sometimes, having extra talents seemed to have a lot more disadvantages than advantages. The pressure of using them correctly, the hardship of mastering them and then the fear of what people would give to use you for your gifts, no matter what.
"You know Yuna, you have a very powerful aura," Rinoa said dipping the tips of her fingers in the river and coaxing the water gently. "I could sense it the second you protected me in the training room. I don't know if you can sense auras but yours is gentle yet has an underlying pressure as though something is trying to break free. If I get too close to you, I can feel some of the strong, contained power beneath but somehow it's different to mine."
Yuna looked to the right at the sorceress with an unsure expression however Rinoa didn't look at her. The tribute kept her eyes on the water before her. "What do you mean by 'different'?" she asked hesitantly.
"It's… hard to explain," Rinoa replied with a small sigh. "At first I thought you might be another sorceress but now…" She shook her head slowly. "My magic is just… normal magic… except I just have… a lot of it, I guess, so I'm stronger than most. But you…" She looked at Yuna now with something akin to confusion in her eyes. "Your magic is… untainted… it's… it's divine."
"I don't understand…" Yuna said shaking her head. She looked away from the sorceress in the hope she wouldn't detect the outright lie through the guilty look in her eyes. She completely understood why her magic was different to others, but by acting dumb she wouldn't have to explain it. She didn't want to explain it. She didn't want to give the long story of her heritage that left people feeling sad and hollow inside. It was unfair to Rinoa though, the girl had told her all about how she had become a sorceress and what she had to do. She had trusted Yuna with her on sad story so didn't she deserve to know Yuna's story too?
Guilt plucked at Yuna's heart strings as she watched the water seem to flow faster and faster. She kept reminding herself that she was doing the right thing by not telling Rinoa she was a summoner, because if she did, she'd have to tell her everything about her duty and training and all the other hardships she'd face if she survived these games. She was really just sparing the girl a sad story and she was sure the girl was sad enough as it was in their current situation, she didn't need to add to it.
The water before her flew rapidly downstream so that the rush of the water seemed almost deafening in the quiet forest. She looked to Rinoa in confusion, watching the sorceress' hand gently goad the water to flow more swiftly with each second.
The nervous expression that was now etched into Rinoa's features made her even more confused. The sorceress leaned in slightly and lowered her voice, so that Yuna had to lean in too to hear her over the sound of the stream.
"Try to keep your face neutral in case the cameras are trained on us," Rinoa began quietly and Yuna obeyed with the slightest nod of her head, only managing to keep the surprise off her face at Rinoa's abrupt order. "I understand why you're confused as to why I'm training you since technically we're supposed to be in competition but…" she paused to take a short breath. "I know you're a summoner, Yuna and I know what summoners have to do as their duty. This may sound weird but… I've been having these strange dreams lately, sometimes I can see some unusual creatures talking but mostly it's just pitch black. Anyway, in all of the dreams I here numerous voices telling me 'to help the summoner' and 'to ease her burden.' They mentioned your name once but I don't exactly know who 'they' are. It's just…" she let out a sigh of exasperation. "I don't really know how to explain it without sounding like some kind of prophet but they said that you're really important and that it's essential you survive these games."
Yuna listened to her long explanation, keeping her facial expression carefully neutral. She knew her aeons had something to do with this. She guessed they were the voices in Rinoa's head but why were they doing it? Isaaru had always said that the fayth never have favourites so they weren't doing it for her own happiness and well-being. Why was she so important?
"I thought that maybe teaching you powerful magic would help," Rinoa continued on in a low whisper. "I thought that maybe, with training, you'd be able to unleash some of that locked energy within you and that that would help you win the games."
"You would really sacrifice yourself because of those dreams?" Yuna asked trying to keep the surprise out of her voice yet failing. "You would help someone you barely know because you were told to?"
"It's not only the dreams, Yuna," she replied. "It's the fact that I can sense divine energy from you, I can sense the light in your soul. It's holy light, Yuna and it is rare that someone possesses such a large amount of magic in a pure, untainted form. Besides you were the only one to stick up for me back in the training room and you were willing to sacrifice yourself to help that young girl survive. You really are special Yuna, you could do amazing things with that light of yours but you just need to unlock it fully."
"I don't know how to though…"
"You do," Rinoa cut in softly. "You just don't know it. The only person who could lock away magic that strong and untainted would be the mage who controls it. You're the one who locked it up, be it intentionally or not, and therefore only you can unleash it. You just have to find the trigger."
She let the wise girl's words sink in slowly, keeping her gaze trained on the fast moving water. Her words made sense except she didn't remember ever locking away her power or have any idea what her 'trigger' was. Perhaps she had locked it away when she was quite small, when she was only a baby, but would she have been strong enough to do it then?
"Rinoa…" Yuna turned to face her friend fully this time, crossing her legs under her and keeping her voice low. "I haven't been fully honest with you and you deserve to know everything. You're a true, honest friend with a selfless heart and I respect you for that. I don't know how much the fayth have told you about me and what I must do but…" she shook her head and dropped her gaze, feeling too ashamed to hold Rinoa's gaze. "I didn't want to tell you because for one thing, it's not the happiest of things to explain and…" she gave a small shrug as a ghost of a smile crossed her lips, "Paine would probably kill me if I told you."
"She already knows, Yuna," Rinoa cut in quietly. "She knows that I'm aware of your talents and she knows that I'm trying to help you." The sorceress raised a hand to stop Yuna from asking any questions and continued; "I told her of the dreams and she seemed to understand. I told her not to tell you and I guess she kept her word even though she was a bit suspicious."
"Do you know her well?" Yuna asked quietly. Paine had told her that she had little to no allies because of her heritage and yet everyone Yuna talked to seemed to know her in some way or other and most seemed to respect her. Perhaps it was because she was a victor or maybe they feared her, she did not know but allies were allies, right?
Rinoa seemed hesitant, a worried and sad look crossed her face as she turned her eyes towards the stream briefly before looking back at Yuna. "Someone from my sector that I am very close to is old friends with her. From what he told me their relationship is complicated at best but he said I could trust her, so… I did."
Yuna nodded slowly as silence fell upon them. Both girls simply stared at the river, lost in their own thoughts. Rinoa continued to keep the water flowing swiftly however Yuna wasn't sure if the sorceress knew she was doing so. It was nice to let the sound of the stream cover up all the other sounds around her. If she closed her eyes, she could almost feel as though she was back in Besaid. The sound was nothing like that of gentle waves and the grass she sat on was nothing like the soft, warm sand however she could always pretend she was in the trees surrounding the beach, near the small source of water that flowed down the cliffs and into the sea.
She wondered who this mystery man Rinoa seemed close to was and why his relationship with Paine was so complicated. Was he another half-demon? Was he a brother of Rinoa's who was in a relationship with Paine? That wouldn't sit well with Zack anyway. No, maybe he was in a relationship with Rinoa but before had been in one with Paine? Or maybe he was Paine's brother?
There were too many possibilities and she knew she'd only be driving herself mentally insane if she kept guessing so she forced her mind to focus on other questions. It wasn't hard; she did have a good selection of them since entering the games. Sorting through them was another matter though however there was one question, she realised with a small bit of surprise that she hadn't asked yet.
"Rinoa? Did the 'voices' ever say why they need me to survive?"
She got no answer immediately, she didn't think she'd ever get one as the silence stretched on. At first she thought Rinoa hadn't heard her at all but the anxious look on the sorceress' face told her otherwise.
"Rinoa?" she tried again, laying a gentle hand on the girl's bare shoulder.
She didn't jump in surprise like Yuna thought she would instead she slowly turned her head towards Yuna and shook it slightly, causing her long hair to sway like black curtains in a soft breeze. "I did ask them why but their responses were distorted and I could only make out a few words."
"What were they?" Yuna gently prodded.
"I can't remember them all but they mentioned 'evil entity' a lot and 'calamity'," she answered. "They said something about a sacrifice once, I specifically remember them saying about a battle of angels and demons and something about a new guardian but that's all…" she finished with a tired sigh.
Yuna's blood ran cold as she stared ahead of her. She knew what Rinoa meant about an 'evil entity' and the 'calamity', two halves of the same horrible being. As for the sacrifice… she knew exactly what it was but she didn't want to think about it. She had been taught all about it and why such a selfless act was so important and would be important for her, but it had seemed unreal at the time as though it was only part of a passing dream. Reality could be so cruel at times.
She suspected the demon had something to do with Paine but then who was the angel? Someone who was half angel and who had a grudge against Paine possibly? She thought of Shelinda but dismissed the idea immediately, that priestess could not be half angel.
Her mind wandered to the feathers, the ones she'd seen on the floor of the cave and when Rinoa had come to her rescue. She hadn't thought much about them at the time, but now… Her eyes drifted towards Rinoa, then towards her back, almost automatically. She couldn't jump to conclusions but Rinoa seemed like the most likely candidate. Even though she claimed she trusted Paine, that trust could easily be broken over a mystery man that both of them knew…
She wanted to ask if her theory was correct however she found the words lodged in her throat and simply refusing to come out. Even though she was nearly bursting with both curiosity and anxiety, she closed her mouth and remained silent, now was not the time.
"I didn't want the cameras to hear… just in case," Rinoa added with a small smile.
This time Yuna couldn't help her confused look so Rinoa provided a further explanation as usual. "You have power Yuna and if you do unlock it, you will become a serious threat," a warning yet guarded look entered her dark eyes. "The Capitol won't cut corners, Yuna, victor or not."
Soft rays of sunlight peaked through the small parting in the curtains and penetrated the darkness of the room. The light shone down on the skin of pale, closed eyelids causing the darkness of a dreamless sleep to brighten and consciousness to return.
An inaudible groan escaped soft lips and resounded through the silent room. The warrior felt stiff and tired but she didn't dare move as she had the sense that her surroundings were unfamiliar. She could feel both soft material beneath her and above her however her clothes felt different from what she normally wore. As she shifted slightly to awaken her nervous system, she realised she was wearing nothing but an unevenly buttoned shirt and her underwear. She thought she may have had one drink too many and ended up in an awkward situation because of her lack of soberness from the night before but she couldn't remember drinking at all…
She opened her eyes slowly, squinting slightly as her eyes adjusted to the dim light of the room. She was actually quite surprised that she didn't let out a yell or jump back in surprise at the first thing she saw beside her; instead she remained staring at the peaceful face as quiet as a mouse.
A smile so small it was nearly unnoticeable crept onto her lips as Zack twitched his nose in his sleep and let out a soft sigh. He looked so innocent and (even though she'd never say it aloud) cute as he slept with his arms crossed on the bed beneath his head while he sat on a chair directly beside the bed. She thought about waking him up, his position didn't look too comfortable but he seemed to be sleeping deeply and contently so she discarded the idea.
She looked around at the rest of her temporary room as her mind was dragged back to the question of as to why she was here and in such a lack of clothing in someone else's bed. She wondered if this was Zack's room. It was untidy and unorganised and it did have his buster sword in the corner. She had to admit it even smelled like him.
But then why was she…?
Her eyes widened in shock at the thoughts of what may have occurred however she calmed herself when she realised Zack was fully dressed and not even in the bed, so they couldn't have done it. Relief flooded through her as she let out a long breath however another feeling lingered in her chest. It was heavy and deflating… disappointment perhaps?
Absolutely not.
Placing her hands flat on the mattress beneath her she tried to lift herself up into a sitting position as gently as possible. However the pain that tore through her shoulder made her hiss in pain and reminded her exactly what had happened last night. She flopped back onto the bed with a groan, wincing as more pain rushed through the tender area and successfully awakening the sleeping SOLDIER.
He blinked sleepily as confusion laced his porcelain features and he let out a long yawn. His head snapped upwards immediately when he saw her, she could've sworn she heard his neck click. "You're awake!" Zack's surprised yet gentle voice reached her ears as she turned her crimson eyes to meet his mako ones. "How are you feeling?"
"Like hell," she replied in a raspy voice before swallowing and trying to moisten her mouth again. She gritted her teeth, preparing to try and sit up again as she gripped the sheets of the mattress tightly. Zack seemed to know that she wouldn't ask for help, so he wrapped one arm around her lower back and grabbed one hand in his, helping her up without causing a considerable amount of pain. He let her go almost reluctantly as she steadied herself against the head board, making sure the blanket was covering her lower-half. Even though she knew her underwear was a simple plain black she didn't want him to see it.
She muttered a small 'thank you'; however it came out as more of a hoarse whisper as she tried to clear her throat. Zack quickly turned to the side and produced a glass of water from the bedside table, "Here drink this," he said raising the glass to her lips.
She tried to take the glass off of him but he simply took her hand in his free one and gave it a squeeze, bringing it back down to lay on the bed and holding it there firmly.
"Zack I'm well able to hold a glass by myself," she said trying to keep to her usual monotone despite the dryness of her throat.
"I know," he shrugged, gave a small smile and raised the glass slightly; "just humour me."
She rolled her eyes once and let him raise the glass to her lips. She hadn't realised how thirsty she'd been until she'd downed the whole glass in less than thirty seconds. Thankfully Zack hadn't spilled any. He replaced the glass and turned to look at her once more with something akin to worry in his eyes.
"What happened to you Paine?" he asked quietly, his eyes flickering to her wounded shoulder briefly. She noticed the slight transition and suddenly became extremely aware of her state of dress. Granted he couldn't see much of her since her bare legs were still under the covers but still… she couldn't help but wonder who exactly undressed her.
"Just another assassination attempt," she said as though she didn't care much about it, looking down towards her hand in her lap and realising Zack was still holding hers. She didn't remove it though, telling herself it was because she didn't have enough energy to do so.
"This was more than that Paine," Zack said, using his free hand to lift her chin up so she had no choice but to look at him. "I found you bloody and half-dead in the middle of an army of unconscious robed men with-" he hesitated and looked down, briefly breaking the eye contact, before looking back up towards her. She watched his cyan orbs closely, trying to find the reason for his hesitation and wondering what he was about to say however he didn't give her a chance. "Don't tell me it was just a normal attempt on your life."
She sighed knowing full well that he wouldn't let the subject drop until he got a clear answer from her. In a way she was flattered by his concern but in another she was also a bit ticked off that he couldn't simply mind his own business. She reasoned with herself that he deserved an explanation since he had obviously saved her and tried to patch up her wounds.
"I was coming back from Barrett's when I was ambushed. I fought back but there was too many of them… and you know the rest," she said quietly. It was the truth, technically, just an extremely short version of it.
"That's not all of it," Zack pushed again. "What aren't you telling me?"
"Zack…" she groaned with a sigh. She couldn't tell him about Sephiroth, he was practically the most famous SOLDIER alive and not to mention the president. Zack had all of his hopes and dreams and honour in SOLDIER just like his mentor Angeal. He would be crushed to know that Sephiroth would stoop so low as to send assassins after a previous Victor. It's not like Zack would believe her anyway.
But why had Sephiroth sent those assassins after her anyway? Yes she was half-demon but he had never had a problem with it before. She knew Sephiroth was aware of her heritage, Hojo had wanted her for experiments and the president would've let him however she had refused and thankfully Auron had intervened. So why did he want her gone now? For Ifrit's sake she was a mentor to a tribute, if she was gone then there was no chance of survival for…
"C'mon Sunshine you can tell me," Zack said with that easy smile of his.
She sighed once more. How could she tell him…? "Someone… really rich hired them," she said slowly. "They had holy materia and there were so many of them so someone obviously has a bounty on my head."
"Who?" Zack asked immediately, almost aggressively. His eyebrows slanted downwards casting shadows over his stormy blue eyes as his lips were set in a firm thin line.
"I don't know," she lied shaking her head. "It was only a small attempt anyway, don't worry about it too much, Porcupine."
"Just a small attempt? What about all of the unconscious bodies?" he prompted with a raised brow.
"Just the result of a fancy trick I knew," she deadpanned with a small shrug of her good shoulder returning her eyes to stare at her lap.
He studied her carefully for any trace of a lie but seemed to find none and nodded with acceptance. She let out a small breath of relief as she broke the eye contact once more. She wasn't sure exactly how much Zack knew about her… family. She remembered saying she had assassins after her because she killed the President's only son and the heir to the throne of the Capitol but she had never mentioned her heritage. Hopefully he would never ask.
She didn't know how much Angeal knew about her either. She never really talked to him that much anyway, it was usually either Lulu or Auron that talked to him, sometimes he was unfortunate enough for Shelinda to strike up a conversation with him. Unless Lulu or Auron told him which she doubted they did, he wouldn't know then unless of course Shelly had opened her big mouth. She probably did.
"How do you know Squall?" Zack asked abruptly.
For some strange reason her heart did a little tumble in her chest the second he said those words and her head automatically snapped upwards in surprise. She cursed herself for acting so openly with her emotions but she just couldn't help the way her jaw dropped slightly. How could Zack have possibly known about Squall? His angelic face betrayed no emotion as he kept his features guarded and his eyes steady, making it very hard for Paine to retrieve any sort of answer from his face. It was usually very easy for her to read him like an open book but now he was tightly shut, impossible for her to read.
However she could tell he was curious, maybe even more than that. He almost sounded angry about it. He had asked the question out of the blue and in such a way that he seemed to have forced the words out of his mouth as though they had left a bitter taste in his throat.
She felt confusion creep onto her facial expression and for once she simply couldn't hide it. She had never told anyone about Squall – not even Lulu or Yuna. Granted she had told Vincent but Vincent was a tomb, he would never have told anyone. Had Zack looked through her personal file? Had he sorted through the files that the Capitol kept about all previous Victors and found hers? She doubted it but how else would he have known?
"You didn't have a gun that night… did you?" she asked softly completely disregarding his question.
Zack kept his expression neutral and shook his head. "How do you know him Paine?" he repeated however the warrior yet again ignored him.
It wasn't that she meant to ignore him, which she usually did; she was just completely lost in her own thoughts as she tried to remember the previous night's events. She had unleashed the darkness but the holy magic had protected him… and then he had been about to kill her but there was a gunshot… and lots of blood… and then a black hooded figure… the same one who had been stalking her…
"I'm going to kill him," she said darkly as she through back the covers – forgetting the fact that she was wearing nothing but a loose shirt and underwear – and stormed out of the bed angrily. Her injuries throbbed in protest however she ignored them, stalking her way towards the door with bloody murder written in her eyes.
"Paine, wait! You're injured!" Zack called trying to stop her from leaving the room however she shoved him away, throwing open the door and nearly whacking the SOLDIER with it. She could feel her shoulder wound open slightly so she put the tiniest but of pressure on it to keep it closed as she stalked into the main room of the apartment. She found her target sitting on the couch in front of the television carefully polishing his gunblade.
If he was alarmed by the raging demon before him, he most certainly didn't show it as his expression remained bored and blank. He simply stood to face her, placing his gunblade neatly on the couch as he did so.
Zack knew what she was about to do by the way her good arm tensed and her hand curled into a tight fist, knuckles turning white as she pulled her arm back. Normally Paine could match his strength, despite his SOLDIER genes – he never really knew why – but now she was still recovering so it didn't take much to wrap both strong arms around her and hold her back before she could make a swing at him.
He felt slightly relieved that she was angry at this man, he knew it was wrong to wish it but he couldn't help it. If she hated this Squall fellow, then maybe his assumptions about their… relationship had been dead wrong – or so he hoped.
Paine tried to get out of Zack's hold on her, but her arms were pinned to her sides and her back was held firmly against his muscular chest so she couldn't go anywhere. She fought the blush that tried to creep onto her cheeks as she realised how bad it must've looked and how amused Squall must've been at the situation. She relaxed immediately, although at the same time she kept her posture tense. Zack loosened his grip on her slowly and when he knew she wouldn't try to go for Squall again, he came to stand beside her, although he kept one arm wrap around her just to make sure she didn't try anything. She could be as fast as he could if she really wanted to be.
He didn't like the amusement that flashed in Squall's stormy grey eyes when Paine gave him her death glare or by the way he seemed to act so superior than her. He didn't act as though they were strangers at all he acted like they had known each other for ages…
"I see you're awake," Squall deadpanned with a raised brow as he crossed his arms over his chest.
Anger flared inside her very core at his words however she forced it down. She'd unleash her power over hell on him later when Zack wasn't around to stop her. "What the hell are you doing here, Squall?" she questioned through gritted teeth.
"Nice to see you too, Paine," he replied in a monotone before looking her up and down with a glimmer of amusement in his eyes. "Is that a new look?"
"Watch it, smart-ass," Zack suddenly growled, releasing Paine but standing slightly in front of her so that he blocked most of Squall's view. His fists were now curled up and ready to do some damage however Paine stepped up beside him, her glare growing increasingly hostile with each second.
"I won't ask again Squall."
Squall matched her hostility easily as the amusement faded from his grey eyes. "You know exactly why I'm here, Paine."
"Didn't you trust me enough to handle it?" she accused with a dark note to her voice.
"You're taking too long," he replied matching her tone.
"You do realise if you had have been caught on the way here, you would have been killed and this whole mess would've blown up and put all of us at risk," she lectured him. "How could you have been so careless?"
"Me? Careless? You're the one consorting with SOLDIERs and Ex-Turks," he shot back with venom.
"Don't you dare try to turn this on me," she spat back taking a threatening step towards him. "I have done everything you've asked without failure so far and now you're here and this messes everything up."
"If I didn't come you'd be dead right now," Squall shot back at her mimicking her actions and taking a step towards her.
"I would've been just fine!"
"Stop! Stop!" Zack cut in through their argument coming to stand in between both of them. He thanked whatever god was out there that Angeal wasn't around to see this; he was probably in training or talking to Auron or Lulu. "I am completely lost here," he continued lowering his voice to its normal level. "How do you two know each other and what does Paine have to do?"
Paine watched as Squall's eyes flitted from her now neutral face to Zack's confused one before the corner of his lips twitched upwards in a cruel smirk. "Really Paine? You didn't tell him?"
"Squall, don't he doesn't need to-"
"What didn't she tell me?" Zack cut in turning to Squall fully.
Paine gave Squall a warning look that sent a thousand threatening messages however none were received. She felt her heart drop in her chest, knowing Zack's reaction would not be a good one. She was going to murder Squall when she got him alone; she knew he was enjoying tormenting her far too much simply because she hadn't been able to complete his request yet.
"I'm her husband."
A/N: *Gasps!* For those of you who are confused by this revelation and cliff hanger, fear not for all will be explained…