Echoes of Time
Chapter 7: While the Sky Wept
By Sephiroth 4000

            Dread rose up within her, and Rinoa could scarcely breathe.  For a minute, she could feel the ice spear sinking into her body again, a numbness spreading out from it, freezing her body even as she fell, golden eyes laughing at her plight.  The same golden eyes were here, even as the Sorceress Edea laughed and laughed.
            Dimly she was aware of the sound, but she couldn't breathe. . .not with those eyes looking at her, tendrils of power curling around her vulnerable mind, testing, probing. . .and an overall satisfaction of something having been found about her. . .
            And then a dark clad body stepped squarely in front of her, blocking the Sorceress' line of vision.  She swayed, and would have fell, but Seifer caught her.  She could vaguely hear him importuning her to tell him what was happening, what was wrong?  But she couldn't answer, all she could do was shiver, even as he protected her.

            She must be protected.  His thoughts were for once utterly calm and clear, even as he put himself between the two women, drawing Lionheart with a steely hiss.  Very deliberately, he flicked the safety off , and cocked the trigger with an audible click. 
            The Sorceress simply looked at him, head tilted to one side, a sly smile playing around her dark lips. 
            "Who are you?" Squall asked.
            She closed her eyes for a moment, expression sad and resigned, yet when she opened her eyes, it changed back to as it had been before; cruel and slightly mocking.  "Why, don't you know me Squall?  I know each of you very well. Don't you remember me?"
            Her stare bored into his eyes relentlessly, and he shook his head, eyes narrowing, memories surging back to his mind in a flood.  "You. . ."
            "I don't believe it!" Quistis hissed, cornflower blue eyes blazing.  "Not her!  You are NOT Matron!"
            But her denial fell flat, and only seemed to seal the truth of it.  Matron. . .Edea.
            Squall lunged forward then, blade coming up in a swift flashing arc.  He could feel his anger running through him like wildfire, even though his expression could have been chiseled from ice.  He could feel fear tightening the back of his throat, for she did not even look hurt from the parade.  There was no way he could beat her, but he no longer cared.   The sight of her face, and the remembrace. . .Matron had flung that spear at Rinoa, Matron had ordered his tortue, Matron had done this. . .Tears burned in his eyes, but he fought on grimly, entirely unaware of them.

            "Squall!"  A simultaneous cry came from three mouths, and then all six children of Garden nodded at each other, and flung themselves into battle.  "Wind and rain!"  Seifer yelled, and then headed straight in, circling wildly around his target, being the 'wind' with Zell and Raijin, while the girls struck forward in a spearhead formation, being the 'rain'. 
            A bright blue screen of light flashed up around the Sorceress, and for a moment she seemed dazed.  It flickered wildly, wavering, and dissipated into blue sparks as soon as they struck out at it.  Momentum carried them right through, and Edea staggered back, dark eyes wide, her face bloodless.
            Squall lurched away, his mind refusing to believe  his eyes.  Dark eyes. . .Matron had dark eyes.  But before he could say anything, even if he could have. . .
            The sharp crack of a gunshot.
            Matron fell.
            She hit the floor hard, skidding away from them, fragile body crumpling.  Blood trailed behind her, from where Irvine had marked her.  She had been hit somewhere on the body, black eyes narrowing then widening in agony.  As she came to a stop, she simply stretched out a hand, despairing even as a pain swept through her. . .
            Power and knowledge swept out from her fallen body, a pure white light that arced away from her, to another fallen figure.
            The girl in light blue.
            Rinoa shuddered, a cry springing to her lips, even as millenia of knowledge swept into her.  Will she nil she, she could not stop it, and the flood of information threatened to carry her away.  But she became aware of another, steadfastly anchoring her, even as her name sprang from his lips.
            "RINOA!"
            She was swept away, not into the terrible shining light of her own power, but into blessed darkness.

            Irvine swiftly reloaded his gun after the first shot; but something was wrong. . .The Sorceress fell, and a strange white light came from her to consume Rinoa's fallen form. . .But there was no time left, dammit!  He yelled, trying to drive the urgency into his words.  "This place is being buried into the sand!  We need to get into the elevator and to the roof immediately!"
            Needless to say, this got their attention.  Squall snapped out of his stupor, and pushed past his comrades, scooping Rinoa's light body up, and sprinting for the elevator.  They all followed suit, and Irvine hit the button that had held the machine stationary while he had gone looking for his friends.  It sped up, carrying them swiftly to safety. 
            Selphie turned to him, green eyes wide with indignation and fear.  "Squall!  What. . .what about Matron?  We just left her there she-"
            "It take more then that to kill a Sorceress," he said coldly.  "She'll get out somehow, Selphie.  I know it."
            But he didn't think to question how he knew.

            The sun set behind the dark stormclouds.  Rain sleeted down, cold, gentle, sending icy fingers down his back as it slid down under his clothes.
            He sat, leaning against the prison's chilly metal walls.  Only about ten meters of the massive building remained above the ground.
            He could hear the others talking to one another in subdued voices.  It had ever been like this at the orphanage; he had ever been alone.  Except for those few years when she had been there. . .
            Squall buried his head in his arms.  All the loss that he had somehow forgotten had come back with the rush of memories.  Sis. . .I did it.  I became a SeeD.  But you still haven't come. . .I haven't seen you in so long.  I tried my very best. . .Where are you?
            Darkness fell, and he remained, just a huddled shadow in the rain.

            The rain sluiced down endlessly, and a small boy lifted his head, gazing at the clouded weeping sky.  A few crumbling columns sheltered him.  The orphange was fairly well kept, but the building had been a complete ruin when Edea Kramer had first come, a remnant of a former civilization.  Parts of it weren't worth fixing up. 
            Drops of water rolled down the boy's face, soaking his thick brown hair into stringy locks.  It straggled over his face, and some part of him was glad it was raining.
            When it rained, no one could see if you were crying.
            Sis had been gone for two days.
            She had disappeared on a day of sunshine, with a fair wind blowing from the west, sending small fluffs of clouds scudding across the deep blue arch of the heavens.  It should have been a day like today when she disappeared, a day of gloom and darkness.
            Edea refused to answer his questions, only turning them back at him, laughing, or otherwise ignoring them.  He didn't care anymore.  Sis must of asked her. . .must of made Matron promise not to tell him.  That was why Matron wouldn't; Matron always told the truth, and never ever broke a promise.
            For a moment his heart bled, even as he desperately scrambled to find another reason.  But none of them fit, none of them felt quite as right. Sis hated him.  Sis didn't want to be with him.
            "I'm trying. . .I'm sorry Sis.  I'll do better, I swear.  And maybe one day. . . I'll see you again."

            Maybe one day. . .I'll see you again Squall. . .
            Someone was shaking him awake.  He opened his eyes, then immediately squinted against the bright glare of the sun hitting the sand. 
            "SQUALL, COME.  TIME, GO."
            Fujin.
            He nodded, then strode off.  They had found cars stored at the very top of the prison, and would drive.  Their was only enough fuel to get back to Deling however.  From there, somehow, they would find a way back to Garden.  Back to home.

            Something had happened. 
            Deling City resounded with the sound of celebration. 
            As they got out, Seifer caught the arm of a girl, who was dancing in the street, whooping exuberantly with her friends.  Flowers had been plaited into her long hair.
            "What's going on?" he yelled over the din.
            She shouted back at him,  "Haven't you heard?  Our Lady has won a mighty victory!  Garden has been crushed!  Trabia has fallen. Balamb has been annihilated – they were squabbling among themselves even as the missiles descended on them!  And Galbadia has been taken as the seat of Our Lady herself!  The last of the cursed SeeDs are being hunted down this very moment!"  She spun away, laughing.
            The SeeDs looked at one another in mute disbelief.

            In the end, there was really only one place for them to go.
            It galled Squall bitterly, but Rinoa was his daughter, they had all managed to figure that out during the week at the General's mansion.  And he had conspired with Garden.  If they were caught, he too would be caught. 
            He rapped sharply on the front door.  It swung open after an interval, the General himself.  He looked as if he had aged years in days, and there was a defeated weariness in his eyes.  Whatever he had been about to say died on his lips as he beheld his still unconcious daughter, lying limply in Seifer's arms.

Author's Note: Was this chapter a little disjointed to you?  It feels a bit disjointed to me. . .WAH!  Oh well, this is sort of an odd chapter that almost wrote itself.  I intended more stuff to happen, but then the question of what would happen once they all got their memories back cropped up.  I mean, I had to have them recognise Edea now, but I never really thought about it until I was writing.  Okay, the next chapter, should show why I think this fic is vaguely Rinoa/Seifer as well as Rinoa/Squall. Oh and what did you think of the battle formations? It's a bit silly to have them attacking one at a time like in the game, isn't it?  Ja ne!