Chapter 2
Disclaimer: I don't own Sweet Surrender by Sarah McLachlan, Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy.
A/N: A special thanx to those who reviewed, I'm glad you liked it ^_^
Squall was at a loss, staring at the gigantic structure up close. There was no movement other than the resonation of the crystals, and total silence. It seemed that nothing dared to move at this altitude, and it made Squall feel a little anxious. There were very few things that could put Squall on edge. Unnatural silence was one of them.
/Just like when you and Rinoa./
"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Squall yelled, defying the voice inside his head. He couldn't decide which was worse: the total silence or the annoying voice inside his head. Squall chose the silence, for at least his own thoughts kept him alert.on edge even.
After the echoes of his shouting had faded, Squall assessed his preset predicament. It seemed that there was no where to go but forward unless he wanted again to travel on those horrible little platforms, and he wasn't sure that just because the wire held him on the way here it would continue to hold him if he went elsewhere.
Glancing over the small railing to his left, Squall found out that his judgment was sound. There was not even the tiniest speck to hint at where the land underneath the castle began, for the place with the bizarre water was transversely placed and if he jumped, he estimated that he would have a long time to wave goodbye.
Returning his gaze to the plane of elevation he was currently on, Squall noticed that straight ahead of him was an archway leading further into the castle. The opening was shrouded in shadows though, and Squall felt the hair on the back of his neck raise as he pulled out his gunblade, ready for anything.
"Hello.? Who's out there? Show yourself now, stranger!" yelled a feminine voice from inside the doorway, and Squall found that if he squinted he could make out a humanoid shape standing near the right of the large entrance.
"I'm not hiding," Squall shouted back, and straightened his pose, letting his gunblade hang loosely from his right hand, ready to defend himself should the figure prove to be more hostile than the soft voice gave away.
"Why do you carry such a weapon in this place? What demons here do you see fit to fight here?" the voice answered, more subdued than the previous tone of voice that Squall had been addressed in.
"Besides myself I see no other here." Squall tried to stop the small, grim smile that was forcing it's way onto his face, hoping that the other would fall for his poorly laid trap.
It seemed that the other figure present hesitated, and then stepped out toward Squall. The person was indeed female, Squall noticed as he briefly studied her feminine curves. She was wearing a light pink dress with thick straps that clung to her shoulders and which stopped just above her brown hiking boots. She had long, auburn hair, which was twisted into some type of braid that hung down to her mid-calf. Clutched tightly in her hands her held long, silver striking staff, one that had many scratches upon it from combat presumably.
Squall felt his fingers tighten involuntary on his gunblade, and he felt adrenaline begin to trickle into his veins. He knew that he would more than likely be able to over-power this girl before him with his physical strength, but he also was on guard to see what sort of Guardian Force she had decided to equip herself with. He checked his junction with Diablo one more time, hoping that this girl wouldn't have an all-powerful GF like Bahamut or even Eden.
The young woman twisted her staff slightly, and Squall saw that the side of her staff was encrusted with small, circular orbs of many colors. He wondered what the point of having a staff so heavily jeweled was, for it was obvious from the scratches incurred on the side of the staff that it was not for ornamental purposes.
Suddenly, one of the green orbs flared to life and Squall saw a contained wind lift the girl's hair up, whipping her hair toward the sky. "Sleep!" she yelled and Squall felt the familiar tendrils of the status spell beginning to bewitch his mind. He fought it as hard as he could, but he was no match for the spell and felt himself dropping off into a dreamless slumber.
"Maybe you killed him."
"Impossible. I only cast a sleep spell, not a death spell."
"You never know."
"Cid!"
It took Squall a few minutes to register the sounds he heard as being human voices, his slow ascent to consciousness marked by how hot and sticky his mouth felt as well as the sleep formed in the corners of his eyes.
"Hey, he's waking up. Cid, get him something to drink."
"What do I look like, a $@#&ing waiter?"
Squall slowly opened his eyes, focusing on the blur of pink and flesh tone that hovered over his head. As his vision cleared, he realized that is was the girl from before with the staff. Her emerald green eyes looked down at him quizzically, as though he were some exotic specimen in a scientist's lab.
"Where.?" he managed to gasp out, his throat raspy and dry. He coughed once, a tremor running through his body. What he needed now was a drink.preferably something alcoholic.
"It's okay, we're in some sort of kitchen. There doesn't seem to be anything other than us here at the moment." Squall blinked twice, then turned his head to gaze at his surroundings.
He was lying on a wooden table, an ivory cloth underneath him. The floors were the same cement as the outside of the castle, and a stone divider separated him from the rest of the kitchen. In the far side of the divider was a wooden doorframe and Squall noticed several notches carved shallowly into it, as though it were used to measure the height of children.
A tapestry hung opposite where Squall lay, and he propped himself up on one elbow to look over the girl's shoulder at what it depicted. It was a rendition of the castle, the air around it filled with dazzling jewels and flying mystical beasts.
"I'm surprised you were out so long, usually the sleep spell doesn't." the girl started, and suddenly realization slapped Squall hard on the face. This was the girl who had wanted to fight him.
He sat up suddenly, feeling a rush of blood to the head. Squall ignored it though, the more important matter of finding his gunblade preoccupying his thoughts as of present. The girl uttered a small gasp at his sudden behavior, and then tried to keep him lying down with her small arms.
"C'mon, you have to stay lying down for a second, at least until the spell wears off," she pleaded, not at all certain what she should do if he tried using all his force to get away. The girl knew when she was outmatched, and this was one of those times.
"What's going on in here!?" bellowed a rough voice from the doorway. Both of them stopped struggling and looked to the man in the doorway. He had short, vibrant blonde hair that stood upon in front of his head. He wore a pair of brown aviation goggles pushed up onto his forehead and his pale blue eyes glared at them both as though they were misbehaving children. He wore a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to just above his elbows, and his blue pants hung down to his black shoes. A tiny tattoo graced his heavily muscled forearm, and Squall idly wondered how many seconds he would last unarmed against a man of his strength.
"It's okay Cid, our friend here just wanted to try to get up before he was ready, that's all," the girl in pink explained, an innocent smile playing across her face.
Cid snorted, then handed Squall a small wooden goblet. "Here, drink up." Squall looked inside and saw the clear liquid sloshing around, his throat jumping for joy for a reprieve from it's current dry state. "It's just water boy, it won't hurt you any."
"I'm not a boy," was Squall's annoyed response before raising the goblet to his lips and then draining it of it's contents, wiping the back of his hand across his mouth when he was done.
"Fine, then give me something else to call you then." Cid raised an eyebrow at the young man, a small smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.
"My name's Squall." He stared back at the man with an expression he hoped was stony indifference.
"There, that wasn't so hard now was it?" Cid patronized, "I'm Cid, and the lady over there is Aerith."
"Sorry about the spell, Squall," she began, dropping her head slightly at looking up at him through her lashes, "but I thought that you were going to try to fight me with your gun-sword thing over there." She nodded to his gunblade, propped up against the wall. "I just."
"Didn't want to hurt me too bad?" Squall interrupted, a small smile trying to work it's way onto his face. Seeing this girl so closely, Squall knew that if all she had in her arsenal were a sleep spell then he would be safe.
Aerith's face broke out into a large grin that light up her delicate features, and Cid chuckled softly from where he stood beside Squall. "You know what kid? You're alright," Cid grinned.
"So can I sit up then?" Squall asked, finally allowing the smile to flit across his face. He pulled himself upright then swung his legs over the side of the bench, the other two stepping back to give him some room to move.
"Careful now, we don't want you to collapse again," Aerith teased lightly, placing a supportive hand on his shoulder. He flicked his eyes briefly to where her hand was, then put his own on top of it and smiled at her again, this one weaker than his previous and full of false bravado. Squall had noticed how torn her nails were, bitten or ripped off from stress. As a SeeD it was important to notice small details such as that.
Squall stood shakily, putting a hand on the bench behind him for support until he was sure that his legs could support the full weight of his body. The room seemed to swirl and dance in front of his eyes, and he felt vertigo overcome him so strongly that he almost had to sit back down again.
Cid and Aerith, seeing the slight swaying of his body stepped forward almost simultaneously to grasp at his arms to keep him upright. Slowly, the dizziness ebbed and Squall shook them off, determined not to depend too much on these strangers as of now.
"Well, can you do it?" Cid asked, trying to sound full of swagger, but his voice carried a tint of concern that Squall picked up on.
"Only take one step at a time," Aerith directly lightly, worrying over him as though he were still a child. A light frown touched her brow, although she tried to smile bravely. It seemed that these strangers had already counted on befriending him.
It was strange really, the ease at which he felt around these people already, as though they had known each other their entire lives. He sensed that they too, found some sort of comfort around him that seemed unexplainable. After all, we had only known these people a grand total of 10 minutes, although they amount of time they must have spent caring over his unconscious body Squall could not tell.
"Well? Are you going to stand here looking like a fool for the rest of the day or are you going to at least try at walking?" Cid asked gruffly, irritation lacing his voice and bringing Squall's thoughts back to the present moment.
"Yeah, ok." He inhaled deeply, hoping that his legs wouldn't give out on him and make him look like a fool. Aerith may look tiny and harmless, but she cast a mean sleep spell.
Suddenly, Squall felt a pair of hands on his back, pushing him forward violently. He lurched forward and fell to his hands and knees, both scraping roughly against the stone floor and sending jolts of pain through his entire body.
He heard Aerith's startled gasp and then Cid breathless exclamation: "Well, I'll be damned."
Disclaimer: I don't own Sweet Surrender by Sarah McLachlan, Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy.
A/N: A special thanx to those who reviewed, I'm glad you liked it ^_^
Squall was at a loss, staring at the gigantic structure up close. There was no movement other than the resonation of the crystals, and total silence. It seemed that nothing dared to move at this altitude, and it made Squall feel a little anxious. There were very few things that could put Squall on edge. Unnatural silence was one of them.
/Just like when you and Rinoa./
"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Squall yelled, defying the voice inside his head. He couldn't decide which was worse: the total silence or the annoying voice inside his head. Squall chose the silence, for at least his own thoughts kept him alert.on edge even.
After the echoes of his shouting had faded, Squall assessed his preset predicament. It seemed that there was no where to go but forward unless he wanted again to travel on those horrible little platforms, and he wasn't sure that just because the wire held him on the way here it would continue to hold him if he went elsewhere.
Glancing over the small railing to his left, Squall found out that his judgment was sound. There was not even the tiniest speck to hint at where the land underneath the castle began, for the place with the bizarre water was transversely placed and if he jumped, he estimated that he would have a long time to wave goodbye.
Returning his gaze to the plane of elevation he was currently on, Squall noticed that straight ahead of him was an archway leading further into the castle. The opening was shrouded in shadows though, and Squall felt the hair on the back of his neck raise as he pulled out his gunblade, ready for anything.
"Hello.? Who's out there? Show yourself now, stranger!" yelled a feminine voice from inside the doorway, and Squall found that if he squinted he could make out a humanoid shape standing near the right of the large entrance.
"I'm not hiding," Squall shouted back, and straightened his pose, letting his gunblade hang loosely from his right hand, ready to defend himself should the figure prove to be more hostile than the soft voice gave away.
"Why do you carry such a weapon in this place? What demons here do you see fit to fight here?" the voice answered, more subdued than the previous tone of voice that Squall had been addressed in.
"Besides myself I see no other here." Squall tried to stop the small, grim smile that was forcing it's way onto his face, hoping that the other would fall for his poorly laid trap.
It seemed that the other figure present hesitated, and then stepped out toward Squall. The person was indeed female, Squall noticed as he briefly studied her feminine curves. She was wearing a light pink dress with thick straps that clung to her shoulders and which stopped just above her brown hiking boots. She had long, auburn hair, which was twisted into some type of braid that hung down to her mid-calf. Clutched tightly in her hands her held long, silver striking staff, one that had many scratches upon it from combat presumably.
Squall felt his fingers tighten involuntary on his gunblade, and he felt adrenaline begin to trickle into his veins. He knew that he would more than likely be able to over-power this girl before him with his physical strength, but he also was on guard to see what sort of Guardian Force she had decided to equip herself with. He checked his junction with Diablo one more time, hoping that this girl wouldn't have an all-powerful GF like Bahamut or even Eden.
The young woman twisted her staff slightly, and Squall saw that the side of her staff was encrusted with small, circular orbs of many colors. He wondered what the point of having a staff so heavily jeweled was, for it was obvious from the scratches incurred on the side of the staff that it was not for ornamental purposes.
Suddenly, one of the green orbs flared to life and Squall saw a contained wind lift the girl's hair up, whipping her hair toward the sky. "Sleep!" she yelled and Squall felt the familiar tendrils of the status spell beginning to bewitch his mind. He fought it as hard as he could, but he was no match for the spell and felt himself dropping off into a dreamless slumber.
"Maybe you killed him."
"Impossible. I only cast a sleep spell, not a death spell."
"You never know."
"Cid!"
It took Squall a few minutes to register the sounds he heard as being human voices, his slow ascent to consciousness marked by how hot and sticky his mouth felt as well as the sleep formed in the corners of his eyes.
"Hey, he's waking up. Cid, get him something to drink."
"What do I look like, a $@#&ing waiter?"
Squall slowly opened his eyes, focusing on the blur of pink and flesh tone that hovered over his head. As his vision cleared, he realized that is was the girl from before with the staff. Her emerald green eyes looked down at him quizzically, as though he were some exotic specimen in a scientist's lab.
"Where.?" he managed to gasp out, his throat raspy and dry. He coughed once, a tremor running through his body. What he needed now was a drink.preferably something alcoholic.
"It's okay, we're in some sort of kitchen. There doesn't seem to be anything other than us here at the moment." Squall blinked twice, then turned his head to gaze at his surroundings.
He was lying on a wooden table, an ivory cloth underneath him. The floors were the same cement as the outside of the castle, and a stone divider separated him from the rest of the kitchen. In the far side of the divider was a wooden doorframe and Squall noticed several notches carved shallowly into it, as though it were used to measure the height of children.
A tapestry hung opposite where Squall lay, and he propped himself up on one elbow to look over the girl's shoulder at what it depicted. It was a rendition of the castle, the air around it filled with dazzling jewels and flying mystical beasts.
"I'm surprised you were out so long, usually the sleep spell doesn't." the girl started, and suddenly realization slapped Squall hard on the face. This was the girl who had wanted to fight him.
He sat up suddenly, feeling a rush of blood to the head. Squall ignored it though, the more important matter of finding his gunblade preoccupying his thoughts as of present. The girl uttered a small gasp at his sudden behavior, and then tried to keep him lying down with her small arms.
"C'mon, you have to stay lying down for a second, at least until the spell wears off," she pleaded, not at all certain what she should do if he tried using all his force to get away. The girl knew when she was outmatched, and this was one of those times.
"What's going on in here!?" bellowed a rough voice from the doorway. Both of them stopped struggling and looked to the man in the doorway. He had short, vibrant blonde hair that stood upon in front of his head. He wore a pair of brown aviation goggles pushed up onto his forehead and his pale blue eyes glared at them both as though they were misbehaving children. He wore a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to just above his elbows, and his blue pants hung down to his black shoes. A tiny tattoo graced his heavily muscled forearm, and Squall idly wondered how many seconds he would last unarmed against a man of his strength.
"It's okay Cid, our friend here just wanted to try to get up before he was ready, that's all," the girl in pink explained, an innocent smile playing across her face.
Cid snorted, then handed Squall a small wooden goblet. "Here, drink up." Squall looked inside and saw the clear liquid sloshing around, his throat jumping for joy for a reprieve from it's current dry state. "It's just water boy, it won't hurt you any."
"I'm not a boy," was Squall's annoyed response before raising the goblet to his lips and then draining it of it's contents, wiping the back of his hand across his mouth when he was done.
"Fine, then give me something else to call you then." Cid raised an eyebrow at the young man, a small smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.
"My name's Squall." He stared back at the man with an expression he hoped was stony indifference.
"There, that wasn't so hard now was it?" Cid patronized, "I'm Cid, and the lady over there is Aerith."
"Sorry about the spell, Squall," she began, dropping her head slightly at looking up at him through her lashes, "but I thought that you were going to try to fight me with your gun-sword thing over there." She nodded to his gunblade, propped up against the wall. "I just."
"Didn't want to hurt me too bad?" Squall interrupted, a small smile trying to work it's way onto his face. Seeing this girl so closely, Squall knew that if all she had in her arsenal were a sleep spell then he would be safe.
Aerith's face broke out into a large grin that light up her delicate features, and Cid chuckled softly from where he stood beside Squall. "You know what kid? You're alright," Cid grinned.
"So can I sit up then?" Squall asked, finally allowing the smile to flit across his face. He pulled himself upright then swung his legs over the side of the bench, the other two stepping back to give him some room to move.
"Careful now, we don't want you to collapse again," Aerith teased lightly, placing a supportive hand on his shoulder. He flicked his eyes briefly to where her hand was, then put his own on top of it and smiled at her again, this one weaker than his previous and full of false bravado. Squall had noticed how torn her nails were, bitten or ripped off from stress. As a SeeD it was important to notice small details such as that.
Squall stood shakily, putting a hand on the bench behind him for support until he was sure that his legs could support the full weight of his body. The room seemed to swirl and dance in front of his eyes, and he felt vertigo overcome him so strongly that he almost had to sit back down again.
Cid and Aerith, seeing the slight swaying of his body stepped forward almost simultaneously to grasp at his arms to keep him upright. Slowly, the dizziness ebbed and Squall shook them off, determined not to depend too much on these strangers as of now.
"Well, can you do it?" Cid asked, trying to sound full of swagger, but his voice carried a tint of concern that Squall picked up on.
"Only take one step at a time," Aerith directly lightly, worrying over him as though he were still a child. A light frown touched her brow, although she tried to smile bravely. It seemed that these strangers had already counted on befriending him.
It was strange really, the ease at which he felt around these people already, as though they had known each other their entire lives. He sensed that they too, found some sort of comfort around him that seemed unexplainable. After all, we had only known these people a grand total of 10 minutes, although they amount of time they must have spent caring over his unconscious body Squall could not tell.
"Well? Are you going to stand here looking like a fool for the rest of the day or are you going to at least try at walking?" Cid asked gruffly, irritation lacing his voice and bringing Squall's thoughts back to the present moment.
"Yeah, ok." He inhaled deeply, hoping that his legs wouldn't give out on him and make him look like a fool. Aerith may look tiny and harmless, but she cast a mean sleep spell.
Suddenly, Squall felt a pair of hands on his back, pushing him forward violently. He lurched forward and fell to his hands and knees, both scraping roughly against the stone floor and sending jolts of pain through his entire body.
He heard Aerith's startled gasp and then Cid breathless exclamation: "Well, I'll be damned."