DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Final Fantasy VIII or any of its characters. They are all property of Squaresoft. I'm using them for entertainment purpose ONLY, so DON'T SUE.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Here's the second part! Hope someone still cares!!! ^_^ Enjoy yourself!!!

PART ONE: WITHIN THE MISTS

CHAPTER TWO: A SISTER'S CRY

Like weeds caught in the middle of an underwater current, her dishevelled pale and almost colourless hair waved gently in nothingness, loose strands of her blurry garments moving in the same wave-like motions, giving her delicate semi-transparent frame an even more ethereal appearance.         

"Cold………………… He is so cold."

Her fading pale hands extended themselves toward the small boy that rebelled himself against the mighty fury of the storm as she, floating in that dark-blue abyss, seemed oblivious of the turmoil surrounding her.

But, she could feel it. The cold, the power, the fear… it was all coming from this little boy, that once again reached the surface and yet anew was pushed by the waves.

And there he was, kicking yet again, at the stubborn currents, fighting to save himself… fighting to survive…

Her eyes, of an intense turquoise blue, shone with emotions beyond her control or reach, though her beautiful features stayed emotionless.

As she approached his twisting body, she began to curl her arms around the boy's neck, smoothly nestling her spirit-like form against his body.

In an invisible embrace, she reached for him, wishing, in a silent prayer, that she was there to warm his body… to free him from that deathly trap…

…But, there was nothing she could do… or was it?

The little girl shivered, feeling the cold that his skin refused to acknowledge, the iciness of it's temperature overwhelming her with the same numbness that engulfed his body.

She shifted, restless, in her sleep, murmuring incoherent words to any of those who lived out of the reach of the Heavenly Ones' Song, her woollen covers neatly folded at her bare feet, a light cotton sheet the only garment between the night's air and her short night gown.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Instinctively, she griped her woollen covers and pushed them briskly over her slim frame, curling into a fetal position and dragging the thick materials with her, leaving, over her white mattress, nothing more than a trembling ball of flesh and fabric.

And still the coldness that he felt refused to leave her senses; even though she was now covered with her winter rugs - situation which for itself spoke of the inefficiency of her unusual resistance to freezing temperatures in soothing their deathly uncomfortableness.

 Slowly, she moved herself away from the small boy, watching in horror and pity as the boy gradually lost his strength, the water claiming his life for it's own, the fire slowly leaving his eyes……………

"No, I won't allow it!"

Praying silently, the girl unconsciously released the ends of her warm covers – their warmth, she knew, of no use to her, since she could not feel it –, so as to place her pale delicate hands over the source of her quaking heartbeats.

Turning her back to the desperate boy, she screamed to no one seen to human eyes.

"Ondinas!!" She called. "Ondinas, souls of the ocean listen to my prayer. Please, don't."

Silence filled the depths she had addressed, but, still, she continued. "Just like the Sea's spirit is your binding the boy is mine's. Let him. Let him come to me. Sisters, please I beg of you… Let him come to me…"

Turning around in a frantic movement, her ethereal form cast her horror-struck blue eyes – still the only feature of her face holding any emotion – to the unmoving blonde boy floating endlessly in the dark abyss…

She felt him choking.

 

Tears spilled from her closed eyelids and rolled down her soft slightly flustered cheeks for the first time in the girl's life.

If Chance had permitted her to awake at the time, she would find herself surprisingly crying over no logical reason, an unknown feeling of void and irremediable loss overwhelming her unlike any she had ever felt – not even when her mother departed from this Realm.

In a desperate movement, the small child traced a swirling shaped symbol between her brows, perspiration and humid traces of tears framing her beautiful childish features, despite the cold that assaulted each and every one of her physical senses.

Urgently turning her attention to the beings she had summoned, she found, in a mist of Hope and fearful pain of loss, the gradually fading into view linings of brilliant water shaped female spirits, spirits which - she knew - had watched evenly the drama swaying before their misty eyes.

::Do you know what you are asking, child?:: The spirits inquired, their frozen lips unmoving, their faces - like the ones of a blue-skinned china doll - held absolute serenity, their bodies harmoniously framed, their sinuous curves adding to the movements of their waving marine-blue hair.

"Please! He's mine! I claim for his soul, sisterly ones! You know we share a bidding…. please… Ondinas, sisters… He has already claimed for my own spirit so many times in the past…"

::You do acknowledge you have a bidding to us, also, don't you child?::

"I am well aware of that…"

::Do you also know he is a fiery spirit, and thus contradictory to us?::

"Ondinas, his soul is endangered, by the Motherly spirit, you should know--"

::Shiri, our child, we do know…"

Her lips moved gently in unspoken words of promise, the storm, as if calmed by her silent sayings and growing state of relaxation, faded into nothing more than purplish clouds scattered across the now palling indigo skies, leaving still, in the direction of the deserted Continent, the strong pour of rain, the urgent currents and the gentle cracking of electricity… now, not crashing over the claiming of one soul… but over the joy of a mutually won battle and the beginning of a new Era.

Author's Notes: Okie… so… what do you think? Please, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE let me know!! Reviews take me out of my writer blocks and I'm having one right now! PLEASE REVIEW!!!!! ^______^