'Alas, Tears can not undo Time'

Rinoa often wondered where it all started, this thing called fate. A long time ago she thought she was destined to
fall in love with her first crush, but that was not at all true. Instead she fell in love with a person the exact opposite
of herself, a person she thought was a jerk. Squall and her went through a very great deal together, and yet they still
could not speak those words to each other. She wondered when would be the time they would? It seems like forever they were
walking in that castle, looking for the sorceress. Killing the sorceress would not end the cycle, however, and the party did
not agree on what should be done about that. Rinoa had already made up her mind though...after killing the sorceress she
would take her powers, and try to find a way to kill herself, ending the cycle of pain. The others knew nothing of her plans
and she intended to keep it that way.

They had split up, Squall and her, to cover more of the grounds castle. Squall had picked her to go with him, and for
that she felt great joy. Did he pick her cause she was weaker than the rest of them and he intended to guard her, or did he
pick her for another reason? She hoped the second choice was the reason.

"Where could she be Squall? We've been searching for hours." she whined to Squall in the silence of the darkness.

"Dunno." he said quickly.

"What if we never find her? This is a very large castle." she asked.

"Then we dont find her." he said coldly. She sensed he was growing impatient, and his short answers were nothing less
than what he normally gave. He projected himself as a lone wolf, but she knew better. He was a man with much emotion, he just
lacked a way to express them.

"Well what do you suggest we do?" she asked again, as she was growing impatient as well, and tired.

"Keep looking" he answered. As soon as he finished speaking she heard some bells ringing. Puzzled, they both took a
look around. The bells continued to chime in harmony. "Lets head towards that music," ordered Squall "and pick up the pace."
Squall had a bad feeling about this, the bells ringing were all too unexpected. He was tired of looking for this sorceress
and wanted to end this quickly. He ordered the party to split up into 3 groups, with Zell and Quistis in one, and Selphie
and Irvine in the other. He had chosen Rinoa to come with him, as he felt better with her by his side. He also felt feelings
towards her that he could not express, or fully understand for that matter. He knew he cared for her, but how could he show
it without leaving himself open to the pain of emotions? Emotions, he thought, were for the weak at heart and he was not
weak. Training to be a SeeD had showed him that, as he beat his rival Siefer and earned the leadership of the whole garden.
He had also won the heart of Rinoa, or so he hoped.

The bells suddenly stopped, as Rinoa and he entered a large, church like room. In the corner he saw the largest
monster he had ever seen, a huge dragon like robot with 4 legs, 2 arms, and a huge tail. It also saw them, as it roared with
a noise that caused all the hairs on Squall's neck to stand on end.

"Squall! Its coming for us!" screamed Rinoa as she pulled out her chakra and he his gunblade. Battle seemed invietable
and seemed like this one was to be a long one. He rushed towards the creature and sliced at one of his legs, firing a bullet
off as he made contact with the flesh. The bullet seemed to bounce right off the skin, and his attack seemed to have no effect.
He backed off as Rinoa called upon Shiva. Shiva materialized out of thin air, and quickly unleashed her frozen attack. As the
icicles headed towards the monster, he just stood there and waited. Out of no where, a white light flashed, and everything
stopped moving. The beast was not moving, nor was Shiva. Rinoa tried to talk to the guardian force, but it seemed suspended
in motion. Even the icicles were not moving. Squall went over and touched them, and felt they were not cold at all. They felt
like plastic.

"Rinoa something is very wrong here." he said to Rinoa, as he looked around the room. Everthing seemed frozen, but
them. The white light that appeared was also growing in size, engulfing the whole area around them in a dazzling bright glow.

"Squall help me!" she screamed as the light moved over her. Squall ran towards her as her body began to fall foward.
He reached for her and found her slumped body in his arms. He hugged her and all was white. When the light faded, Rinoa and
he were on a beach. Around him stood people he had never seen before. To one side of him was two very young kids, a boy with
a tail and a girl with very short hair. Squall thought the boy was some sort of ape man, and the girl seemed noble in a way.
To the other side was two older people, a woman with very dark black hair and a man with a very big sword. Squall was amazed
that the man could even weild a weapon so big. Silence fell over them all, and he wondered what was to become of Rinoa and him.


End of Part 2
By Blackheart_VII
Stay tuned for Part 3