FFVIII: Betrayals at Peace

"Give me a reading!" Dr. Kadowaki almost shouted, as they wheeled the bloodied Squall atop a metal stretcher. An IV was stuck on the barely breathing commander's right arm, constantly injecting concentrated amounts of refined synthetic curative elixers. An oxygen mask was placed on his face, which was constantly pumped by another medical aide. The ugly gash on his chest from Seifer's gunblade had been kept in check by small metal clamps.
"Pulse is getting lower!" one of the male aids reported. "Any more lower, and we may lose him!"
"Eyes are barely showing any response at all," a female nurse said.
"Damn!" Dr. Kadowaki cursed. "Keep pumping oxygen into his lungs. As long as his heart is still pumping, we still have a chance!"
Beside the stretcher, keeping up, Rinoa was crying continuously, brushing Squall's still wet hair time and again.
"Hang on love," she kept whispering. "You'll be alright. Don't die on me now, Squall! Please...heaven, don't take him away...!"
On the opposite side of the bed, Zell was just looking deathly pale at his comrade, and then at the crying girl. Behind them were the Garden students who were quite taken aback with the reality of what just happened.
Finally, they arrived at the medical center of the Garden. After that incident with the Galbadia Garden during the Sorceress war, Cid made it one of the top priority as the Garden was rebuilt to have a fully functional and state of the art medical center in which to treat any SeeDs who may have incurred serious or fatal injuries during missions and emergency attacks. Not that they were expecting any attacks anytime soon, seeing as how the whole world seemed to have been shaken after learning what Ultimecia had intended to do. For now, there seemed to have been an uneasy peace over the whole world. But Cid did not take any chances, anyway. If there was one thing experience taught him, it was that sorrys always come too late.
Squall was wheeled into the ICU. Rinoa would have wanted to follow, but Dr. Kadowaki held out a hand to stop her.
"But I want to be with him!" Rinoa protested.
"I'm sorry, but this is a delicate situation," the lady doctor said, shaking her head empathically, but with resolve. "Don't worry. We will do our best to make sure he'll live."
"But he needs me," Rinoa said, almost pleadingly.
Dr. Kadowaki shook her head sadly. "I'm sorry. You'll have to watch from here."
It was then that Zell went behind Rinoa and held her shoulders and squeezed them meaningly. Rinoa turned to look sideways at him, and Zell shook his head. Rinoa sadly looked down, and Dr. Kadowaki closed the door. The only way for Rinoa to see what was happening to her lover was through the glass window of the door.

Inside the room, the flurry of activity was continous.
"Sarah has finished stitching the main wound, doctor, but ECG shows that the patient is going into cardiac arrest!" a male nurse said, looking at the lines on the display of the machine which showed how much the heart is beating.
"Give him 50 ccs of epinephrine," Dr. Kadowaki said. "Keep his heart pumping! Ready the defibrillator, someone!"

"What's happening?" Rinoa asked to no one in particular, as she watched all the hubbub going on inside the room.
"Don't worry, Rinny," Zell said, trying to put Rinoa at ease. "Dr. Kadowaki won't let Squall die. You'll see! He'll be alright."
Rinoa did not reply, but instead continued looking at the activity inside the room. She watched the graph on the ECG start to falter, and her heart seemed to be beating faster, almost as if she wanted her heart to beat for him instead.
And then, she saw it flatline.
At that moment, she felt her heart stop, as well. Time seemed to have frozen in space, as she watched Dr. Kadowaki get out the shock pads. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion. She knew too well what that meant. They had to apply a dosage of voltage to Squall, in order to make his heart function again. It was no different than "jumpstarting" an engine to make it come to life. She watched them hover the pads on his chest, and then pressed them down. Squall's body bounced on the bed. But still, the reading on the machine did not deviate from that straight line. Another voltage, and she saw Squall's body bounce again. And then another.
It was surreal.
Finally, she watched as everyone stepped away from the bed. She watched as Dr. Kadowaki remove her face mask, as well as the others. She watched her stare at Squall's motionless body, and then watched her with fearful eyes as she walked towards the door.
Both she and Zell were unable to speak as Dr. Kadowaki opened the door. They knew her answer even before they could ask the question.
It was then than Zell saw Rinoa silently walk towards the ICU room to her dead boyfriend, in a daze. Her eyes were unblinking, and her skin seemed to have become as white as sheet. She seemed as if she, too, had died.

"Zell! Zell! this is Irvine! Dammit, Zell! Pick up!" Irvine spoke through the com-link for what seemed like hours now, but in truth, it had only been a quarter of an hour eversince he carried the fainted Quistis to the Ragnarok. Right now, they were above Galbadian seas towards the continent of Balamb.
"Shit," Irvine cursed. "I wonder why the hell they aren't answering?"
"Maybe their batteries run out," Selphie said, as she deftly piloted the red ship. "Or maybe Zell turned it off. There are many possibilities, Irvy."
Irvine sighed, and turned back to look at the still unconscious Quistis lying on the extended padded seat. She had turned pale then, but now, at least her cheeks had returned back to their rosy color.
"I wonder what the hell could've happened?!" Irvine asked. It was a rhetorical question, of course. He knew that Selphie had as much idea as him. He just had to ask that out.
"Damn. What could've Rinoa meant when she said that Squall's dying?"
"Near death," Selphie corrected, biting her lower lip and frowning. Whether it was due to piloting, or by what she said, he couldn't figure out. "Near death is different from dying."
"Whatever," Irvine said.
"At least in near death, it can still be abetted," Selphie reasoned.
"Shit, Squall," Irvine said, taking off his hat. "What the hell have you gotten yourself into this time?"
"Do you think, maybe, it was because of Seifer?" Selphie asked. She let out an involuntary subtle shudder.
"That is the biggest possibility I can think of right now," Irvine said.
It was then that they heard a groan from behind them. Irvine turned back to see that Quistis had regained a bit of consciousness.
"Squall..." she murmured. "...I shouldn't...have...I'm sorry...we shouldn't've...Rinoa..."
Irvine got up and walked towards her. He knelt beside the extended seat she was lying in. And he gently shook her. "Quisty..."
Quistis' eyelids fluttered, and she opened her eyes. Irvine was blurry at first, but the figure gradually sharpened. "I-irvine...?"
"You fainted," Irvine said, and tried to give her a reassuring smile.
Suddenly, she got up. "Squall! What happened to..?!"
"We don't know," Irvine said, standing up. "I tried contacting Zell, but nobody answered."
"Rinoa said...Squall's near death..." Quistis swallowed. "Squall...!"
"Selphie," irvine called. "How much more time until we get there?"
"Fifteen minutes, tops!" Selphie said back.
"Okay!" Irvine then looked back at Quistis. "Don't worry, Quisty. In fifteen minutes, we'll know just what the hell's happening."
Quistis nodded. But she knew that it was going to be one of the longest fifteen minutes of her life.

Haze...where am I? What's happening...?
Squall felt strange. It was as if he was dreaming, and conscious of that fact.
Am I dreaming...?
Squall brought up his hands and looked at it. It was still gloved. Black. But it was shimmering, as if rainbows were dancing on it. He looked at himself, as if he was discovering himself for the first time. He was still in his favorite clothes--the furred black leather jacket,and black pants. The rainbows were shimmering there still.
I am dreaming...
For the first time, he looked around him. But all he saw were white. There was nothing, except pure, untarnished white. He looked down, and although he felt solid ground (or at least he thought he felt he did), there was nothing to see but white. He was floating in blank. It was as if the whole place had been spilled over by a giant white paint, and it left nothing uncovered. Except himself. The air was cool, though not cold. Just a soothing, calming cool.
That was also the next thing he noticed. The feeling of calmness. As if he was finally at rest. He had never felt this calm before. It was as if almost all his emotions were gone, except that pervading feeling of soothing calm.
What happened...?
"Hello..."
He turned around. At the sound of the voice. It was a female's. Who's there?
"Look..."
Squall turned back, and saw trees, and beautiful, colorful shrubberies. The whole area was covered with small, pruned grass. It was a sea of green, except for the cobbled pathways which snaked from everywhere. Birds were flying in the air, and twittering in the trees, and butterflies flitted from flower to flower. Gardenias, chrysanthemums, and roses. There were tulips, and lilies. He looked again, to his front, to find a beautiful fountain, carved in smooth marble. In the middle was a statue of a beautiful woman holding a jug from which crystal water flowed. There were also white marble arches on some of the paths. Some were covered with ivies, and green climbing vines.
Wasn't it just blank nothingness a while ago?
"Here..."
He turned around, and saw a beautiful woman in a peach turtle-neck sweater, and blue jeans. Her hair was a very dark brown, which, in a darker light, could be mistaken as black. A white hairband was pushed up her hair. Her hands were clasped in front of her in that unassuming manner. Her smile was familiar to him, though for some reason, he couldn't understand why.
"Hello," she said again.
Squall did not reply. He knew her. He just couldn't point out where.
The woman walked to him. "It's okay to talk."
"I...I seem to be lost," Squall said.
"You've always been lost," the woman said. "Eversince that night in the cabin days ago."
The cabin? A piece fell into place. "Y-yes...the cabin. How did you know?"
"I know of many things about you," the woman smiled. "Squall."
The woman called her Squall. That was his name. Another piece. A small one. "Could you tell me where I am now?"
"Lost," the woman said. "Let me help you find your way. Come walk with me."
They walked along a pathway, towards an arch. Squall soon found himself on a maze of shrubberies. He had read of places like this in books.
Books? Where had he read those books?
"This is a beautiful garden, don't you think?" the woman asked.
"Garden," Squall repeated. "We are in a garden. A beautiful garden?" Another piece then seemed to have appeared. He was in a Garden. Not this one. Another garden.
"Yes, this is a beautiful garden," the woman said. "There are instances where people come here, as well. Too often, they too, were lost. But somehow, they manage to find their way."
"I have to get home," Squall said. "I feel that someone is waiting for me." But where was home?
"Oh good," the woman smiled. "That means that you'll find your way soon. Its just a matter of when."
"Who are you?" Squall finally asked.
"Just a friend," the woman said, smiling. "Do you remember what happened that night in the cabin? Where you started getting lost. The beginning is always a good place to start looking for something we lost. Too often, the things we seek are always in the last place we expect to look for them."
Squall tried to remember. What happened then? "That night..."
"Yes, that night," the woman said. She seemed to be coaxing him, without pushing. He liked that. She still reminded him of someone, though.
"Nothing," Squall suddenly said.
"Nothing?"
"There was a lot of nothing then. Whiteness. Like before, a moment ago, when I came here," Squall said, remembering. "There were lots of nothings. Blankness. White."
"Snow?" the woman suggested.
There was a click inside his mind. Snow. "Y-yes...snow...cold. It was cold." He started to remember more, as pieces started to fall into place. "But then, I felt warmth."
"Heat?"
"Yes. I felt a warmth. I don't how long I've fought between warmth and cold. But I feel warmth." Squall said, looking forward slowly. They were walking amidst turns and twists inside the green labyrinth. "After a while..."
"Body warmth," the woman said.
"There was someone with me?" Squall asked.
"Try and remember," the woman said. "There was warmth. But there was no sun."
"No...I remember something golden," Squall said. "If there was no sun, then the golden thing I saw was...?"
The woman didn't reply. Instead, she walked beside him, hands clasped behind her back, waiting for him to continue.
"The gold danced with the fire," Squall remembered. The hazy images in his mind started to form shape. A golden river of silk, dancing with fire which glowed beside them.
Them?
"I was with a person with golden hair. We were embracing..." Squall said. A question nagged inside his mind. "Who was the person?" A question. A ques...quis...Quis...
"Quistis," Squall said suddenly. "I remember Quistis. Quistis Trepe, of a garden. The Garden. Balamb Garden."
"Very good," the woman smiled approvingly. "You remember fast, Squall. Yes. Do you remember her more?"
"She was beautiful," Squall said. "She was smart, and intelligent. And she...why did I embrace her?"
"She was trying to save your life," the woman said. "You could've died, if left long in that cold. She gave you her warmth. She saved your life by the heat of her body."
"Something happened," Squall said.
The woman smiled. "You cannot expect heat, and not find fire. There was a flame that was ignited. Passion flared that night."
And then, images started falling into place. The passion he shared with her. How their limbs intertwined in a sea of lust and musk and moans and groans. And at least one of them shared love.
"So I love her?" Squall asked.
"Why don't you find out more? Let's start with Love," the woman said. "Have you ever been in love, Squall?"
"M-maybe," Squall said. "I remember a smile. And a kiss. I remember the taste of someone's lips. Sweet."
"Quistis?" the woman asked.
"Yes," Squall said, even as his mind said, 'No'. "No!"
"No?" the woman asked.
"I...I'm not sure," Squall hesitated. He closed his eyes. He wanted to think of Quistis when he thought of love, but somehow, his mind seemed to reject that image.
"What else do you carry in that heart of yours, Squall?" the woman asked.
"I carry...carried..." Squall said, trying to remember. He looked up, to the blue sky. Blue? "I carried...something blue...as the sky."
The woman hummed. It was a song. A song he remembered. However, the woman seemed to falter when humming that song. As if she, too, remembered something apart from his.
A song, a blue, he carried. Then, an image of something black and silky. And then, the soft texture of a skin. And dark eyes. The image seemed to flit in his mind, and the eyes narrowed as if in smile, and then disappeared again from his view, as if teasing him. She had always teased him. Whenever he was sullen. She always seemed to tease him, even when he's serious.
"A girl of black hair, with smiling eyes, in blue clothes," Squall remembered. "I remember carrying her. Over a bridge, as she was unconscious. In a time when sorceresses warred."
"We are going back more than we wanted," the woman said. "The name of the girl?"
"I cannot remember," Squall said, shaking his head frustratingly.
"Look inside your heart, Squall," the woman said. "After all, that's where everything is stored."
"My heart?" Squall asked. Heart...heart...heartilly. "Heartilly. Her name was Heartilly. Rinoa Heartilly!"
The woman just smiled. And his mind brightened more. Everything sprang then. Everything. He fell down, on his knees, holding his head. It was like the name had been the master key which unlocked everything, and all the memories came tumbling down to him like an avalanche, burying him.
After the memories came the feelings. Of hurt, and pain, and betrayals. Too many betrayals the past days. And too many tears. Tears which seemed to rival even the storm that was raging that last time. That storm...what was he doing outside the storm? And then he remembered, again.
The rain was lashing at his face while he met Seifer's challenge up there on Devil's Seat. Seifer, who said that he was there to teach him something. Who said that he was there to make him pay for the hurt he had caused Rinoa. And he remembered the fury in Seifer's eyes as he lunged at him with his gunblade. Each slash seemed to be for each tear that Rinoa shed. Why was he doing that for her?
He looked up slowly, and found the woman squatting, looking at him with friendly, consoling eyes. "It's painful, isn't it? And confusing. Too many players in the field. And the game was too complex for everyone to understand."
"I made Rinoa cry," Squall said softly. "I hurt her. I felt how much she hurt. Right now. I felt Quistis' hurt. I felt Seifer's hurt. I felt all their pain."
His face contorted and he caught himself with his right arm before he fell down in the grass inside that labyrinth. He was remembering the last times. And the pain as Seifer ripped his chest with his gunblade.

"Wake up, Squall," Rinoa asked, as if expecting Squall's motionless body to just open its eyes and then look at her, and then, just smile.
"Please. Open your eyes. Don't die on me. I love you."
She would've given everything that moment to see him smile again. She would forgive everything, forget everything, if only his eyes would flutter again.
It did not.

The murmurs of students and onlooker cadets echoed throughout the hallways as they watched Quistis ran towards the medical section and into the Intensive Care Unit. Her face was flushed pale, those angelic features almost becoming anxiously blank. Behind her were Irvine and Selphie.
They knew that this morning, Quistis tendered her resignation. And then, not long ago, their SeeD commander was brought in a stretcher, his body covered with blood, with Rinoa and Zell at his side. And Seifer was detained in the Garden cell. Not until the Galbadian attack a year or so ago had the atmosphere in the Garden been this charged before.
Finally, Quistis arrived just outside the room. There were a lot of people outside the room. SeeDs, students, and instructors. The whole atmosphere was silent here, unlike that in the hallway. The whole surrounding was muted. Quistis thought she could hear some sniffings in the crowd.
It did not take long for the last person on the crowd to realize that she was there, standing silently. That was all it took. After that, people started looking at her, and then, little by little, a pathway was cleared. Everyone was looking at her now, but she did not seem to notice. All she saw was the door, opening there like an ominous invitation to hell.
Her steps became timid, and faltering. She had to clench her hands into fists to stop them from shaking. Behind her, Irvine and Selphie were following. Selphie was embraced by the young Galbadian. Both were completely blank as to what to expect next.
The moment Quistis was before the open door, she unconsciously leaned on the door sill. Her heart seemed to have frozen for what seemed like forever. The first she saw was the flat line on the ECG screen. And she felt her heart crumple inside her. But there were no tears now, and it seemed to have made things a lot more painful. She leaned her forehead on the door sill, wanting to cry, but no tears came out. She saw Rinoa crying beside the bed, hair damp and cheeks wet with tears ever more so than from the rain. She was holding Squall's pallid hand. She did not seem to notice her standing on the door. In fact, she did not seem to notice anything else except Squall's still body and herself.
Quistis' gaze lingered on the still body of the young man who, just days ago, shared her warmth. She would've wanted to just reach out and touch Squall. To just brush those wet hair back from his face. But Rinoa was there. And she couldn't do it, no matter how she wished it so. She dared not intrude into their moment now. She had intruded enough. And so, she just stood there, and touched her love from afar. Just by her thoughts.
He was so close, and yet, infinitely so far.

"Come," the woman said, helping Squall up. "We are still not out of the maze. You're still lost. But at least you have found the path."
Squall stood up, in trembling feet. The woman looked up at him, and then placed a hand on his chest. And just as suddenly, the pain went away, as if it was never there. But he remembered now.
"It was my fault," Squall murmured. "Everything that has happened was my fault. If only Quistis and I hadn't--"
"Don't start with the blaming, Squall," the woman said.
"But what happened--" Squall started.
"What happened was a sharing of passion by two people," the woman interrupted. "What happened was a moment frozen in time. And it was remembered by someone who was so very much in love with the other."
"But I was in love with Rinoa!" Squall said. "I am in love with Rinoa."
"You still don't understand human feelings, don't you," the woman asked, looking at him. "I was not talking about your feelings. I was talking about hers..."
"Her? Quistis?" Squall asked.
"She loved you very much. Didn't you feel that?" the woman asked. "And that feeling, she had hidden for so long. Firstly, because of the fact that you were her student, and she was your instructor. And second, because of the developing relationship between you and Rinoa Heartilly. She loved you so much, Squall, and when that time at the cabin presented itself, she could not help but be drawn by the circumstances. All it took was for her to see your eyes. That was it. You cannot blame a human for its inherent passion. That would be just like blaming a dog, for growing fur."
"So, you're saying its her fault then?" Squall asked.
"There you go again," the woman said. "Stop blaming anyone. It was not her fault. It was not yours. What happened was a spur of the moment. But you lived on it, and then doubted your love for Rinoa. That was when you really got lost."
"After what happened, could you blame me?" Squall asked the woman. "Quistis and I...I shared something with her then...it was special..."
"Yes. She felt that. And you made her happy," the woman said. "That night. But she felt guilty. That was why she had to go away from you. To sort out her feelings logically."
"That was what I was about to do, as well," Squall said. "When I tried to walk up to her in her classroom. That was what I was about to do. Talk to her about us."
"Then tell me what you were about to tell her," the woman asked, crossing her hands. She seemed to be studying him much more closely now.
For the first time since she laid her hand on his chest, he felt doubt. Did she know something?
"I...I was about to tell her that...I don't think walking away from each other like that was the answer," Squall said. "That I think it would be better for us to talk instead."
"You still want her," the woman said, getting straight through everything. The way she said it was so sudden that Squall was caught unaware.
"W-what?" Squall asked. "I-I just want..."
"After what happened, you've been feeling torn," the woman said, as if reading him like a book. "Just as suddenly, Rinoa's appeal seemed to have lessened. Was it because Rinoa was more of a girl, while Quistis was more of a woman?"
"N-no...you're getting me wrong..." Squall said. That was not what he was feeling, wasn't it? His love for Rinoa was still as strong!
"When your friend told you that you should go talk to her, he meant that you should talk to her as a man who wanted to settle things with a woman," she said. "Without any ulterior motives. All the cards laid out on the table. But you, Squall, were hiding some of your aces on your sleeve."
"N-no..." Squall said.
"You want her, because of what happened, And you thought it was love," the woman continued. How her voice seemed to have been so calm made it even more unbearable.
"And you saw how much she loves you, and you thought you can get her with that. But when Rinoa found out, you were afraid of losing her, as well. That was why you chose to turn your back from Quistis and follow Rinoa instead. Did you see her eyes, Squall?"
Squall looked away.
"She was reaching out for you. And you turned away from her," the woman said. "You did not love her as much as you thought you did. It was only purely because of what happened which made you think that you love her. If you were to make an effort to wedge yourself in deeper in her heart that time, what would she have felt if she knew that you don't love her as much as she thought you do?"
His jaws tightened. He felt that he did not deserve this.
"What were you afraid of, Squall?" the woman continued. "That you might lose Quistis' love, if you ignore her? That if she continues to avoid you, sooner or later, that feeling she feels for you will dissipate, and may even transfer to someone else? Is that why you wanted to talk to her and try to convince her that you both not talking were being childish?"
"Please..." Squall whispered. "It's not that..."
"The fact was, Squall, you were being selfish," the woman said. "You wanted both their loves. Wasn't Rinoa's enough that you have to take Quistis' too, even though you don't really love her?"
The feeling of calmness was gone now. Squall was utterly confused, and at the same time, angry. But who was he angry at? This strangely familiar woman who dissected him as if he was nothing, or at himself for knowing that what the woman said was true?
The woman walked a few steps, and then squatted in front of a bush of roses. She picked one slowly, and then smelled it. It was a red rose. She turned to Squall and gave the rose to him. She resumed the walk, and Squall followed, holding a red rose.
"The young man you were fighting with was right," the woman continued. "You are quite fortunate, though you just didn't realize it. Rinoa loved you with all her heart."
"Seifer?" Squall asked. "What does he know about love?"
The woman grinned at him. "You'd be surprised. In fact, I think it would do you well to learn from him. He knew what he wanted."
"Rinoa?"
"He loved her so much that he was willing to risk everything for her just to get back at you," the woman said. "For making her feel that pain. It was not the same as when he was a Sorceress' Knight. That was mixed with duty. He did what he did this time because he loved her so much, he felt the need to protect her, even though she really doesn't love him back."
"I thought he was different," squall said.
"You were not fighting the Sorceress' Knight then, Squall. You were fighting a person who had love as his shield and blind passion as his sword."
They turned a corner, and ended up on a blank wall of green. The woman turned to her.
"Do you think you're still lost, Squall?" the woman asked.
"I...I don't know...maybe," Squall said. There was hesitation in his voice.
"The fact is, you stopped being lost moments ago," the woman said. "You already saw the way out, but you did not want to take it because you're still selfish."
"I am not selfish!" Squall said, getting angry. He was not being selfish!
"Then let go," the woman said. "Let go of that false feeling you have for Quistis. You owe her that much. Her love for you was pure, and if you're thinking of returning it with a semblance of a 'love' because you don't want her to lose her feelings for you, then I am disappointed in you..."
"But she loves me," Squall tried to reason out. "And...I want her."
"For?" the woman asked, crossing her arms, and tilting her head at her.
Squall slowly looked down and did not reply. Because he realized that he didn't have a reason. Why did he want her? For what happened?
The woman slowly walked towards him. She cupped Squall's face with both hands, and made him look at her. Those eyes were soft. They radiated love, and he felt calm again. It was something that he felt a long time ago. "Squall, you already have the love of someone that you, too, loved. There is nothing more you could want for."
"Rinoa," Squall said softly.
Squall...
He looked up at the sound of her voice. It seemed to have come from the heavens.
Please wake up. Open your eyes, please! I love you.
"Rinoa!"
The wall of green before them started to disappear, as if melting in air. Squall ran through it, and he found himself in the middle of the labyrinth. There was a fountain here. And a soft glowing light.
"You said that someone is waiting for you, Squall," the woman said, following him. She was smiling. "You don't belong here. Not yet."
"Rinoa! S-she is crying?"
I'm sorry for what I said back there at the balcony. Please. Come back to me. I do love you. I still love you. With all my heart.
"Go to her," the woman said. She looked at the glowing white light. "And show her that you love her too. And show to Quistis what you really feel. Remember Squall. No shadows."
Squall looked at the woman, and at the glowing white light. Then, he started to walk towards it. As he started to step through it, he heard the woman speak again.
"And tell your father and your sister that I love them each and every day of eternity."
Squall's eyes widened at that. She loves his father? "W-wait! A-are you--?!"
But it was too late. The light enveloped him, and he saw nothing but whiteness again.