The conference center was packed full of booths, demonstrations, and panels of various disciplines. Quistis fidgeted with her name badge clasped to the lanyard around her neck as she wandered the booths. She referenced the pamphlet in her hands while trying not to walk into anyone. The event was crowded to the point where no matter how carefully she walked, Quistis found herself continuously bumping into people.

When she finally found an empty bench, Quistis sat down and unfolded the brochure. She read the night's schedule of panels and presentations. Once. Then again. Then a third time. Still, she could not concentrate on the words.

Quistis sighed. She wished Rinoa was here. Or rather, that she hadn't left Rinoa alone. What was she thinking? Rinoa needed help. She shouldn't be alone. Granted, Selphie had promised to spend the day with her before going to work in the late afternoon, but still. It wasn't enough. Selphie wasn't enough.

Her fingertips kneaded the bride of her nose, pushing up on her frames. Now she was being ridiculous.

It was time to focus on why she came. The reason she justified leaving Rinoa. She began scanning once more, paying careful attention to the descriptions of each event. Titles could be misleading; the true meaning behind a field of study was often in the fine print. Edea Kramer's Time Travel theory presentation was listed. Quistis still had an hour to attend, if she felt inclined. Bitter feelings about Seifer aside, she was teaching Edea's material and should further educate herself.

Quistis did a double take when she read a certain professional's name.

Doctor Odine.

It couldn't be. The Doctor Odine?

"...Most widely known for his work on the infamous Lunatic Pandora, a massive containment facility created during the Esthar War, Doctor Odine will be presenting his latest inventions: regulation metals. These metals, while worn on the skin, have the ability to regulate and maintain favorable vitals in the human body…"

Quistis' mind raced as she dared to hope the infamous Esthar scientist might know a way to temper Rinoa's sporadic electron imbalance.

A quick glance at the program told her that his presentation was not until tomorrow morning. A professional shot of his face was next to the blurb. He looked like an eccentric old man, with wiry glasses and a receding hairline. Evidently he was in denial over his hair loss, for the wisp of black hair he had left was tied up in a knot on the top of his head.

She committed his face to memory. If luck was on her side, she might bump into him as she wandered this year's convention.

This event was usually the highlight of Quistis' year. When it came to new mathematical discoveries and theories, Quistis was an eager sponge. There was never such a thing as too much advancement or knowledge. The vast potential of the universe, as told through numbers, never ceased to amaze her.

But she couldn't summon even a fraction of her usual fascination. Quistis trudged her way towards Edea's booth. It was the only thing she could think to do, besides retreat to her hotel room and call Rinoa.

She felt for her cell phone in her pocket, suddenly remembering Rinoa's request. As soon as she found her seat, she pulled her phone out. After tapping the sparsely-used camera app, she turned the camera on herself. With her free hand she held up her badge.

After snapping a photograph, Quistis studied it. She wasn't smiling. She looked neutral. Which was more generous than she felt.

Feeling like she should say something, her thumbs hovered over the letters. She had never been good at small talk. Rinoa probably wasn't expecting her to say anything, though she felt she should try.

Miss you. Quistis texted before sending the message and photograph.

Before she could return her phone to her purse, it buzzed. She already had a response.

"Miss you too. Why don't you let your hair down and have some fun?" Quistis read the text out loud. She stared at the text for a long while, oblivious to the smile on her face.

"Good evening, everyone."

Edea Kramer's voice ushered in hushed silence as those around her took their seats. Edea was dressed in her usual attire; a long black dress, with silky hair to match.

"Time travel. A concept that has baffled scientists and dominated science fiction media for decades."

Quistis watched as the first slide came alive on the smartboard. She followed along to the half-hour presentation, which was an introduction to Ms. Kramer's new book that she was selling advanced copies of today. Edea's theory stated that time compression was already possible, but by means outside the realm of human possibility. She presented many equitable equations, many of which Quistis already knew.

Quistis had half a mind to ask Edea what she meant by "outside the realm of human possibility." To ask for clarification meant she would have to pull Edea aside and speak to her alone, which she had little desire to do.

She tried slinking away in the crowd when the presentation was over, but Edea caught sight of her.

"Quistis! Wait!"

The blonde professor did not hide her dejected sigh. She stood between the rows of chairs as the audience thinned out, waiting for Edea to collect her things and make her way down from the podium.

"Thank you for waiting." Edea clasped her hands in front of her chest.

"If this is about Seifer, don't." Quistis warned, making it clear she was not in the mood to discuss Edea's problem child. She thought ignoring Edea's phone calls and dodging her on campus was more than an obvious enough hint, but here Edea was anyway.

"It's not. At least, not in the way you're thinking." Edea paused. "It's about Rinoa."

So Squall's adopted mother did know Rinoa existed. Quistis was unsure what to make of that. The hesitation in Edea's voice told her it couldn't be good. "What about Rinoa?"

Edea shook her head. "We need to go somewhere private. My room?"

Quistis nodded and followed in silence as Edea led her to her hotel room. How much did she know about Rinoa? And what was Seifer's involvement? Her hands clenched as she imagined him laying a finger on her. He would never get that far, Quistis reasoned. Not with Rinoa's unexplainable strength.

Maybe that was the problem. Seifer told his parents about Rinoa's strange powers. How she lifted him straight off the floor. The electricity that flowed from her, temporarily shocking him. The fire that came out of nowhere. How possessed she sounded as she chanted those strange words…

Edea swiped her keycard and let Quistis in. The hotel room was nearly identical to Quistis'. Comfortable, but nothing extraordinary. The only places to sit were the bed or uncomfortable wooden chairs, so Quistis stood in the hallway and crossed her arms.

"What about Rinoa did you want to discuss that must be said in private?"

Edea ensured the door was locked. She jiggled the handle, then flipped the bolt lock. She was acting paranoid.

Satisfied, Edea retreated to the queen-sized bed. The sheets were flat and crisply folded; Edea clearly hadn't sat on it until now. Quistis stared, unflinching, as the older woman assessed her. She was being sized up, but she had no idea why.

Nearly black eyes settled on hers.

"Rinoa is a sorceress."

Quistis made a noise, something between a snort and a scoff. "What?"

"Rinoa is a sorceress."

"I heard you. I meant, you're serious?"

"She has been living with you, yes?"

Quistis frowned. She hated it when people dodged a question by posing one of their own. "Yes."

"Squall's ring. Please tell me she wears it." Edea's almond-shaped eyes widened, as if in fear.

"Yes. She never takes it off… Why?"

Edea visibly relaxed. She returned to her feet, pacing. Quistis was growing impatient. "What the hell is going on?"

"It is as I said. Rinoa is a sorceress. Squall's ring helps contain her powers. Without it, she would have given into the voices long ago."

The voices. How could Edea know about the voices?

"You see… Cid and I have dedicated ourselves to protecting the world from sorceresses. Balamb military academy has an elite, secretive branch of soldiers sworn to neutralize all sorceress threats. With General Caraway and Doctor Odine's assistance, Cid's soldiers destroyed Adel of Esthar and put an end to the war."

"Adel was a sorceress?" Quistis was not entirely on board, but she went along with it. "And you're saying Rinoa is. What does that mean? How can no one else know of their existence?"

"A woman becomes a sorceress by inheriting the powers. This happens when a dying sorceress finds an unwilling woman, or girl, to pass her powers onto. They can't die, otherwise. Poor Rinoa was only a child when Adel passed her powers onto her in a cruel, ironic sort of vengeance. Caraway discovered what she was and how she was brainwashing the president of Esthar, so as her final act she turned his daughter into the one thing he despised."

"Does he know?" Quistis asked, wondering if that was one of the seeds of discord sewn between Rinoa and her father.

"I don't believe so." Edea shook her head. "When Cid gets a bead on a potential sorceress, we tell no one. We watch and study the sorceress as covertly as possible. When Rinoa broke things off with her father and moved to Balamb, we acted swiftly."

Quistis was beginning to put the pieces of the puzzle together. The words formed a nauseating pit in her stomach before she spoke them. "You sent Squall after her."

"Please don't misunderstand," Edea pleaded. "None of us believe a sorceress is inherently evil. We do our absolute best to keep things from escalating. Squall was dispatched to watch over her. And, well, he ended up falling in love with her."

Did he love her? Or was it an elaborate plot to get close enough to Rinoa so he could kill her if her powers got out of hand? "Rinoa loves him, you know. With all of her heart. From the way I see it, all of you were fucking with her this entire time. Squall did nothing but lie to her. Did he-?" Quistis stopped herself. She wasn't about to ask a question she didn't want the answer to.

"Squall was… He was my pride and joy." A shadow cast over Edea's face as she looked at the floor. "Cid and I raised him as our own. He was so introverted and quiet. I never thought he would find love. And when he did, we couldn't even meet her. He thought it would be easier if we didn't become close, in case…"

In case they had to kill Rinoa.

Squall was clearly a raw wound for Edea. Quistis had more questions, but thought it would be best to avoid discussing him. She still needed answers about Rinoa. "So Rinoa is a sorceress. What does that mean, exactly?"

"Sorceresses harbor incredible magic. They can harness the elements. Control people's minds. Bend the very fabric of time and reality in their hands."

"Like time travel," Quistis guessed, finding professor Kramer's obsession with studying time paradoxes and quantum theories.

"Not just time travel. Time compression."

"You spoke a lot about time compression during your presentation. But you said it was not something we could accomplish." Not that anything made sense right now, but Edea spoke of time compression as a malignant, fearsome concept.

"Not a normal human, no. But a sorceress can. At least, in theory. Time compression was Sorceress Adel's ultimate goal. And the sorceress before her, and the sorceress before her. According to my research, time compression would be a state in which time layers on top of itself into one realm that none of us could survive in, save for the sorceress herself. Past, present, future, they would all co-exist while cancelling each other at the same time."

Rinoa would never do such a thing.

"You have no guarantee Rinoa would do such a thing."

"No, we don't. As I said, we don't assume sorceresses are evil. However, there always seems to be a point where they lose their empathy and humanity, and become a magical being with no concern for anything besides their ambitions. Squall constantly championed for Rinoa, saying she was the most kind, wholesome young woman he had ever known. And that she could never hurt anyone."

It seems Quistis and Squall could agree on one thing, at least.

"But even he recognized her latent powers trying to emerge," Edea continued.

"The ring," Quistis assumed. Squall would recognize Rinoa's static energy and other episodes as the sorceress powers trying to emerge.

"Correct. Surely you've seen her struggle, too?" Edea prompted.

More times than she cared to count. As she came to know Rinoa, Quistis found herself opening to emotions she thought herself incapable of. Yes, Rinoa had shown that she was capable of friendship. But more startling was how she learned empathy. She hadn't cared or considered how others felt past a superficial degree, but with the young bartender… Quistis felt her emotions. And she cared about them.

This recent revelation of Rinoa's silent struggle emotionally crippled Quistis in a way she'd never felt before. Rinoa never asked for any of this. Rinoa deserved more than a covert operative posing as a boyfriend. She deserved true friendships and relationships. Someone looking out for her and protecting her because they wanted to. Not because they were paid to.

Instead of overtly answering, Quistis pulled Edea's strategy on her. "What can I do to help?"

"I have a meeting with Doctor Odine tomorrow morning. He's developed a more advanced bracelet that he believes will absorb the magic much more effectively than the ring Squall gave her."

A headache did not begin to explain the pounding behind Quistis' eyes. She rubbed the bridge of her nose and leaned against the wall.

Rinoa was an oblivious sorceress capable of distorting and controlling the very fabric of space and time.

Was this really happening?

"About Seifer…"

"No more. I need to go to sleep," Quistis argued. She couldn't take much more of this. Perhaps if she went to bed, she would awaken and this bizarre dream would be over. She felt herself shutting down.

"Seifer stole all of my research from my office. Now he knows everything. And I'm afraid of what he might do."

Nothing made sense. Quistis had a thousand more questions. But no matter how much more knowledge she gained, it didn't change the one thing she did know.

She needed to go home to Rinoa. Now.

Fithos...

Loud and persistent they came. The drums of war. Sharp staccato beats.

Lusec...

She buried her head beneath Quistis' pillow. No matter how hard she squeezed, the pounding between her ears would not stop.

Wecos...

Pathetic. Quistis had become her crutch. Without her here, she was pathetic and alone.

Vinosec...

She couldn't suppress it anymore. Overwhelming static and confusion and anger felt ready to explode. The phoenix dangling from her chain throbbed and lit up the darkness beneath the pillow as Rinoa tried smothering the voices to no avail.

Perhaps she should just smother herself. Put an end to her misery. An end to inconveniencing Quistis and Selphie. An end to pining over the dead man who lied and hid things from her. End her shameful pining over Quistis.

Her behavior truly was disgusting.

They were supposed to be friends. Rinoa wasn't looking for someone to replace Squall. Quistis was afraid of intimacy; likely traumatized, though she would never speak of it or admit to it.

Why, then, did her body and mind insist on betraying her? Why couldn't she stop fantasizing about kissing Quistis' lips last night? Why did she need to be absorbed by her warmth? She couldn't be close enough.

Rinoa couldn't sleep without her. She couldn't eat without her.

And now she couldn't keep the voices at bay without her.

Veni hortum veritatis…

"Stop!" Rinoa buried herself between the sheets, sinking as far into the mattress as she could. Forcing her eyelids closed did no good, for the visions were as loud and demanding as the voices. The stuff of her nightmares. The void where Squall's face should be. An empty husk of the man she loved.

Had he loved her? He betrayed her trust. Without living long enough to explain himself. She hated herself for loving him still. She wanted his soft hair tickling her face. His warmth comforting her. His hands as they caressed her skin. His striking blue eyes as they stared into hers before bowing his head between her thighs.

Rinoa shuddered. Her mind traversed all the same fantasies with Quistis the night before. It was the first time she'd entertained such thoughts. For never existing before, they were unbearably persistent now.

Then she cried.

She was despicable. Desperate. The man she loved had not been gone two months, and she was already yearning for the touch of another. A rebound. Was she so insecure, that she clung to the first person who treated her with compassion?

Her heart pounded in quick succession, catching her breath.

Maybe this was it. Maybe whatever force that was fucking her up would finally claim her by stopping her heart, leaving her dead body for Quistis to find when she returned from her trip.

The surge had the opposite effect. Her body became alive. The voices in her mind became alluring. Electricity charged every cell, every drop of blood, every nerve ending she had been numb to for weeks. The sudden throbbing between her legs became unbearable. Like an animal in heat, she mounted Quistis' pillow and began grinding against it with reckless abandon.

She could feel him inside of her. Thrusting. Strong hands guiding her hips on top of him. She loved him. She hated him. And she would fuck him with the passion of both. Even in death, all of his passions belonged to her.

It was what the voices promised. The power they gave her. She could have everything she ever wanted.

The past. Squall.

The present. Quistis.

A whimper as the gentle, calming side of her powers washed over her perceived reality.

Yes. Rinoa could have her too.

She could have everything she ever wanted. A hand slid inside of her panties. She stroked gently. Carefully. She couldn't scare her away. After fucking Squall raw with her pent up aggression, she could teach Quistis how to make love.

Soft caresses. Fingers everywhere, as slow or as fast as Quistis wanted. Rinoa could have her begging.

Just. Like. This.

There was no one to hear. And yet she buried her face in Quistis' pillow as she screamed. It hit her fast and hard.

Valete liberi…

Rinoa's parallel fantasies folded in on each other, compressing into one reality of orgasmic highs. The phoenix seared hot, branding her chest as she came.

Compression.

A mutual sense of understanding flowed between Rinoa and the entity inside of her. Just as she grasped it, it slipped away, fading in the throes of her self-gratification. The fleeting sense of bliss helped her forget her grief and shame as she smothered Quistis' pillow with her body and sweat, wishing it was the actual professor beneath her.

Before Rinoa could catch her breath and begin to feel repulsed with herself, her cell phone rattling on the bedside counter startled her. She groaned and used her clean hand to reach over and look at the small display.

One AM.

Rinoa didn't recognize the number. Anticipation churned her stomach. She moved her thumb to decline the call, yet the force inside of her, the same one that hurt those men in white, destroyed the tavern, and lifted Rival off the ground, forced her to answer the phone.

"Hello?"

"Meet me at Squall's apartment."

Rinoa sat up in bed.

That voice.

"How did you get my number?"

"You've got thirty minutes."

The line went dead. Rinoa dropped the phone into her lap and buried her face in her hands.

"Fuck."