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Legal Stuff: Not mine. That's all. Carry on.

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Time's Orphan

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By 18th Angel

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Chapter Two:

The Last Sorceress

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      Zell Dincht sat quietly with his elbows propped up on the table, gazing into the hollow eyes of his best friend. Three days had passed since the kidnapping. And every day, Squall slipped further back into the shell that it had taken all of his friends nearly three years to pull him out of.

      "So how are we gonna find her?" He asked.

      "We?" Squall replied.

      "You think I'm gonna let ya do this on your own?" Zell asked.

      "You don't have to get involved." Squall said.

      "You don't seem to understand." Zell said. "I've got a personal stake in this. My daughter won't go to sleep at night because she's terrified that someone's gonna come and take her away. And I don't want to sleep because I'm terrified of the same damn thing! Hell, Selphie hasn't let go of Cyrus for more than a minute since we got your call! But even if none of that were the case, I'd still be coming with you."

      "Why?"

      It was the mark of how much losing Amara had shaken Squall that he even had to ask. "Because I'm your friend, dammit!" Zell yelled. "Because I was the Best Man at your wedding; because we're both SeeDs; because I'm Amara's godfather! Take your pick!"

      "Zell..."

      "Face it, Squall. If what you suspect is true, then you're gonna need all the help you can get. Even you can't take on a Sorceress by yourself."

      Squall nodded resignedly. "Fine." He said. "We'll need transportation. The faster the better."

      Zell grinned. "I think I know just the thing."

*   *   *   *   *

      Rinoa took the news surprisingly well. She didn't try to talk him out of it. She simply put her arms around him, hugging him tightly, and lay her head against his chest.

      "Please be careful, Squall." She whispered. "I can't...I can't lose you, too."

      Squall place a hand on either side of Rinoa's head, tilting her face up to look her in the eyes. "I'll get her back, Rinoa." He said. "I swear I'll find her."

      Rinoa forced a smile. She brought her lips up to his. Their slow, lingering kiss gradually deepened until they were interrupted by a semi-polite cough. Zell stood in the doorway looking nowhere near as embarrassed as he should have been at interrupting their intimate moment.

      "Sorry." Zell said. "We gotta go if we're gonna catch the train."

      Rinoa nodded and stepped back. "Be careful." She said.

      "I will." Squall assured her.

      "Take care of him, Zell."

      The blonde man smiled and brought his right hand up to his face in the SeeD salute. "You can count on me, ma'am."

*   *   *   *   *

      Selphie rode with them to the train station. As Zell had said, she barely put down their two-year-old son Cyrus for more than a few seconds at a time, as if letting him out of immediate contact would invite sinister forces to snatch him away. She also kept a close eye on the older of their two children, six-year-old Katarina.

      "Do you really have to go, Dad?" She asked from her seat on Zell's knee.

      "I'm afraid so, kiddo." Zell said.

      "When are you coming back?"

      "As soon as I can." Zell replied.

      "Take me with you!" The little girl said. "I can help! I've been practicing!" She threw a few punches at the air to add weight to her argument. "See."

      "Wow, you're gettin' good at that." Zell said. "In fact, it looks like you're the only one I can trust with the really important job."

      "Really?" His daughter's eye's lit up.

      "Yep." Zell nodded.

      "What is it?" She asked.

      "I need you to stay here and help Mom with your little brother, okay?"

      "Aww Dad! Come on!"

      "I'm serious, Kat." Zell said. "I need you to be a big girl and take care of Cyrus. Can you do that for me?"

      The girl sighed. "But..." She said, tears hanging on the edges of her bright green eyes.

      "Hey, Kat." Squall said. "You like dogs?" The sentence sounded a little odd in his ears, but what Zell and Selphie named their children was their own business.

      "Uh...yeah. I mean, yes sir." Kat replied politely.

      "Well there's a really great dog back at my house who's gonna be kind of lonely without me there. You think you could keep him company?"

      Kat perked up immediately. "Sure!" She said enthusiastically.

      "All right." Squall said. "I'm counting on you now."

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      Rolin Moran was the kind of guy who was on the job twenty-four hours a day. News didn't punch a clock and neither did he. So as annoying as it was to be summoned to a seedy bar at four in the afternoon on a Saturday, he put up with it because he smelled a story.

      His companion sat across from him in the most isolated booth possible, nursing a beer. Rolin had declined the pretty waitress' offer to get him something; he didn't plan on hanging around that long.

      He had just happened to meet this man a few years earlier at his wife's high school reunion. He had been delighted when the man accepted his business proposition. Now it seemed that the seeds he had planted then were finally bearing fruit.

      "I assume I'm here for a reason." Rolin prompted the officer.

      "The President's granddaughter was kidnapped recently."

      "Tell me something every news man in Esthar doesn't know."

      "I was there when it happened."

      Rolin sighed. "Thrilling for you, I'm sure." He said flatly. "But it won't sell papers." He made a move to leave. The officer stopped him.

      "Hold it." He said. "This story gets better."

      Rolin nodded and sat again.

      "How much do you know about the girl's parents?"

      "The Leonharts?" Rolin shrugged. "They're both heroes. They were in that group of SeeDs that stopped the last Sorceress. Beyond that, not much." Actually, Squall and Rinoa Leonhart, along with the rest of the group that had ended the war, were among the few people considered 'untouchable' by his publication.

      "Her mother's the Sorceress Rinoa, right?"

      "Well, was. They say she lost all her powers after the war."

      "That is what they say..." The younger man left the sentence hanging in the air. The implication was crystal clear.

      "What did you see?"

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      "Okay, Kat." Zell said, lifting his daughter in his arms and hugging her tightly. "Be a good girl and mind your mother."

      "Don't go Daddy!" Kat cried.

      "I'm sorry, sweetie. I have to go."

      "But what if the people who took Amara come back when you're gone?"

      "Don't you worry." Zell said. "You'll still have Mom with you. If anyone tries to get near you, she'll give 'em the beating of their lives."

      Kat wrapped her arms tightly around her father's neck. "I love you, Daddy."

      "I love you too, baby." Zell gently set Kat down and approached his wife. Selphie shifted the sleeping Cyrus into one arm and returned Zell's embrace with he free arm. "You sure you're okay with this?" Zell asked.

      After a moment's hesitation, Selphie nodded. "Squall needs your help." She smiled. "Just be quick about it."

      Zell nodded and kissed her lightly. Another kiss quickly followed. And another. Zell grinned. "I'll definitely get this done quick." He said. "I'm gonna miss doing that way too much."

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      "Which one of you is Amara Leonhart?"

      The voice woke Amara from an already fitful slumber. Her body was cold and her neck stiff from sleeping on the metal floor.

      "I said, which one of you kids is Amara Leonhart? I'm not gonna ask again!"

      A tall man stood in the doorway. He looked impatient.

      "How about this; if Amara doesn't raise her hand by the time I count to three, nobody eats today! One...Two..."

      Amara stood up. Ariana tried to stop her, but Amara shook her off. She raised her hand above her head.

      "Good girl." The tall man crossed the room, grabbed Amara roughly by the wrist and dragged her to the door.

      "Ow! Lemme go!" Amara yelled. "I've been walking on my own since I was two!" Despite her protests, the man did not let go. He dragged her out into a huge, circular hallway. A gaping hole filled the center of the chamber, lined only by a short railing. Looking up, Amara saw dozens of hallways like this one going up endlessly until they disappeared in darkness. Looking down offered a similar view, endless levels down with no visible bottom.

      The tall man pulled Amara into a small room suspended in the middle of the central shaft on some kind of crane. Another man waited inside. He pressed a few buttons and the elevator shot up, shuddering violently from the speed of its ascent. A minute or so later, they jarred to a halt and Amara was once again on her feet, being dragged into an straight hallway. There was only blank ceiling above, so Amara assumed they must be at the top of the building.

      Her 'guide' pulled her into a darkened room at the end of the hallway. The blank metal walls were draped with multi-colored silks and the overhead lights forsaken in favor of hundreds of candles. An ornate throne stood on a raised platform in the middle of the room. A girl, much older than Amara but not quite old enough to be considered a grown-up, lounged in the throne.

      "Bring her to me." Her voice was soft, luxurious, but deadly at the same time, like the hissing of a poisonous snake. The men wasted no time in dragging Amara before her. Up close, Amara could see what the soft candlelight had obscured. The girl was inhumanly beautiful. Her only imperfections were the bulging veins that framed her otherwise flawless face.

      More than that, she seemed to radiate...something, some sort of power. There was no word Amara knew to describe it. She had felt the same thing from her mother once or twice before; but in her mother's case, the power, or whatever it was, was always warm and serene. This girl's power was distant, unfeeling, and painfully cold. Amara found herself backing away involuntarily.

      "Stay where you are." The girl's voice had lost all its former softness. Amara felt a terrifying chill creep through her bones. She couldn't move. The power of the voice resonating in her mind held her in place.

      "Come here, little girl." Just as she had been rooted to the floor, Amara now felt compelled to approach the older girl. She didn't want to, tried with all her might not to, but her feet seemed to move on their own accord, carrying her against her will up the stairs toward the throne.

      Amara turned her head away; she didn't want to look into those cold eyes again. The girl took Amara's chin in one hand, gently but firmly, and turned her head back to face her.

      "Do you know who I am, little girl?"

      "You're a Sorceress." Amara whispered. That was the only thing the girl could be; but not a good Sorceress like her mother had been. She was bad, like the Evil Sorceress from the future in her father's stories. But hadn't her father said that all the Sorceresses were gone? Even her mother was just a normal person now. Amara knew that Daddy would never lie to her, so he must not have known about this girl.

      "Very good." The Sorceress replied. "I am the Sorceress Adjani, handmaid to the great Ultimecia. And you are Amara Leonhart, child of the Sorceress Rinoa and her Knight, who sought to destroy my Mistress. Together, we will give my Mistress new life!"

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TBC