Rinoa felt like she had been running for hours. Time had no meaning here however but she was beginning to wonder where exactly "beyond the red fog" existed. All she could see was red. She wondered if guardians were capable of lying. She decided that after being junctioned to human minds, there was no doubt that they were. Her legs buckled beneath her and she hit the ground hard.

This time the rest of her body came with them and she fell among the red dust face down. Her breath was quick and ragged. She choked against the hollow dirt that swept around her like a tide. She felt like giving up. If he was going to die, she wanted to die here with him. She felt that if she pressed herself against the sand hard enough, that she would sink, become part of it, forgetting everything, knowing nothing. To not have to feel any of this anymore. No pain. No more hurting. An end.

And the thought came to her, that this must be what he was feeling, this overwhelming urge to quit. She opened her eyes and saw her chain outstretched along the ground in front of her. She saw the rings that looped through the silver thread. His ring. The same ring that had been with her in space. The voice calling to her, telling her not to give up. And she realized that she couldn't let him die here. When he had never begun to live in the first place. It wasn't fair to him, whether he cared to admit it or not. She wouldn't accept his defeat. Not without a fight. She rose from the ground again, now as red as the sand and air around her.

She began walking as she wiped the dirt from her eyes. Paying little attention to what was in front of her she smacked into something that felt like a brick wall and fell unceremoniously once more to the ground. She shook the stars from her eyes and looked up at her assailant. Her heart leapt into her throat and she swallowed hard. Even bent down on one knee it stood towering over her.

Her first emotion, was fear. Her first instinct, was to run. She still had fresh wounds from the previous encounter. An encounter that felt like it had occurred centuries ago. The fear soon turned to puzzlement and confusion as she gazed into its eyes. They no longer held the hate and fury they had before. Its giant claws no longer extended. Black wings that once gave it the ability of flight were now tattered and torn remnants of what they once were. Its face contorted not in wrath, but in fear and sadness. It was marred by a hundred scars that bled like rivers to the ground. She watched a solitary tear escape its eye as it looked at her. For the first time, Griever knew the meaning of its name.

She wasn't sure if she should cry or scream. The fear had practically paralyzed her, and she didn't think she could do either if she wanted to. However, she wasn't threatened by the monstrous GF anymore. She was more frightened of whatever was capable of mangling such a powerful force. She gasped and felt a wave of nausea rise up from the pit of her stomach as Griever removed the hand on its chest and extended it towards her. She saw the large and ragged hole it had been protecting.

Blood flowed freely now from the wound that went deep and beyond the bone and tissue. It didn't seem to notice though as it continued to reach towards her. Its eyes were pleading as if it was begging to help her, or begging for her own help. Whether to help or harm she still wasn't entirely convinced. Her mind was leaning towards the former. Something seemed so familiar about it. The wound was familiar as well; she had seen it before in battle, the jagged precision of the blade and the char of blackened gunpowder around the edges, a wound from a gunblade.

Before she could even consider it, her hand was already reaching for the blood-covered hand of the guardian. Somehow its need was overcoming her own fear. Seeing this engulfed Griever in a sea of emotion as a low moan rose from its throat and the tear that was one became many, cascading down its face like rain. The sight was more than her emotions could bear as she felt the tears beginning to stream down her own cheeks.

"I've failed you," it said in a quivering voice as she touched the wet tips of its fingers, "I'm so sorry."

She didn't have time to react before the wind picked up and forced their hands apart as the blinding sand hindered her vision again. The earth quaked beneath her and knocked her from her position on the ground as loud booming voice filled her ears.

"Don't touch him!!"

The fog lifted and the sand winds died down immediately. Rinoa found herself staring up into a large and barren tree. Gnarled branches extended outward to the sky, large jagged thorns aligned the tree bark. And a young boy sat on a branch among them, looking down at her and scowling.

"Go away!" he ordered.

She was too addled to reply, still trying to regain her senses. Something was familiar about the child. Though he looked to be no older than eight or nine. Something about the way his grayish blue eyes looked at her with an empty stare. A gaze that didn't really see her at all…more like, refused to see her. She recognized it immediately.

"Squall?"

"I said go away!" The boy yelled down from his perch. "I don't need you!"

"Squall, listen to me…"

"Are you deaf lady? I said leave now before you get hurt!"

"What's here to hurt me?" she questioned.

"Me!" he retorted. "I will! If not now, eventually, I'll hurt you like I have all the rest. Like they hurt me. You can't depend on me. I can't depend on you. You'll find that out and you'll wish you had listened!"

"You don't won't to hurt anyone." She stated.

Squall looked away. "No I don't." he said quietly. "But somehow I always do. I'm cursed."

His voice became louder. "But he will hurt you," he said pointing to the stretched out form of the guardian lying on the ground breathing harshly. "And he'll mean it!"

Griever tried to get up from his position but his arms were too weak and buckled beneath him. He rolled over onto his back and stared up at the boy. No anger or contempt was in his pale yellow eyes…only sorrow.

"Did you do that to him?"

The boy wiped a hand across his face. "Yes…but he deserved it."

"Why?"

"He lied," he said clenching his small fists. "He always lies!" Squall's voice shook, though his eyes were still expressionless. "He makes promises that he can't keep!" In anger he stood and picked up the gunblade that sat beside him on the tree limb as if it was completely weightless and threw it towards the GF. Rinoa gasped as the blade hurdled through the air and sank into the ground just inches from the guardian's head. He didn't even flinch.

"Hurry up and die!" The boy screamed.

"…I can't," Griever said lowly. "I can't die."

"Even now, you're lying!"

"I don't know what you are talking about," Griever replied, trying desperately to take a deeper breath of air. "I've never lied to you."

"You just don't stop do you?" Squall said as he sat back down, dangling his legs from the height. "Okay…so if you can't die…then why is there fear in your eyes?"

Silence.

"See? You can't answer me. Because you know I'm right. If it weren't for you, the dragon would have already taken me out of this awful place. I still don't know why he's so afraid of you…I think you're just pathetic."

"It isn't what you want…"

"You don't know anything about what I want."

Rinoa could have sworn she heard a chuckle escape from the GFs lips. None of this was making any sense at all. She wasn't sure that she should interrupt; rather, she just didn't know what she could say. This was so damn confusing.

"You're just jealous because I'll be the one who's not alone anymore. Someone will actually care about me for a change. I'll be leaving YOU for once."

"You're right. I don't want to be alone. I don't want you to be alone. I'm just as scared as you are. I want to get out of here. But you don't seem to understand that when I die, you go with me."

"Liar!"

Griever closed his eyes in defeat before turning to look at Rinoa.

"You need to go," he said. "There's no place for you here, nothing you can do. He's been blinded and he doesn't understand. He only sees the one side that he's always known. Please…leave. While you still can. I can't make him change. I don't think anyone can. Don't let him…hurt you."

The beast howled in pain and clutched at the large wound on his chest as blood seeped through his fingers. He thrashed weakly on the ground as he fought with an unseen attacker. Rinoa glanced up at the boy who was standing once more, his arm outstretched with his fist clenched as if he held a knife in it. And he was twisting it.

"Stop it!" She yelled as she charged towards the tree. She was quickly halted by the thorn-encased vines that snaked down from the tree and wrapped themselves tightly around her wrists. She cried out as they tightened their grip and the needlelike barbs sank deep into her skin.

"I thought I told you to leave," he said. "Why are you still here?"

"You're hurting her!" She watched as the guardian tried scrambling to his feet to help her from the intertwining plants. More vines shot from the tree and quickly bound the creature to the earth.

"And what would you know of pain?" The child questioned, now sounding well beyond his appearance in age. "You were the lucky one. They let you forget. You're not reminded every minute, every second. Don't tell me you know what pain is."

"I do," Rinoa said calmly.

It caught the boy off guard. "What?"

"I do, I know what it is. I felt it; I'm feeling it now. But not by these," she lifted her hands as the rivulets of blood ran down her arms. "Tell me of your pain. There's another way out of here. Let me help you."

For the first time she noticed emotion in his pale gray eyes. "What if I hurt you?"

"It's okay, I'm willing to take the chance," she smiled genuinely up at him.

"I've hurt so many people…why would anyone want me. It started when I first began, and its never ended."

Rinoa watched as a vision of a woman appeared in the far sky, like the backdrop of a movie screen. Her face was contorted in agony and she screamed in pain.

"Is that your mother Squall? She questioned.

"Yes, isn't she pretty?" He replied with a far away look in his eyes. "Everyone loved her so much. I wanted to…but I made her go away."

The apparition faded.

"Oh…sweetie, that wasn't your fault."

"My father thought it was."

Another image appeared of a tall man in the shadows of a doorway, holding the hand of a small girl. A woman with long hair stood at the entrance.

"What will I tell him?" The woman asked.

"Tell him whatever you want. But I have to get her to a safer location."

"Why won't you take him?"

"Because, damn it, I have too much on my plate right now than to add a kid to it…maybe later, when the world isn't so dangerous."

"It will always be dangerous Mr. Loire. But sometimes it helps when one discovers that it's a little less empty."

"I can't…not now. He's better off here."

"Don't you think you should at least talk to him? At least let him know of your existence. Ellone is all he has ever had…this will be so hard for him."

"He'll live."

"Uncle Laguna! I don't want to leave Squall!"

"Go with Uncle Kiros, Ellone. The most important thing right now is making sure you're safe."

"Mr. Loire…"

"Mrs. Kramer, tell him anything you want, except the truth. It's too dangerous. And if he ever asks, his last name is Leonhart. Cut any and all ties with me. Its for the best."

"…as you wish."


The image faded again.

"He didn't know…I was there in the hallway, the whole time. I heard every word…he never wanted me, nothing could come of it but pain."

"Squall…"

"And Ellone, I hurt her once too, at least, that's what everyone believed."

The sky flashed and a young Ellone appeared on the tree limb high above the ground beside him.

"Watch this Squall," she said as began walking to the edge of the tree. "See how good I can balance?"

"Sis!"


Another Squall appeared and ran up to the tree.

"Be careful! You're gonna fall!"

"Don't be silly Squall, I know what I'm doing."


The boy tried scrambling up the tree after her only to fall after climbing the first couple of branches. Ellone quickly moved to see if he was alright, lost her balance, and plummeted to the bottom.

"Ellone? Are you alright?"

There was no response.

More children ran up to the scene. One boy immediately grabbed Squall by the shirt and pushed him to the ground.

"Look what you've done!" Seifer cried. "I bet you pushed her didn't you? Didn't you?!?" The others stared in shock. "Matron! Squall pushed Ellone out of the tree!"

They disappeared.

"I never told them any different," Squall said. "I let them believe it, and sooner or later I started believing it myself. Maybe I did push her out of that tree…She almost died, it was my fault."



"That's how I know I can't get close to someone…because I'll hurt them, I'll let them down…just like her."

This time the sky faded to a black canvas full of stars. Rinoa saw herself, floating adrift through space. She shuddered as her skin remembered the frigid cold.

"I failed her."

The body drifted closer and she noticed the large hole in the helmet. The pale face lurched forward and she gasped and turned away from the image. She took a moment to catch her breath before speaking.

"Squall…that never happened."

"What?"

"That…it never happened. You saved her."

"I did?"

She smiled. "Yes, you did. And she is so grateful for you Squall, not just for that, but for everything, all that you've done, and all that you have yet to do. You are far more than what you've convinced yourself that you are."

"I want to believe you."

"Then do!" she said. "I can't promise a world out there with no pain or heartache. I can't speak for the actions of the past. But I can tell you that whatever you face in the future, you won't face it alone. You have friends, and they're waiting for you…I'm waiting for you, just like we promised."

She advanced to the base of the tree and held up a hand.

"But I can't catch you, until you let go."

The vines released her wrists and unwound themselves from Griever.

The boy trembled with sobs as he cried for the first time since he swore an oath to the ocean on a lone beach years ago.

"You've got a life ahead of you Squall," she said. "Come with me, and I'll show it to you."

He nodded and stood shakily on the branch.

"Okay…but you'll catch me right?"

She wiped the tears from her eyes and outstretched both her arms. "I'll catch you…just like you caught me."

"Don't let me fall."

"Never."

And with that he let go. She watched as he fell towards her, and he was almost in her grasp when the child suddenly faded along with the tree. She looked around, puzzled. The injured guardian had disappeared from the ground. The void was empty again. Had she failed?

She felt a hand place itself on her shoulder.

She turned, and there he was, the one she had known, the one she had come to love, the child was no longer there.

"Thank you for catching me," he said.

Overjoyed she wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him as tightly as she could. He hugged her back just as feverously. She released him as she felt something wet and sticky seep through her clothing.

She looked down at the crimson stain that was spreading across his white t-shirt.

"Oh Hyne, you're bleeding!" She said as she tried to stop the blood flow with her hand. He placed his hand on top of hers and she looked up to meet his unconcerned gaze.

"It's okay," he said and then smiled, "It'll heal."

He took her hand in his own, holding it tightly.

"Will you walk home with me?"

She nodded.

But as they began their journey together, she suddenly began to fade.

"Squall!"

He looked at her; a momentary flash of fear came and went from his eyes.

"Don't worry," he said. "I know the way, now."

She reached out and touched the side of his face.

"Wait for me okay?"

"I'll be waiting," she said. "I promise."

And then she vanished.