Chapter 4: Hidden Past

"Um…Rinoa?" Selphie looked at Rinoa with sad eyes.

"What is it?" Rinoa asked.

"You should have a look at this."

Rinoa pulled herself away from the book she was looking at and went to her friend.

Rinoa and Selphie were looking through the archives to find something about Strik, but found something else.

Rinoa stared at the page. She looked at the dark haired woman, she then her name. Julie Heartilly. She looked at the mashed up car photograph that was also on the page.

"It's my mother," she told Selphie with tears in her eyes. Rinoa then ripped the page out and looked at it.

Her friend watched her as she did this, "I'm sorry Rin."

"She was so beautiful," she tears rolling down her face.

Rinoa didn't know her mother she died when Rinoa was three years old. All she had to remember her was photos. Many of them were of her posing. She used to sing at bars all around the bars. She got a lot of male fans, many soldiers. That's how she met General Caraway, Rinoa's father. He was a solider. They all loved her voice.

Rinoa couldn't remember her singing to her at night but her father said she did. Her father never told her how she died, but now she knew. In a car crash on the way to a show. Her father was driving and this car hit them straight on. Julie and the other driver died on impact, while her father scraped away with a few broken bones. She loved her mother although she never knew her.

She then put the page away in her bag. She then put the book back.

The dark figure watched Rinoa and her friend as they looked to find news about him. He wondered why she was crying at certain page and why she tore it out. Was this woman his mother? But she looked too young to be a mother of a twenty-one year old. So if she's not his mother who is she that looks so much like her? He studied her more. Did General Caraway and his mother have another child? A daughter that looks like Julie? Did he have a younger sister? Was this woman his sister he never knew he had? A long lost sister? He had so many questions that needed answering. He continued to watch her.

"Selphie! I've found something!" Rinoa said excited.

Selphie rushed to see what Rinoa had found.

There was a photo of Easther Military School and a photo of young man next to it.

He had long dark brown hair tied back. He had chocolate brown eyes like Rinoa's. She looked at his eyes and thought they looked familiar.

"Oh my god Rin," she looked at the young man, "he looks like you! A bit!"

Rinoa scanned through the article for a name. She found his name. Strik Heartilly.

"Strik Heartilly. It's him!" She smiled.

Strik heard his name mentioned as he watched them. Did they see him there? How did they know his name? He then looked closer at them they were reading the book. He was in the book! He thought why would he be in a book? He then realised they were in the archives. They were looking for him. Why? He continued to listen to them.

"What does it say he done?" Selphie asked. Rinoa pausedas she read it.

"It just says how he escaped, but not why he was there, "she sighed, "I know all this! I want to know why he was there?"

She rested her head in her arms on the table.

"Maybe we missed something?" Selphie said reading the page.

"We've looked through them all. There's nothing else," she said tearing the page out.

"Do you want to go then?" Selphie looked at her friend, not sure what to do.

"There's nothing else," she put the book back. Selphie then did the same.

Rinao walked out the library with Selphie disappointed.

Strik followed Rinoa back to Balamb Garden without her knowing. He wanted to ask her questions but he backed down when he saw her kiss a young man. Squall. He then knew it wasn't his mother. But he had to find out if she was? And if she was any relation to him or Julie?