Chapter 11

She decided to move on from Dollet, the atmosphere was too sad there, after the deaths on the ship. She walked along the path to Deling City, and decided to stay there for a while.

She avoided seeing her father, the last time she had seen him was way back when they had to assassinate the sorceress, and she hated the fact that he was a Galbadian general as much as ever.

She wandered around, seemingly aimlessly, but really looking out for any sign of him. She doubted that he was here, because they had only come here briefly, and only once. But there was always a chance.

Back at the garden, Quistis' condition was fatal. Rinoa hadn't managed to kill her, and some SeeDs had found her and saved her.

Quistis was awake, lying down in bed, and had no memory of her meeting with Rinoa. The last thing she could remember was their adventure and defeating Ultimecia, a few days after that were a hazy blur, after that nothing at all.

She asked what had happened, she knew months had passed with no memory of it. They told her the truth, she was shocked, but deep down inside her she knew it was all true. When they told her, she still could only recall very little. There was one thing she could remember. Looking at her friend inside the cell, and loving to watch her suffer.

She realized that they must have done something to her. Her mind had been affected by their evil technology; they had twisted and manipulated it to their liking. How they did this, she didn't know, but she knew that in her normal state she would never have done anything like this. She wanted to ask what they had done to her, but she knew they would deny everything. Police were an option, but they would say she acted of her own free will, and they would never believe her.

She wanted to run out of this wretched place. She wanted to escape. Maybe she could save the others from this predicament. But her body wouldn't seem to do what she wanted. She had only took a bullet, but she felt so much weaker, weaker than ever.

"It must be the shock of finding out what I've done…" she thought, though she knew there must be some other reason for her helplessness.

She would go and see the leader of the garden; no one really knew who or what it was. They had never seen it. It had taken over their lives, yet no one had the courage to go and see what it was, why it was there.

****

She was awake, it was late, she couldn't sleep. The other SeeD's had gone, or were sleeping. This was her chance.

She got up slowly out of bed, and walked out the room. Her burdens did not stay there; they seemed to follow her, wherever she went. The agony of knowing what she had done, out of her control, was almost too much to bear.

Suddenly, she fell down onto the floor, clutching her head tight, the pain shooting through her body. Lightning bolts seemed to attack her brain, and bombarded her with the answers to those questions she had longed to know about her past. It all came back to her; she realized the true evil of what she had done.

She shakily got to her feet, her head still hurting, yet more things coming back to her as she was standing there. Then it all went away, the pain leaving no trace that it had ever been there.

But it wasn't Quistis who stood there. Standing tall, her eyes red, her scaly body, her short black hair, her long tail, stood pure evil. She had rose again.

****

Rinoa stood in Deling City; a shiver ran down her spine. She knew something was wrong. She began to shake, and she began to feel cold. Her body temperature rapidly dropped, she ran to the Galbadia Hotel, and ran upstairs to one of the rooms. She sat down on the bed, her blood turning ice cold, and everything around her began to grow cloudy.

She slumped onto the bed, her head lolling, she couldn't control herself, she felt like this was the end-

She lay there, silence around the room. She did not stir, just lay there in a peaceful slumber. One of the workers at the hotel tried to revive her, believing her unconscious, and another phoned an ambulance. But all to no avail. She would not move; she couldn't breathe, and the paramedics told them she was dead.

****