Squall sat in his room, listening to the angry lyrics
and music of KoRn. He pondered over the events of that day and sighed.
Rinoa. That two-cent whore had been cheating on
him with Irvine, who was currently engaged to Selphie.
'That traitor. Kill her!' the familiar voice
from inside his head came.
"No!" he whispered harshly. Rinoa may be a slut,
but she still didn't deserve to die.
'It would be so easy.' the voice prompted
him, but he ignored it and picked up his gunblade, heading ot the Training
Center to let off some steam.
***
"Hey Zell, you seen Squall?" Quistis asked Zell,
praying that he would swallow all those hot dogs before he answered.
"Nope." No such luck.
"That's disgusting!" Quistis said, wrinkling up
her nose.
Zell swallowed. "Sorry," he said sheepishly.
"That's okay. But where is Squall? I haven't seen
him since that big scene with Rinoa and Irvine today," Quistis said, finishing
off her salad.
"Yeah. Can you believe Rinoa tried to get back with
him after what she did?" Zell said in disgust.
"I know! She's all like 'Oh Squall, it was just
a misunderstanding! We can still be together, can't we?' I didn't think
she could get any lower than sleeping with her best friend's fiancé,
but there she goes."
"Ummhmmm," Zell replied, trying not to gross Quistis
out by opening his mouth.
Irvine ran up to their table and sat down, slamming
his fist down on the table.
"What are you doing here?" Quistis asked
icily. Zell just glared, as his mouth was still full of half-chewed hot
dogs.
"You guys, don't get like that. It wasn't my fault,"
Irvine began, but was cut off by Quistis.
"It wasn't your fault! Then who's fault was it?
Seifer's? Maybe he stuck his gunblade to your head and forced you
to sleep with her!" she yelled, with Zell nodding furiously along beside
her.
"Rinoa convinced me to break it off with Selphie.
And she told me that she wasn't with Squall anymore. Really, I wouldn't
of got together with her if I knew they were still together. I know how
fucked up Squall is," he explained
"So did you break it off with her?" Zell asked,
wiping with ketchup laden chin with Quistis's napkin.
"Yeah. I realized that I never really wanted to
be with her in the first place, I was just missing Selphie so much that
I thought I did," Irvine said sadly, thinking of his precious Selphie,
who was currently helping to rebuild Trabia Garden.
"Oh. I didn't know it was like that. Sorry I went
all psycho on you," Quistis said, putting a friendly arm around Irvine
as he sulked.
"You gonna eat that hot dog Irv?" Zell asked, reaching
for Irvine's untouched food.
***
Squall was sitting on a rock in the Training Center,
partially hidden by large ferns and amid recently defeated monsters and
gore.
'What about Irvine? He's supposed to be your
friend. He betrayed you just like everyone else. Don't you think he should
pay for that?'
"Shut up!" Squall yelled out into the darkness.
'Why? You know everything I'm saying is true.
You used to listen to me. What happened?'
"I was weak then. I can make my own decisions
now," Squall muttered.
'I don't think you can! You're never sure about
anything.' the voice taunted.
Squall was about to respond when he saw Rinoa fighting
off a monster to the left of him.
'Here's your chance! Kill her! She's distracted,
and no one is here to see!'
Squall felt the urge to rip her from piece
to piece coming over him. He tried to fight it, but it was too strong.
He got up and walked closer to her, keeping very quiet.
'Yes, that's right. Just a little closer. Destroy
her! Rip her apart! Do it now you stupid fuck!'
Squall took a breath and lunged with his
gunblade and stabbed Rinoa through the back, puncturing her lung.
Rinoa choked on blood and tried to turn around to
glimpse her attacker.
"Squallllll..." she gurgled bloodily, before Squall
swung his blade down and cut off her head.
Even after she was dead, Squall cut her again and
again, until she did not even look remotely like a human being anymore.
Squall stopped after a few minutes, breathing hard
and covered in blood.
Then he realized what he had just done.
"Oh shit," he whispered, staring at the bloody mass
that used to be Rinoa. Savage memories started to invade his mind before
they were stopped by the voice.
'Good. Very good Squall. Maybe you aren't useless
after all. But why should she only die when the world that betrayed you
goes totally unpunished? Get revenge on them all for hurting you. Burn
Garden. Burn it , along with everyone else . Do it at night. Now go to
your room. You need rest.'
Squall nodded and walked slowly, almost drone-like
back to his room, where he collapsed on his bed into a hellish, nightmare
filled sleep.
***
"Anyone seen Rinoa or Squall?" Zell asked the table
he was sitting at in the library.
When everyone shook their heads, he got up and decided
to look in the Training Center.
"Squall?" he called into the perpetual dim light
of the center.
He walked fro a few minutes till he spotted Rinoa's
blue angel wing coat.
"Rinoa! You here?" he called, running up to it.
And what he saw there he would never forget.
Rinoa's head lay about a foot from where the mangled
mess of what used to be her body was laying. Her clothes were in shreds
on top of the mass of flesh, soaked through with blood. Her blue coat was
right beside her head, the only part that was not covered in blood.
Zell stumbled backwards and puked into the nearby
ferns. Never in his life, even through all the battles and training, had
he ever seen something so disturbing.
When he was done vomiting, he ran out of the Training
Center and into the cafeteria where Irvine and Quistis were having dinner.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Irvine asked,
seeing his pale skin and the vomit on his shoes.
"Zell, what's wrong?" Quistis asked, coming to his
side and holding him up. He looked like he was about to fall over.
"Rinoa...dead...Training Center," he gasped out,
then passed out cold.
"Rinoa's dead?! Is that what he said?!" Irvine said,
frantically trying to wake Zell up.
"Nida! Take care of Zell! Come on Irvine!" Quistis
ordered, grabbing Irvine's sleeve and running out of the cafeteria.
***
'Wake up Squall.'
Squall woke and immediately forgot all the
horrible nightmares he had just had. He had to concentrate on the task
at hand.
'No, it's not time to burn Garden yet. They found
her. The bitch you killed today. They found her and are now looking for
you.'
"I need to hide then?" Squall asked.
'Yes. In the bitch's room. No one will look for
you there.'
"Okay," he said, then walked out of his dorm
and down the hall to Rinoa's room.
***
Uniformed men with gloves on were putting Rinoa's
messy remains in a green body bag while students tried to get a glimpse
of her.
"I can't believe it. She had her weapon and all
of the most very powerful spells. How could something kill her like this?"
Quistis asked sadly.
"Yeah," Irvine agreed. "Even a T-Rexaur couldn't
make that much of a mess of someone. The cuts on her are too narrow to
be their claws anyway."
"So what the hell did it?!" Zell said angrily. Even
though she had cheated on his best friend, she was still his friend, and
their last words had been spoken in anger. His eyes started to tear and
he shut them tightly.
"All students and SeeD's go to your dorms. This
is an order. Anyone found not in their dorms will be punished. Will Squall
Leonhart, Quistis Trepe, Zell Dincht, and Irvine Kinneas report to the
Headmaster's office immediately."
The small group got up off the bench and
walked out of the Training Center while grumbling students pushed past
them.
***
"Should I go?" Squall asked, sitting on Rinoa's
bed and petting Angelo.
'Yes. There will be suspicion if you do not go.
And I don't want anyone watching you too carefully.'
Squall nodded and tossed Angelo a dog biscuit before
he walked out the door.
***
"Squall! There you are!" Zell exclaimed when Squall
walked into the Headmaster's office.
"Yeah! Where have you been?" Quistis asked.
"Around," Squall said emotionlessly.
"Have you heard what happened yet?" Zell
asked.
'Pretend you don't know.'
"No."
"Really?! But how could you not know? It's all over
Garden and I figured you would be the first to know since you went out
with Rinoa," Zell said.
"Well I don't know. Will you tell me or not?" Squall
said.
"Rinoa's dead. Something in the Training Center
ripped her to shreds," Irvine said quietly.
A hush fell over the four of them for a second,
everyone wanting to see how Squall would react.
"Oh," was all he said.
"Hello everyone. I'm sure you know why I called
you here," Cid said, coming into the room and sitting at his desk.
"Is it about Rinoa?" Zell asked.
"Yes. We don't think it was a monster who killed
her."
"You mean you think someone killed her?" Quistis
asked in surprise.
"Precisely. Even though Rinoa was not as skilled
as some of you, she was a gifted fighter and nothing in the Training Center
could have done that to her."
"Well, what are we supposed to do?" Irvine asked.
End of Part One T-T