A/N: Woo, a new chapter and I didn't have to write it because people demanded, which, okay would have been nice, but at least I wasn't forcing this chapter, which would have meant that it wouldn't have been any good. Anyway please Read and Review

DISLAIMER: DISLAIMER: Blah, blah, blah, FFVIII doesn't belong to me, Seifer does, (lawyer's glare) I mean urk, he belongs to Squaresoft as do the other characters, but the story is mine so I can do what I want with them, mwahahaha, eeps (I didn't know lawyers could run so fast).

THE CORRUPTION OF POWER

CHAPTER 2 – Something's Missing

"Hey Squall, have you seen Rinoa around?"

"No, but to be honest I've been so busy with Selphie, organising things for the Summer Concert, that I've barely had time to notice anyone." Squall replied for the blonde instructor.

"Really?" Quistis said somewhat down-heatedly, she really needed some advice and none of the others really seemed appropriate to approach and for some reason she never seemed to be able to get hold of the brunette sorceress. "She certainly has a lot more support behind her this year than she did the last."

"Hmm, it's probably because she is also raising money for Trabia and because all the Gardens are involved, especially Esthar, you know how much funding that place seems to get." Squall mused. "If I see Rinoa around I'll tell her that you are looking for her."

"If you notice her." Quistis pointed out. "You wouldn't know if she was avoiding me for some reason would you?"

Squall smiled "Don't worry Quistis, that girl is so spoilt that I think you'd know if you were in disfavour." Somehow, even though the others felt the same way about her Squall felt better about voicing his opinion of Rinoa. It had been a while since he had confided in anyone about how he felt about anything, but with the groups help he was getting to be what Selphie insisted was a 'normal' teenager. "I'll pay special attention to keep an eye out for her for you. What did you want to see her about?"

"I just needed to ask her advice on something." Squall raised his eyebrow in curiosity. "Don't pry Squall, I'll see you around."

"Okay."

It was during that week that Squall noticed that Rinoa hardly seemed to be around. He left a message on her PHS but a week later he still had no response and hadn't heard from her or even of her being around. Some of the younger students had started some nasty rumours. He decided to check her dorm to see if there were any recent signs of living. On his way he encountered Nidia who had been looking for the girl since Thursday. After knocking and failing to get a response, they used a Master Key-card to unlock the door. As they walked in though Xu came running behind then yelling at them to get to the Quad because a large fight had broken out.

Sighing both Squall and Nidia followed Xu to the reported incident, all being in the duty of running a Garden.

#Galbadia#

"Where could she have gone?"

"I don't know, Ellone is far too sensible to go off anywhere on her own without leaving a note." Ward stressed.

It had been two hours since he had woken up to find Ellone gone. Kiros and he were worried from the start, but decided that maybe she had gone for a swim in the Hotel swimming pool or something and had been courteous enough not to wake them. However, the half-hour that they had intended to wait for her to return had extended to an unreasonable time.

"Maybe she followed Laguna."

"I guess, but how can we found out?" All this stress was going to make him loose his voice again.

"The man hardly ever answers his PHS and Ellone might not have revealed herself to him yet. Hyne, she might not even be with him. Where is she?" Kiros started pacing briskly back and forth in worry.

#Elsewhere#

Slowly Rinoa opened her eyes. Where am I? Won't someone please turn off that bright green light? There was something around her and it made her eyes sting, not much but enough that every now and then she had to blink away the feeling while her eyes adjusted. Slowly the glared became more tolerable and Rinoa managed to take in more of her surroundings. She choked on the air being fed into her lungs when she realised that she had a funnel down her throat. Frantically she searched the area.

She was in a vertical glass tube surrounded by some kind of liquid that was too green and thick to be water but then she had no idea what it was. Other than the funnel down her throat were tubes slipped into her arms and legs, each with some clear liquid in it but each was coloured differently.

She had been stripped from her clothing but she ached too much and all these wires restrained her from moving to cover herself. Her hair was floating around her in the gel and every now and then a bubble would float slowly up through the green substance to the top of the jar.

Looking around she saw that the luminous green glow came from a rectangular light above a door in front of her confinement and out of the corner of her eye she could see other tubes filled with the translucent green substance to the sides of her own.

The one to her right seemed to contain a dog-shaped creature with a funnel over it's snout? No it was larger than that and a red and orange colour that was too fiery to be attributed to any other animal except maybe a Moonba. Why is there a Moonba here, Hyne why am I here?

She could feel the tears start to leak from her eyes and the panic and loneliness that she felt when she was going to be taken to the Sorceresses Memorial set in. Blinking her tears away into the liquid she looked at the tube to her left. This one also seemed to contain something, this one a more human shaped form and she was sure she recognised it. It was a tall female with shortly cut brown hair.

Like herself, this girl had tubes inserted into her body that the Moonba didn't. Frowning her eyebrows in concentration Rinoa closed her eyes to rest them from being open in the stinging gel and from straining to look to either side of her. She ached and felt weak and it seemed that until someone came before her all she had to entertain herself was the puzzle of where she had recognised this form from.