Rinoa stared through the thick glass plane, her eyes centering focus on the man that sat in the dead center of the room. He slightly rocked back and forth in his seat, his hands chained and forced to hang beneath him. Almost nonchalantly he pressed his lips together, opening his mouth to make a 'pop' sound and leaned his head back to stare at the ceiling.

"For fuck's sake," Irvine muttered. "He's bored!"

Rinoa couldn't believe the man in the room, completely unaware of the four that stood behind the glass and watched him. He wasn't afraid. He didn't look the least bit unnerved. "He simply doesn't care," she whispered, almost in complete horror. Inside she felt her blood heat and she instinctively clenched her fists. This wretched excuse for a man had a hand in the deaths and torment of her sisters and he didn't care. "He won't talk at all will he?"

Kadowaki shook her head. "The only thing we've got out of him was a confirmation of his name. And that information was given by the military that were here yesterday morning. He won't speak about anything except maybe a 'hello' or a 'yep.'"

Quistis turned to Rinoa. "That's why we wanted you to talk to him. Whoever is making him do this has him scared, but we believe that if the sorceress was standing before him, it might shake him up a bit."

Rinoa arched a brow in intrigue. "You want me to beat it out of him?"

"Just intimidate him," Quistis grinned. "You don't need to mutilate him—though I'm sure you and everyone else here would love to."

Irvine placed a folder and a small contraption in Rinoa's hand. "A transmitter. The glass is a sound proof two way mirror. We'll be listening in and talking to you at the same time."

Rinoa clicked her tongue at the sight of the transmitter but hooked it into her ear anyway. "Alright." Slowly she flipped through the papers in the folder. "Saul Vende," she muttered as she read over the name. For a moment she blinked as it registered through her mind.

"Yeah. You know him?"

She shrugged, putting it back neatly and placed her hand on the doorknob. "Sounds familiar," she told them and looked over her shoulder. "Lock me in with him."

When she entered the small white room and the door clicked loudly behind her, the man hardly even flinched or looked away from the ceiling. Rinoa tossed the folder onto the desk in front of him and arched a brow as he continued staring up. "I hope that ceiling is extremely interesting," she said.

He didn't look down, but his throat jerked slightly. "Are you another official here to question me?" he said, almost smugly. "Because I have nothing to say to officers, military, SeeD, or doctors."

Rinoa slowly rounded the table and gripped his chin between two fingers, firmly bringing his head away from the ceiling. "I am none of the above, Mr. Vende." She received slight satisfaction when his eyes widened a fraction. "But yes, I am here to get answers and hopefully if you know what's good for you you'll give me them."

Before he could utter a word a slight static-like hiss went off in her ear. "Rinoa, you don't need to threaten him," came Quistis' voice over the transmitter.

Roughly, Rinoa let go of his chin. "So, you have helped someone by cutting out Hyne's heart. Can I be enlightened in knowing why?"

He stared at her, his eyes not as wide but a slight tremble in his bottom lip. "Why I helped or why I cut it out?"

"Let's start with why you helped."

He grinned a bit. "It got me into a shit load of cash."

Rinoa smiled at him, her eyes narrowing menacingly. "It'll be extremely hard for you to spend that cash when you're dead."

Another static hiss. "Rinoa!"

With a soft laugh she tapped her long nails atop the desk as she slowly walked around him. "That was rude, my sincere apologies. Continue, Mr. Vende." Her eyes traveled towards the two way mirror and quickly took in her reflection. Before she came into the room she wasn't sure how intimidating she would be wearing a pair of Quistis' spare black sweats and sweater, but from the look on Saul's face it seemed to do the trick. Rinoa smirked as she watched his squirm. She knew she definitely would not have been able to take herself seriously if she had come into the room still in her hospital gown.

Saul swallowed, a slight sheen of sweat above his lip. But the sheen was broken when he smiled, fully, showing all teeth. "I needed money. And he just wanted one thing in return for the money."

Rinoa didn't pause or jerk in surprise. "And do you know that that one thing is?"

"Why would I tell you?" he laughed, his voice pitching higher as he continued. "I didn't tell the officials anything! Why would I tell anything different to a meaningless, spiteful, sorceress bitch!"

Quistis and Irvine sucked in a breath from the other side of the glass. Just in case, Quistis began to make her way to the door.

Rinoa showed no signs of inner turmoil and instead gave him a small smile, her back towards the door. "My, my…aren't you so eloquent," she said lowly, her voice dropping down to a guttural purr. "I'm assuming whoever you're working for didn't hire you for your persuasive speech."

Saul threw his head back and laughed once more, his voice high and shrill. "And I'm assuming your mother's glad she's dead so she wouldn't see her daughter grow up to be a heinous sorceress that should have been drowned at birth! I'm sure she would have killed herself if she knew what you've become."

That broke the calm that threatened to break from Rinoa's nerve. She could feel everything inside her becoming encased with icy hate. Inside her blood boiled past the point of recognition. She couldn't hear anything except a shrill pitch that shook within her ears. Quickly she plucked the transmitter from her ear, hardly hearing static yell of "Rinoa!" once again.

"Oh…so it's come to this has it," she muttered, lashing out a hand and gripping her claws into the collar of his shirt. Violently she snarled and jerked him from his seat, nearly snapping the chains in the process. "You don't want to know what I've become," she growled to him. "You don't want to know what I would have become."

A loud rattling came from the door and she aimed her free hand towards the door, lashing power, forming ice to completely cover the door's surface. She could see a slight ripple on the mirror from someone's fists banging. With a grin she continued her power, sending ice in every direction until it had transformed the room into a solid ice cube.

When nothing but silence could be heard, she turned her attention back to the man trying not to scream in her grasp. Rinoa laugh bubbled from her throat like velvet and she released him, allowing him to fall back into his chair. "Now we can be alone. Just you and me."

Saul shivered against his chair, in fear and in temperature. His eyes widened as he watched Rinoa casually sit atop the desk, crossing her legs as she leaned her elbow on her knee, intensely watching him. What unnerved him the most was that despite the rage in her voice she had just displayed, she was staring at him with the most calm and emotionless eyes.

"So," she said softly. "Let's talk."

He couldn't speak when his teeth were chattering, vibrating practically in his mouth as his entire body could feel the cold seeping into him.

"Aw," Rinoa mocked, tilting her head to the side and pouting as if she actually gave a damn. "Are you cold? Tell me what I want to know and I'll heat things up."

Saul shook his head, trying to still his body to form the words. "I do-d-d-don't know his n-n-name. I-I've never s-s-seen his face," he managed to get out. "But he w-w-wan-ts re-re—" He stopped, wishing she had broken the chains earlier so he could at least hold himself.

Rinoa snapped her fingers and ice melted away from beneath the seat, giving him some minimal heat. Though she had to admit she found it rather amusing to watch his lips turn blue.

He sighed in relief. "Revenge," he finally said.

Immediately Rinoa was taken back to what was said in her dream. She focused back on Saul. "Revenge on the sorceresses? What for? What did we do?"

Saul laughed even though he regretted doing so, his lips shaking in the process. "What hasn't been done by the likes of you?" he said.

"Wrong answer." Rinoa hopped off the table and reached her hand behind his head, cradling his neck almost as her fingers laced in his hair, tugging it back harshly. "So punishment for whatever has been done in the past is to remove Hyne's heart? Hurting not just her but me and every single innocent girl!?" She tugged even harder, earning a small shriek from Saul as some hairs were yanked from the roots. "Many young girls are dead," she growled. "And they didn't even have an ounce of power within them. Is that how your employer views justified punishment? To kill innocent young women?"

"If it's killing them why aren't you dead yet?" Saul cried.

Rinoa laughed and brought his head back up to look him in the eyes. "I am dying," she told him with a wicked grin. "Your boss obviously isn't smart. I am the most powerful and the strongest of the sorceresses of this time, I'll be the last to die."

Saul nearly cursed beneath his breath but Rinoa tugged once more on his roots. "But," she whispered. "I'm not getting away without a price. Hyne's heart is connected to each and every young girl, woman, old lady with the sorceress gene, what they feel I feel. When they die I feel their pain and their last dying breath escaping my lungs. Do you have any idea what it feels like to feel someone's death?"

When tears brimmed the corners of his eyes from her pulling his head back, she unclenched her fingers for a moment, taking her hand away and discarding the yellow strands that were tangled around it. "Let me ask you, do you also know what it's like to have a heart that affects hundreds of women you don't even know? And if a cowardly bastard like you stole it and it was harmed to have it affect all those women and you feel how it affects them? Do you know what it feels like to have your heart taken out of its own cavity?" He responded with bubbling cries and stuttered words.

Rinoa clenched her fingers once more to the back of his head and brought his face so painstakingly close to hers. With a sly grin she trailed her free hand up his chest, a sharp nail slicing the fabric of his shirt. "Let's enlighten you." Before he could register her words she slammed her palm directly over his heart, power seeping through his pores, stringing through the ribs, latching to the heart, and pulling.

Over and over he screamed, writhed, desperately tried to get away. But no matter how hard he tried, he could not relieve himself from her grasp or the venomous eyes that were staring into him. He could feel every minute movement of his heart being pulled, every tube still attached, stretching. It was as if the surface of her hand had suckers, sucking, inhaling, pulling, tugging, vacuuming his heart to come out.

"Tell me why he's after me!" Rinoa shouted to him, her words flying into his mouth from their closeness. "Tell me and I will stop!"

Saul screamed but tried to get the words out. "He's not after you!" he shrieked.

Rinoa released his chest and head. Almost calmly she stood, her face still close to his. Despite the calm she showed him, inside the boiling blood stilled for a moment. "Then who is he after?" she snapped. "Why go through the trouble of hurting the sorceresses if he's not after them!"

Saul gasped, the tears that rolled down his cheeks began to burn. He tried not to look down at his exposed chest where she tried to remove his heart. "He doesn't...care about the sorceresses..." he wheezed. "But who would...be most hurt if you...were killed?"

Rinoa's eyes widened and everything around her stopped. For a moment she swore her heart stopped—skipping a beat would be an understatement. Silence roared in her ears, blocking out Saul's desperate gasps, the pounding of his heart, and the slight sound of fists banging on the ice covered door. When she came back to the moment she looked down at his chest and turned away, the ice vanishing with every step. Quickly she grasped the doorknob and flung open the door causing Irvine and Quistis to nearly fall into her.

"What the fuck happened?!" Quistis yelled. "Why did you keep us out!?"

Irvine and Kadowaki sucked in a breath as their eyes landed upon Saul. "What did you do to him?" the doctor breathed, hurrying over to him to check his vitals. Her stomach nearly flipped at the sight. Over his heart was a perfect shape of Rinoa's hand, blood red, covered in welts and blood-filled blisters from the sucking power.

"Oh he'll live," she said, her tone uncaring and brisk. "He hasn't told me much—claims he doesn't know much of anything—but I believe I've given him incentive to remember exactly how much he really does know."

Quistis glanced back from Saul to Rinoa's eyes and she gasped.

"What?"

"Your eyes," Quistis whispered.

Rinoa arched a brow. "What about them?"

"They—they're red."

Rinoa rubbed her eyes briefly. "I slept too much." Without another word she exited the room.

"Where are you going now?" Irvine asked.

"Home. Whoever's doing this isn't after the sorceresses." She turned back around and crossed her arms. "They're after Squall."

Irvine stiffened and stared at her. "After Squall? What do you mean?"

"Apparently someone wants revenge against him. Someone from the past wants revenge against Squall, to hurt him, and to get to him they want me dead. I think they believed if they ruined Hyne's heart it would kill me directly since I'm the sorceress of this time. The other sorceresses dying or being infected would be considered a bonus."

Irvine shook his head and swore, running his palm over his hair. "Well get home to Squall then. There should be a cab out front and we'll send back up in a minute to the apartment."

Rinoa nodded and walked swiftly to the entrance where the cab would be waiting.

Quistis sighed and looked back over to Saul, closing her eyes and grimacing again at the sight. "Irvine," she whispered. When she opened and saw him waiting for her to continue she said, "Rinoa's eyes were red."

"She said she slept too much."

She shook her head frantically. "No, I mean red. They're brown on the outside but the iris right around the pupil is blood red!"

Irvine glanced back to where Rinoa was walking. "Well, she is pissed."

Rinoa continued walking, her stride steady and quick, all she wanted was to see Squall. Everything would be better once she saw Squall. Everything would be better once she was in Squall's arms, feeling his touch, his lips caressing hers, telling her everything would be alright.

But most of all, everything would be better when the bastard causing the pain would take his last breath, and she would be the one to claim it.