*   *   *   *   *

Legal Stuff: Final Fantasy VIII doesn't belong to me. It's the property of Squaresoft. I feel better now. Actually wait; I don't own FFVIII or any other volume of the Final Fantasy series, meaning I'm not filthy rich. I feel a lot worse. Oh well, on with the story.

*   *   *   *   *

Author's Note: I'm getting this out of the way right now. I am a Zell/Selphie fan. I know the majority of people are Irvine/Selphie. And I know there are numerous references to Zell's 'library girl' in the game. But none of that is really etched in stone. And this being fanfic... Well anyway, in this story Zell and Selphie are together. Deal with it.

*   *   *   *   *

Another Note: I tried with all my might to find a year numbering system anywhere in FFVII, to no avail. That said; this story takes place eleven years after the game. I may make up a year at some point. Then again I may not. Either way, eleven years have passed since the end of the game. Also, although it may not seem so right now, the title will make sense (or at least almost-sense) eventually. I promise.

*   *   *   *   *

*   *   *   *   *

Time's Orphan

*   *   *   *   *

By 18th Angel

*   *   *   *   *

Chapter One:

Gone in the Night

*   *   *   *   *

      "...And when the Princess looked over, her Knight was there beside her, smiling."

      "And then what happened?"

      "They lived happily ever after, of course."

      "That's it?" Five-year-old Amara Leonhart looked up at her father with confusion and irritation in her eyes.

      Squall nodded. "That's it."

      "That's not a very good ending, Daddy." Amara said.

      "Well there is a little bit more." Squall said. "But it's all mushy kissing."

      Amara scrunched up her face in a gesture of disgust. "Never mind then."

      Squall smiled and kissed his daughter lightly on the forehead. "Goodnight sweetie."

      "Goodnight Daddy." Amara said around a yawn.

      Squall crossed the room and flicked off the overhead light, leaving only the glow of Esthar at night to illuminate the bedroom; the world's biggest nightlight.

      "Is Mommy the Princess?"

      "What?" Squall turned at his daughter's question.

      "In your story." Amara said. "Mommy's the Princess and you're the Knight, right? And Mr. Irvine is the Cowboy. And Miss Quistis is the Teacher. And..."

      "You figure that out all by yourself?" Amara nodded. Squall shook his head, chuckling softly. "Guess I can't put anything past you, can I?"

      "Did you really go up into space?"

      "Would Daddy lie to you?"

      "No." Amara replied without hesitation.

      "Then I guess we must have gone into space." Squall said. "Now go to sleep."

      He almost made it out the door before the next question.

      "So is Mommy really a Sorceress?"

      That brought Squall up short. Would Daddy lie to you?

      "No. Not anymore." He said. "But I think she's pretty special anyway. Don't you?"

      "Uh-huh." Amara nodded.

      "Well I'm glad we're agreed. Now be a good girl and go to sleep."

      He left the door slightly ajar, switching off the hall light on his way to the master bedroom.

      Would Daddy lie to you? To protect Rinoa...in a heartbeat.

*   *   *   *   *

      "You have some trouble getting the little princess to sleep?" Rinoa asked as Squall entered their bedroom.

      Her husband shook his head. "That kid gets harder to entertain every day."

      Rinoa nodded. "And more inquisitive."

      Squall sighed heavily. "You heard, huh?"

      "I just...hate lying to our daughter, Squall."

      "So do I. But we have to for now." Squall said, taking Rinoa in his arms. "Imagine you're five years old and you find out you mother is a Sorceress. What would you do?"

      It was Rinoa's turn to sigh. "I'd probably run and tell all my friends."

      "And until Amara's old enough to know better, we can't tell her the truth."

      "I know. I know." Rinoa said. "It's just...so hard."

      Squall's response was to pull her closer to him, running his fingers through her long hair. "I know it is." He whispered.

      They'd had this conversation many times before on one level or another. Having to hide her true nature from almost everyone, even their own daughter, was sometimes more than Rinoa could bear. With the powers of a Sorceress, there was so much good she could do for the world. Unfortunately, they both knew that the world would not see it that way. The general population still saw any Sorceress as a threat to their safety. If the truth ever came out, that Rinoa didn't lose any of her powers when Ultimecia was destroyed, there were those who would inevitably wish to seal her away again. There was no way Squall would let that happen.

*   *   *   *   *

      Squall was awakened in the middle of the night by a loud, piercing scream. He sat bolt upright. Rinoa awoke an instant later.

      "What was that?" She asked just as another scream pierced the silence. This time, Squall instantly recognized the source of the scream.

      "AMARA!"

      He was out of bed and down the hall in seconds. The door that he had left ajar was now closed. Squall didn't bother with the handle; whoever had closed the door would certainly have locked it too. He hit the door with his shoulder, putting all his weight against it. Three slams later, cursing whoever had built the Presidential Palace for putting in such thick doors, Squall stepped back. He hadn't actually been on duty as a SeeD in years, and maybe he was a little out of practice. But he always kept a few spells junctioned just in case.

      Squall reached out and wove the Thunder spell, focusing the blast on the doorknob. The lock mechanism melted in an instant and splinters flew as nearly half of the door exploded inward. Squall rushed into the room. Amara's bed was empty, the covers cast aside.

      "DADDY!"

      Squall turned to the window. A man held Amara under one arm. The little girl kicked and fought, but it was useless against the big man.

      "Let her go!" Squall ordered.

      The kidnapper sneered at that and stepped out the window, not a wise move considering the sixty-story drop on the other side.

      "NO!"

      "DADDY! DADD---" His daughter's voice cut short abruptly.

      Horrified, Squall ran to the window and peered down, expecting to see the kidnapper, and his precious child, crumpled on the pavement of the courtyard below. Instead, he saw a shimmering disk a few stories below the window. Without pausing to think, Squall swung his leg over the window ledge and leapt out over the disk. Even before his feet left the ledge, the disk began to shrink. Suddenly, Squall found himself very high up, with a very long way to fall.

*   *   *   *   *

      When Squall stopped to blast open the door to Amara's room, Rinoa had run for the front door. As immediate family to the President of Esthar, they had an armed guard stationed outside their apartment. It used to make Rinoa nervous, now she thanked Hyne that the young officer was there. The guard must have heard Amara's screams, because he met her halfway in the living room, gun drawn.

      "Are you alright, ma'am?"

      "Hurry!" Rinoa yelled, dragging the soldier behind her. "Someone's in Amara's room!"

      They reached the bedroom just in time to see Squall leap out the open window. Rinoa ran to the window. There was no sign of Amara, only Squall falling toward the main courtyard. Aware that the guard was watching her, but completely unable to care, Rinoa reached out with her mind, tapping into the magical energies around her. If she was lucky, and the soldier was exceptionally stupid, he might mistake what she was doing for junctioned para-magic. Either way, she wasn't going to stop. She reached out a huge, invisible hand and caught Squall just before he smashed into the pavement.

*   *   *   *   *

      The wind howled in Squall's ears as he fell. This certainly wasn't a way he had ever expected to die. Oddly, he wasn't afraid of death. He was angry, furious that he had failed to protect Amara.

      Just before he hit the ground, Squall was jarred to a halt. He hung in the air for a few seconds before falling the last few feet to the pavement. Feelings of frustration and powerlessness raged in him. Before he quite knew what he was doing, Squall was pounding the pavement of the courtyard with his fists. Soon his knuckles were bleeding. Pedestrians on a late night stroll past the Palace cast odd glances at the strange, pajama-clad man furiously assaulting the sidewalk, but he didn't care. He just wanted to keep beating the ground beneath him, imagining that he was actually punching the bastard that had stolen his daughter from him.

      "DAMN YOU!" He screamed. "GIVE HER BACK!"

*   *   *   *   *

      "I want us to be very clear on this, Captain. Mr. Leonhart did not jump out that window. The girl was gone when you reached the room and he was leaning out the window, but he did not jump. And this is the important part; Mrs. Leonhart did nothing out of the ordinary. Understood?"

      The soldier saluted sharply. "Yes Sir."

      "Dismissed." Kiros Seagill waved the young officer away and turned his attention back to the room's other occupants. Squall sat on the couch, his head hung, as a nurse bandaged his knuckles. Rinoa leaned against Ellone, crying quietly. Laguna sat hunched over the small table in the corner, trying to keep himself under control. The look on Squall's face, or lack thereof, said that Kiros wouldn't be getting any answers from him for a while. He didn't want to question Rinoa right now. But if they were going to have any chance at finding Amara, they would need all the information they could get.

      "Rinoa?" Rinoa lifted her head from her sister in law's shoulder. "Rinoa, I know you probably don't want to talk right now." Kiros continued. "But we need to know everything that happened in order to find Amara."

      "I don't know." Rinoa said. "By the time I reached the room...She was gone."

      "You didn't see anything unusual?"

      Rinoa couldn't speak any more. She silently shook her head.

      "It was a Sorceress." Squall's sudden burst of speech startled everyone.

      "What?" Kiros asked.

      Squall took his focus off the floor for a moment. "They used some kind of...teleportation spell. Only a Sorceress could have that kind of power."

      "But that's impossible." Kiros said. "I mean...there's only one Sorceress left."

      "Better make that two."

*   *   *   *   *

      Amara had passed out during the trip through the insane glowing tunnel. She awoke to the sounds of other kids crying.

      Amara sat up and looked around. She was in a small room with bare metal walls and no windows. A single door was set into the far wall. There were kids all around her. Most of them seemed to be about Amara's age, with a few older and one or two even younger. The majority of the children were crying, calling for their parents, or simply sobbing wordlessly. Most of those who weren't crying were doing their best to console those who were.

      "Hi." A tall girl with short black hair sat down next to Amara. "Are you okay?"

      "Where are we?"

      The other girl shrugged. "Who knows? They won't tell us."

      "They?"

      "The men. Like the one who took you. Whenever they bring a new one in somebody tries asking them, but they never answer and...asking gets you hit."

      "What do they want?"

      "Don't know that either." The girl confessed.

      "Oh."

      "What's your name?" The girl asked.

      "Amara...Amara Leonhart."

      "I'm Ariana." The tall girl replied. She hesitated. "...If you want to cry, go ahead. I'll stay here with you."

      Amara shook her head. "I'm not going to cry." She said. "My Daddy's gonna come get me, and he's gonna let everyone else go home too."

      "Is your daddy really strong?" Ariana asked.

      "Uh-huh."

      "What's he like?"

      "He's really brave and handsome." Amara said. "And he has a Gunblade. And he's got this really cool scar between his eyes. And..."

      "You liar!" Both girls turned. A thin boy with unruly gray hair stood over them. "My Dad's the only guy in the world who can use a Gunblade. And he's got a scar between his eyes. You're just trying to copy what I said before!"

      "Grow a brain, Vic!" Ariana yelled. "Amara hadn't gotten here yet when you told us that!"

      The wind seemed to go out of Vic's sails at that. "Yeah...Well..." He sputtered. "Well...My Dad's still gonna get here before hers!" He turned and stormed off to a corner of the room, where he sat, glaring at Amara.

      "Don't listen to Vic." Ariana said. "He's just a big dummy. He tries to act like he's braver than all of us, just 'cause he's the oldest." She leaned over and whispered conspiratorially. "But I heard him crying at night when he thought we were all asleep."

      "I wonder if it's true." Amara said.

      "What's true?" Ariana asked.

      "About his daddy."

      Ariana shrugged. "Probably. I guess everybody's parents are probably looking for them."

      "What about yours."

      "I don't think so." Ariana frowned slightly. "They've never tried to find me before."

*   *   *   *   *

      "Alright, Harm; this ain't funny anymore. It's so far past your bedtime, I don't even want to think about it." Irvine Kinneas told his four-year-old son. "I'm gonna be in there in two minutes to tuck you in, and I expect you to be ready y'hear?"

      Irvine was about to continue when the phone rang. He sprinted across the small apartment, nearly killing himself when he tripped on a toy Moogle, and answered on the fourth ring.

      "Hello?"

      "Irvine?"

      "Squall?" Irvine was startled by the voice on the other end of the phone. He had spoken to Squall only a few weeks earlier, but his voice was different now. It reminded Irvine less of the Squall he knew know and more of how Squall had sounded when they first met eleven years earlier; cold, hollow, and utterly devoid of any positive feeling. "What's wrong?" He asked, for the dramatic reversion of Squall's voice assured him that something was immensely wrong.

      "Is Harm okay?"

      "He's fine." Irvine said, wondering why Squall would be calling to ask about Harm.

      "Stay with him." Squall said. "Don't let him out of your sight, even for a second. And you might want to get out of your apartment. Stay at a friend's house or something. Better yet, get Quistis to let you stay at Balamb Garden."

      "Squall, what the hell's goin' on?" Irvine demanded.

      Squall was silent for a long time. "I think...someone may be after our children." An even longer pause followed. "They took Amara."

      "Oh God...Squall...I..."

      "I'll call ahead of you and let Quistis know your coming." Squall said.

      "What are you gonna do?"

      Squall was silent again. "I'll find her." He said. "Somehow...I will get her back."

*   *   *   *   *

TBC