My heart inside is breaking
This shit's gone way too far
All this time I've been waiting
I cannot grieve anymore
--- KoRn "Here to Stay"
Chapter 10
Ellone's face twisted into a devilish grin as she turned to face Rinoa. Her eyes gleamed a murderous red, and glittering white fangs poked out of her mouth, pressing into her dark red lips.
"I've been expecting you. Tell me, how have you been these days?" she asked in a regal voice.
Rinoa stepped back slightly, shaking her head. "How...? You're dead. You can't be here. I saw your remains.... You can't....."
She laughed. "Death is simply a state of mind for a creature such as myself. You might say I'm immortal. Yes, I like the sound of that. You, on the other hand... you are another story. You can die quite easily. And that is precisely what you will do. But first, I'd like to ask you a question. What makes you think those "remains" were mine?"
Rinoa was taken aback by this little speech, and the best she could do was stutter out a reply. "It was wrapped in red material, and had washed up from the ocean," she said.
"If you'll recall," Ellone began, "on that terrible night that Squall left you at the ball, you were wearing a red dress as well. You died on that night. I had to dispose of your body somehow. Yes, you alone stood in the way of our ruling. And now, the time has come again for us to take back our town."
"Your town?" Rinoa repeated.
"This town was founded for us. We needed a place away from humans. But, as they always do, they interferred. Now is the time for us to take back what is rightfully ours. But you stand in the way."
"Why me?" she asked.
"Because of what you are. Squall was supposed to take care of you himself. I suppose he chickened out. Poor boy. He's the best brother anyone could ever have, but he lacks a spine, I think. He lets his feelings run away with him."
"He... he was trying to kill me?" she asked.
Ellone nodded. "Now, enough talk. I'm hungry. And I'm tired of this little game. This ends now!"
Ellone's fangs grew longer, and wings burst from her back. There was a sharp crack as her spine broke into multiple joints and claws grew from her elbows.
Rinoa wasn't about to just stand there. She made a dash for the door, but didn't quite make it. Ellone lunged at her and tackled her to the ground, baring her fangs and raising her claws above her head. Rinoa struggled, trying to get off the ground. She felt sharp nails starting to dig into her side as she got her arm free and hit her in the nose with the heel of her hand, breaking Ellone's nose.
Rinoa finally got to her feet and ran for the door. She got through it and ran as fast as she could, clutching at her bleeding stomach as went. As she reached the street below, Ellone leaned out of the window and yelled, "You have until midnight tomorrow night. Make your last day pleasant!"
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Squall felt his eyes grow heavy as he drove along the worn back roads to Balamb. It had been such a long, confusing night. After the little girl had dissapeared, he waited a while to see if she would come back. Why would she call him daddy? He knew he didn't have any children, unless he'd gotten Rinoa pregnant.
When the child didn't return, he walked back to the grave yard and found his car, still parked outside the church, and decided it was time he returned home and rest.
After remembering those events that the little girl had shown him, he suddenly remembered everything. He finally knew why he'd have those feelings everytime he saw Rinoa. He was in love with her, and now he knew why. They had always been together, from the moment she first went up to that shy little boy who sat by himself to the moment he left her at the ball seventeen years later. His leaving her had been her death. The little girl said he had a second chance. So what was he supposed to do now? Trust his sister, as he always had, or try to protect the love of his past.
He was wound up intensly in his thoughts when he suddenly saw someone on the road and threw on the brakes. There Rinoa stood, looking like a deer caught in the headlights as she held the wound in her stomach.
"Rinoa?" he questioned as he jumped out of his car.
She stumbled back from him, pain and terror bright in her eyes. "You stay away from me!" she yelled. "I know what you are!"
The look of concern on his face immediately turned to anger. "So. Ellone was right about you. I suppose you want to try and kill me now?"
"Kill you?!" she exclaimed. "Don't try to pull that shit with me! I know you've been working with her the whole time!"
He narrowed his eyes at her. "Who?"
"Your sister!" she hissed. "This whole thing has been part of your plot. Lure me in just so you can get rid of me!"
He sighed and looked away. "I am supposed to kill you," he said softly. "But this whole thing wasn't just a plot. I wasn't supposed to go anywhere near you. But I did. Everynight."
"Everynight?" she repeated.
"You dreamt of me, right? Even before you really ever met me. And when you'd wake up in the morning, there'd be a rose at your side," he said, his eyes glittering with some unreadable emotion.
"You were the one that was doing that?" she asked.
He nodded. "I put those dreams in your head, everynight after you fell asleep. And I'd leave you a rose."
"Why? You had barely even looked at me that first day."
"I didn't have to look at you long to realize how you made me feel. It was automatic. And now I know why. Ellone warned me that you would be coming, so I tried to stay away from you. But I wanted you to think of me. Even if it was no good to me."
Her lips twitched slightly in an attenpt at a sad smile. "I did think of you. I had a lot of very intense dreams about you. Why else do you think it was so easy for you to get me into bed?" she said with a bitter laugh. "But you wouldn't have had to make me dream to make me think of you. I didn't have to look at you for very long to feel the same way."
He shoved his hands in his pocket and stared down at the ground. "So tell me what to do, then. No matter what I choose, one of us will die."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, if I don't kill you, and manage to keep Ellone from killing you, then we won't be able to free our town from humans. We'll all die."
"Why do you have to free your town?" Rinoa asked.
He sighed. "With some many humans around, it's hard for us to feed safely."
She scowled suddenly. "So, you murder along with them?"
"Not yet, I haven't," he replied. "It's not safe until the humans are gone. That's what Ellone says."
"You've gone twenty-something years without "feeding" as you call it, and nothing's happened to you yet. Maybe Ellone's lying to you."
"That thought's crossed my mind many times. But she's all I've ever known or trusted... until you. But even if it wouldn't kill me if I was never allowed to feed, Ellone would probably kill me for not getting rid of you," he finished with a bitter laugh before reaching through his window and pulling out his pack of cigerettes again.
"She's not much of a sister to kill you, is she?" Rinoa said softly as she watched him light his cigerette and take a short drag off it. She slowly stepped up to him, until her face was just inches from his, and pulled it out of his mouth. "Those things will kill you, you know."
He smirked at her. "I know. What do I have to live for at the moment?"
"What do you have to die for?" she asked, running a finger over his slightly parted lips. "You said you trusted me?"
He nodded just a little, not wanting to break their small bit of contact.
She seemed about to say something for a moment, but paused, then said, "What am I, Squall? What am I that I have to be killed in order for you to have your way?"
"You don't know?"
She shook her head.
"You're the exact opposite of us. You might say you're an angel."
Rinoa laughed. "I'm not pure enough to be an angel."
"I can show you," he said, almost in a whisper, his face still so close to hers that their breath mingled into one.
"How?"
He leaned in and began to kiss her, running a head up her side until she suddenly shouted in pain, and his hand was wet with blood.
"What happened?" he demanded as she hunched over her wound.
"Your sister. I went to your apartment and she tried to kill me. I managed to get away, but only because she let me. She told me I had until midnight tomorrow night."
He gently put a hand over the wound and began to concentrate. After a moment, the gash closed, so that it was nothing but perfect skin.
"You're a very handy person to have around," she laughed.
He smiled and leaned in to kiss her again. "Can I show you now?" he asked between kisses.
Rinoa nodded and began to kiss him back as her hunger for him grew. He opened the door to his car and slid her inside. "I know a place where we can go."
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rinoa layed on her side, white, feathery wings out-stretched so that one of them arched over her body, the tip brushing lightly with Squall's black-scaled wings. She reached a hand over and drew a finger over the wicked curve of Squall's fangs.
"You don't mind them?" he asked, careful of her fingers.
She smiled and shook her head. "They're kinda sexy, actually."
He leaned over and carefully grazed his fangs over the sensitive, glowing skin of her neck, making her sigh in pleasure. It was so dangerously exciting that it seemed to heighten the sensation. She ran her fingers through her hair and over his back, bringing to mind the image of Selphie as she was in the time of her transformation.
"Why is it that everytime we're together, we change?" she asked in breathless voice as he continued to put his temporary accessories to work.
"I don't know," he answered, pausing for a moment. "I guess we bring out the truth in each other."
She would've smiled had she not been biting her lip. "You don't have the urge to 'feed' off me do you?"
He returned to her lips and kissed her gently. "No, but I'm getting the urge for something else."
Rinoa laughed. "I thought we were only doing this to prove your point?"
"Well, if you don't want to..." he said, trying his best to form a tempting pout without peircing his own lip.
She couldn't help but laugh at his expression. "It's not that, I just... there's so much that has to be figured out, and so little time."
Squall's comical expression quickly turned to a dark frown. "Yeah. I guess."
She ran a hand down his cheek, and his eyes drifted closed at the feeling. "You have to make a decision," she said in a soft, gentle voice. "I guess I can't blame you if you choose to kill me. If you don't you'll die."
He looked at her for a moment, his eyes a heartbreaking mixture of hopelessness and childish confusion. Then he layed his head down on her chest and breathed deeply. She ran her hands through his hair again, but this time in a comforting manner. She wished so badly she could take away his pain.
"I know this is hard for you," she said, her voice a soft whisper. "But like I said, I won't blame you."
Squall was silent for a long moment before he finally said, "I know. That's part of what makes this so hard."
"I remember, now," she said suddenly. "I remember everything that happened before."
"You remember that it was my fault that you died?" he asked bitterly.
"It wasn't your fault," she replied. "You didn't know."
"Why do you have to be so....." he started to ask but faltered.
"So what?" she pressed.
"So you," he finished, looking up at her.
"Would you rather I be someone else?" she asked, trying to lighten the mood slightly.
"Never."
"Something bothers me," Rinoa said.
"What?"
"When I saw the others change, they looked... bad. I mean, they had gotten all scaley, and hunched over and everything. How come that never happens to you when you change?"
"Maybe I'm not demon enough," he laughed sourly.
"If you were an orphan, then how can you be sure that Ellone's your sister? How much do you actually know about your parents?"
"I was very little when they died. Ellone said we lived in a place called Winhill, and that we were both taken to Timber Orphanage by our nextdoor neighbors. She says our parents were killed by people of your species, because you hated us so much."
"You know, other than the hair, you two really look nothing alike," she pointed out.
He nodded. "Yeah. Well, I guess we can't stay here forever. Our cover's gone. Where should we go now?"
"Anywhere you want," she replied softly.
He picked himself up from her and said, with a strange look on his face, "I bet we could find out something at the Department of Records. Maybe that will tell us if Ellone and I are really related."
With that, they both proceeded to dress before leaving the flower field behind.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Both Squall and Rinoa were weary of returning to Balamb, knowing that Ellone could be anywhere, waiting for them. That's not what they found when they arrived there, however.
Dozens of black vans with thick, tinted windows had pulled up in front of the police station, and men in black suits with clear face plates and armour surrounded the building with huge guns leveled at the door.
"They must have found out about Selphie," Rinoa said.
"What happened to her?" Squall asked.
"She's one of you. And she went insane in prison. She killed everyone in there. No, not just killed. Mutulated."
"That wasn't part of Ellone's plan," Squall replied. "She wanted to keep everything low key. She didn't want anymore attention to this place than there would have to be."
"Inner politics?" Rinoa suggested. "Maybe Selphie had a reason to ruin Ellone's plan."
"Could be," he said, watching as the men shouted at the building, commanding the murderer to come out, before they came in.
Selphie's response was to throw a severed arm out of the second story window. It managed to thunk one of the cops in the head, thoroughly freaking him out. Upon the captain's order, they all began shooting at the windows on the top floor, shattering the glass so that it rained down in glittering chunks like oversized rain drops falling from the blackened sky.
When they'd finally finished shooting, Selphie leaped from the busted second floor window, thick black liquid oozing from gashing in her body, and landed briefly on top of one of the vans, denting it in before leaping onto the top of another building.
They quickly piled into their vans again and drove off, intending to make chase. Rinoa turned to look at Squall. "What do we do?"
He sighed and shrugged. "Well, we could either leave Selphie to them, or try and go after her ourselves."
"For right now, why don't we just try to get that information you wanted?" Rinoa said. "It might be best if we just get what we need and leave before Ellone comes after us."
"We could try. But under these conditions, I think the place might be closed. Let's go have a look, anyway."
They drove slowly over to the Department of Records building, noticing that the vans didn't seem to be anywhere near it. As they approached the building on foot, they saw that the place seemed to be closed, as most of the lights were off inside, but the glass door stood wide open, as if waiting for them to come in. They slowly wandered in, looking around cautiously. Everything seemed calm, though it looked as if the place had been abandoned in a hurry. Papers were scattered recklessly over the floor, and desk chairs lay on the floor, pushed over. An ashtray sat on a desk, gray smoke curling away from the unsmoked cigar that sat amidst the ashes.
As Rinoa was walking through the office, some distance behind Squall, she felt something drip on her shoulder from the ceiling above. She looked up to see thick, red liquid dripping through the cracks of the cheap ceiling boards.
"Squall...." she said, pointing up at the stained ceiling.
On the floor above, sat Selphie, next to a bleeding corpse. The tile beneath it was broken and cracked. She sat there, feeling somewhat bored as she filed her claws on a clavical bone.
When she heard the sound of Rinoa's voice below, a sadistic smile spread over her face as she decided it was time she pay her old friend a visit. As she walked over the crumbled bits of the floor that she had destroyed herself, there was a sudden whine and the floor below her feet gave way. She came crashing through the ceiling, landing right in front of Squall and Rinoa.
For a long moment, neither of them moved, unsure if she still lived or not. Fortunately, it seemed that the fall had killed her, for she continued to lay there in a heap of broken plaster and insulation.
"Let's just get what we came here from and leave," Rinoa said, staring at her former friend.
Squall nodded and began typing up his name on the search page of one of the computers. The computer's tower gave a vague rattle as it strained for the information that was stored away in its memory.
Finally, a file came up with all the information on Squall Leonhart that was ever known.
Name: Squall Leonhart
I.D. #: 1482960
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Blue
Height: 5' 8"
Occupation: CLASSIFIED
Relatives: Ellone Leonhart, sister
Parents: Raine Leonhart, Laguna Leonhart, deceased
"So, those are my parents," Squall said casually. "Now, I guess I have to check Ellone's info now."
He typed in her name and quickly scanned over her information until he found what he was looking for.
Relatives: Squall Leonhart, brother
Parents: Laguna Leonhart, Alicia Chang, father deceased
"You had different mothers," Rinoa said. "Maybe that's the difference."
Squall's eyes briefly reflected his pain of betrayal. "She never told me we had different mothers. It seems that her's is still alive. She must not have wanted me to know."
Rinoa squeezed his shoulders in support. "So what now?"
"So now, I get rid of you two," a familiar voice came from behind and above them.
They both looked up just in time to see Selphie lunging at them.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This shit's gone way too far
All this time I've been waiting
I cannot grieve anymore
--- KoRn "Here to Stay"
Chapter 10
Ellone's face twisted into a devilish grin as she turned to face Rinoa. Her eyes gleamed a murderous red, and glittering white fangs poked out of her mouth, pressing into her dark red lips.
"I've been expecting you. Tell me, how have you been these days?" she asked in a regal voice.
Rinoa stepped back slightly, shaking her head. "How...? You're dead. You can't be here. I saw your remains.... You can't....."
She laughed. "Death is simply a state of mind for a creature such as myself. You might say I'm immortal. Yes, I like the sound of that. You, on the other hand... you are another story. You can die quite easily. And that is precisely what you will do. But first, I'd like to ask you a question. What makes you think those "remains" were mine?"
Rinoa was taken aback by this little speech, and the best she could do was stutter out a reply. "It was wrapped in red material, and had washed up from the ocean," she said.
"If you'll recall," Ellone began, "on that terrible night that Squall left you at the ball, you were wearing a red dress as well. You died on that night. I had to dispose of your body somehow. Yes, you alone stood in the way of our ruling. And now, the time has come again for us to take back our town."
"Your town?" Rinoa repeated.
"This town was founded for us. We needed a place away from humans. But, as they always do, they interferred. Now is the time for us to take back what is rightfully ours. But you stand in the way."
"Why me?" she asked.
"Because of what you are. Squall was supposed to take care of you himself. I suppose he chickened out. Poor boy. He's the best brother anyone could ever have, but he lacks a spine, I think. He lets his feelings run away with him."
"He... he was trying to kill me?" she asked.
Ellone nodded. "Now, enough talk. I'm hungry. And I'm tired of this little game. This ends now!"
Ellone's fangs grew longer, and wings burst from her back. There was a sharp crack as her spine broke into multiple joints and claws grew from her elbows.
Rinoa wasn't about to just stand there. She made a dash for the door, but didn't quite make it. Ellone lunged at her and tackled her to the ground, baring her fangs and raising her claws above her head. Rinoa struggled, trying to get off the ground. She felt sharp nails starting to dig into her side as she got her arm free and hit her in the nose with the heel of her hand, breaking Ellone's nose.
Rinoa finally got to her feet and ran for the door. She got through it and ran as fast as she could, clutching at her bleeding stomach as went. As she reached the street below, Ellone leaned out of the window and yelled, "You have until midnight tomorrow night. Make your last day pleasant!"
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Squall felt his eyes grow heavy as he drove along the worn back roads to Balamb. It had been such a long, confusing night. After the little girl had dissapeared, he waited a while to see if she would come back. Why would she call him daddy? He knew he didn't have any children, unless he'd gotten Rinoa pregnant.
When the child didn't return, he walked back to the grave yard and found his car, still parked outside the church, and decided it was time he returned home and rest.
After remembering those events that the little girl had shown him, he suddenly remembered everything. He finally knew why he'd have those feelings everytime he saw Rinoa. He was in love with her, and now he knew why. They had always been together, from the moment she first went up to that shy little boy who sat by himself to the moment he left her at the ball seventeen years later. His leaving her had been her death. The little girl said he had a second chance. So what was he supposed to do now? Trust his sister, as he always had, or try to protect the love of his past.
He was wound up intensly in his thoughts when he suddenly saw someone on the road and threw on the brakes. There Rinoa stood, looking like a deer caught in the headlights as she held the wound in her stomach.
"Rinoa?" he questioned as he jumped out of his car.
She stumbled back from him, pain and terror bright in her eyes. "You stay away from me!" she yelled. "I know what you are!"
The look of concern on his face immediately turned to anger. "So. Ellone was right about you. I suppose you want to try and kill me now?"
"Kill you?!" she exclaimed. "Don't try to pull that shit with me! I know you've been working with her the whole time!"
He narrowed his eyes at her. "Who?"
"Your sister!" she hissed. "This whole thing has been part of your plot. Lure me in just so you can get rid of me!"
He sighed and looked away. "I am supposed to kill you," he said softly. "But this whole thing wasn't just a plot. I wasn't supposed to go anywhere near you. But I did. Everynight."
"Everynight?" she repeated.
"You dreamt of me, right? Even before you really ever met me. And when you'd wake up in the morning, there'd be a rose at your side," he said, his eyes glittering with some unreadable emotion.
"You were the one that was doing that?" she asked.
He nodded. "I put those dreams in your head, everynight after you fell asleep. And I'd leave you a rose."
"Why? You had barely even looked at me that first day."
"I didn't have to look at you long to realize how you made me feel. It was automatic. And now I know why. Ellone warned me that you would be coming, so I tried to stay away from you. But I wanted you to think of me. Even if it was no good to me."
Her lips twitched slightly in an attenpt at a sad smile. "I did think of you. I had a lot of very intense dreams about you. Why else do you think it was so easy for you to get me into bed?" she said with a bitter laugh. "But you wouldn't have had to make me dream to make me think of you. I didn't have to look at you for very long to feel the same way."
He shoved his hands in his pocket and stared down at the ground. "So tell me what to do, then. No matter what I choose, one of us will die."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, if I don't kill you, and manage to keep Ellone from killing you, then we won't be able to free our town from humans. We'll all die."
"Why do you have to free your town?" Rinoa asked.
He sighed. "With some many humans around, it's hard for us to feed safely."
She scowled suddenly. "So, you murder along with them?"
"Not yet, I haven't," he replied. "It's not safe until the humans are gone. That's what Ellone says."
"You've gone twenty-something years without "feeding" as you call it, and nothing's happened to you yet. Maybe Ellone's lying to you."
"That thought's crossed my mind many times. But she's all I've ever known or trusted... until you. But even if it wouldn't kill me if I was never allowed to feed, Ellone would probably kill me for not getting rid of you," he finished with a bitter laugh before reaching through his window and pulling out his pack of cigerettes again.
"She's not much of a sister to kill you, is she?" Rinoa said softly as she watched him light his cigerette and take a short drag off it. She slowly stepped up to him, until her face was just inches from his, and pulled it out of his mouth. "Those things will kill you, you know."
He smirked at her. "I know. What do I have to live for at the moment?"
"What do you have to die for?" she asked, running a finger over his slightly parted lips. "You said you trusted me?"
He nodded just a little, not wanting to break their small bit of contact.
She seemed about to say something for a moment, but paused, then said, "What am I, Squall? What am I that I have to be killed in order for you to have your way?"
"You don't know?"
She shook her head.
"You're the exact opposite of us. You might say you're an angel."
Rinoa laughed. "I'm not pure enough to be an angel."
"I can show you," he said, almost in a whisper, his face still so close to hers that their breath mingled into one.
"How?"
He leaned in and began to kiss her, running a head up her side until she suddenly shouted in pain, and his hand was wet with blood.
"What happened?" he demanded as she hunched over her wound.
"Your sister. I went to your apartment and she tried to kill me. I managed to get away, but only because she let me. She told me I had until midnight tomorrow night."
He gently put a hand over the wound and began to concentrate. After a moment, the gash closed, so that it was nothing but perfect skin.
"You're a very handy person to have around," she laughed.
He smiled and leaned in to kiss her again. "Can I show you now?" he asked between kisses.
Rinoa nodded and began to kiss him back as her hunger for him grew. He opened the door to his car and slid her inside. "I know a place where we can go."
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rinoa layed on her side, white, feathery wings out-stretched so that one of them arched over her body, the tip brushing lightly with Squall's black-scaled wings. She reached a hand over and drew a finger over the wicked curve of Squall's fangs.
"You don't mind them?" he asked, careful of her fingers.
She smiled and shook her head. "They're kinda sexy, actually."
He leaned over and carefully grazed his fangs over the sensitive, glowing skin of her neck, making her sigh in pleasure. It was so dangerously exciting that it seemed to heighten the sensation. She ran her fingers through her hair and over his back, bringing to mind the image of Selphie as she was in the time of her transformation.
"Why is it that everytime we're together, we change?" she asked in breathless voice as he continued to put his temporary accessories to work.
"I don't know," he answered, pausing for a moment. "I guess we bring out the truth in each other."
She would've smiled had she not been biting her lip. "You don't have the urge to 'feed' off me do you?"
He returned to her lips and kissed her gently. "No, but I'm getting the urge for something else."
Rinoa laughed. "I thought we were only doing this to prove your point?"
"Well, if you don't want to..." he said, trying his best to form a tempting pout without peircing his own lip.
She couldn't help but laugh at his expression. "It's not that, I just... there's so much that has to be figured out, and so little time."
Squall's comical expression quickly turned to a dark frown. "Yeah. I guess."
She ran a hand down his cheek, and his eyes drifted closed at the feeling. "You have to make a decision," she said in a soft, gentle voice. "I guess I can't blame you if you choose to kill me. If you don't you'll die."
He looked at her for a moment, his eyes a heartbreaking mixture of hopelessness and childish confusion. Then he layed his head down on her chest and breathed deeply. She ran her hands through his hair again, but this time in a comforting manner. She wished so badly she could take away his pain.
"I know this is hard for you," she said, her voice a soft whisper. "But like I said, I won't blame you."
Squall was silent for a long moment before he finally said, "I know. That's part of what makes this so hard."
"I remember, now," she said suddenly. "I remember everything that happened before."
"You remember that it was my fault that you died?" he asked bitterly.
"It wasn't your fault," she replied. "You didn't know."
"Why do you have to be so....." he started to ask but faltered.
"So what?" she pressed.
"So you," he finished, looking up at her.
"Would you rather I be someone else?" she asked, trying to lighten the mood slightly.
"Never."
"Something bothers me," Rinoa said.
"What?"
"When I saw the others change, they looked... bad. I mean, they had gotten all scaley, and hunched over and everything. How come that never happens to you when you change?"
"Maybe I'm not demon enough," he laughed sourly.
"If you were an orphan, then how can you be sure that Ellone's your sister? How much do you actually know about your parents?"
"I was very little when they died. Ellone said we lived in a place called Winhill, and that we were both taken to Timber Orphanage by our nextdoor neighbors. She says our parents were killed by people of your species, because you hated us so much."
"You know, other than the hair, you two really look nothing alike," she pointed out.
He nodded. "Yeah. Well, I guess we can't stay here forever. Our cover's gone. Where should we go now?"
"Anywhere you want," she replied softly.
He picked himself up from her and said, with a strange look on his face, "I bet we could find out something at the Department of Records. Maybe that will tell us if Ellone and I are really related."
With that, they both proceeded to dress before leaving the flower field behind.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Both Squall and Rinoa were weary of returning to Balamb, knowing that Ellone could be anywhere, waiting for them. That's not what they found when they arrived there, however.
Dozens of black vans with thick, tinted windows had pulled up in front of the police station, and men in black suits with clear face plates and armour surrounded the building with huge guns leveled at the door.
"They must have found out about Selphie," Rinoa said.
"What happened to her?" Squall asked.
"She's one of you. And she went insane in prison. She killed everyone in there. No, not just killed. Mutulated."
"That wasn't part of Ellone's plan," Squall replied. "She wanted to keep everything low key. She didn't want anymore attention to this place than there would have to be."
"Inner politics?" Rinoa suggested. "Maybe Selphie had a reason to ruin Ellone's plan."
"Could be," he said, watching as the men shouted at the building, commanding the murderer to come out, before they came in.
Selphie's response was to throw a severed arm out of the second story window. It managed to thunk one of the cops in the head, thoroughly freaking him out. Upon the captain's order, they all began shooting at the windows on the top floor, shattering the glass so that it rained down in glittering chunks like oversized rain drops falling from the blackened sky.
When they'd finally finished shooting, Selphie leaped from the busted second floor window, thick black liquid oozing from gashing in her body, and landed briefly on top of one of the vans, denting it in before leaping onto the top of another building.
They quickly piled into their vans again and drove off, intending to make chase. Rinoa turned to look at Squall. "What do we do?"
He sighed and shrugged. "Well, we could either leave Selphie to them, or try and go after her ourselves."
"For right now, why don't we just try to get that information you wanted?" Rinoa said. "It might be best if we just get what we need and leave before Ellone comes after us."
"We could try. But under these conditions, I think the place might be closed. Let's go have a look, anyway."
They drove slowly over to the Department of Records building, noticing that the vans didn't seem to be anywhere near it. As they approached the building on foot, they saw that the place seemed to be closed, as most of the lights were off inside, but the glass door stood wide open, as if waiting for them to come in. They slowly wandered in, looking around cautiously. Everything seemed calm, though it looked as if the place had been abandoned in a hurry. Papers were scattered recklessly over the floor, and desk chairs lay on the floor, pushed over. An ashtray sat on a desk, gray smoke curling away from the unsmoked cigar that sat amidst the ashes.
As Rinoa was walking through the office, some distance behind Squall, she felt something drip on her shoulder from the ceiling above. She looked up to see thick, red liquid dripping through the cracks of the cheap ceiling boards.
"Squall...." she said, pointing up at the stained ceiling.
On the floor above, sat Selphie, next to a bleeding corpse. The tile beneath it was broken and cracked. She sat there, feeling somewhat bored as she filed her claws on a clavical bone.
When she heard the sound of Rinoa's voice below, a sadistic smile spread over her face as she decided it was time she pay her old friend a visit. As she walked over the crumbled bits of the floor that she had destroyed herself, there was a sudden whine and the floor below her feet gave way. She came crashing through the ceiling, landing right in front of Squall and Rinoa.
For a long moment, neither of them moved, unsure if she still lived or not. Fortunately, it seemed that the fall had killed her, for she continued to lay there in a heap of broken plaster and insulation.
"Let's just get what we came here from and leave," Rinoa said, staring at her former friend.
Squall nodded and began typing up his name on the search page of one of the computers. The computer's tower gave a vague rattle as it strained for the information that was stored away in its memory.
Finally, a file came up with all the information on Squall Leonhart that was ever known.
Name: Squall Leonhart
I.D. #: 1482960
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Blue
Height: 5' 8"
Occupation: CLASSIFIED
Relatives: Ellone Leonhart, sister
Parents: Raine Leonhart, Laguna Leonhart, deceased
"So, those are my parents," Squall said casually. "Now, I guess I have to check Ellone's info now."
He typed in her name and quickly scanned over her information until he found what he was looking for.
Relatives: Squall Leonhart, brother
Parents: Laguna Leonhart, Alicia Chang, father deceased
"You had different mothers," Rinoa said. "Maybe that's the difference."
Squall's eyes briefly reflected his pain of betrayal. "She never told me we had different mothers. It seems that her's is still alive. She must not have wanted me to know."
Rinoa squeezed his shoulders in support. "So what now?"
"So now, I get rid of you two," a familiar voice came from behind and above them.
They both looked up just in time to see Selphie lunging at them.
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