Squall awoke with a start. "Rinoa!" were the first words to escape his lips, but unfortunately no one was there to hear them. He brought his hand to his head as he had done so many times before, absently touching his scar and thinking at the same time. His vision was blurry, but slowly returning. He could definitely tell that he was covered in a thin green blanket, and that he sat on a sort of leather mattress. Touching his neck, he found that his Griever necklace was gone. Searching around him frantically, his hand clasped around a shiny silver object. He quickly grabbed it and pulled it over his neck. As he did this, he noticed a doorway that was encircled by light. As his vision returned, he noticed that he was in a small, dark room, and that there was only one door. Slowly getting to his feet, and ignoring the sharp chest pains, he staggered towards the door, opening it inwards. The resulting brilliance was almost too much for him to handle.

            He was at the outer edge of a courtyard, which was filled with not only a huge amount of busy people, but also the brightest light that Squall had ever seen. He nearly swooned, but caught himself on the doorframe. Noticing this, a girl ran over to him. She had long, red hair, and was dressed in a strange white shirt that barely went below her waist. Squall followed her legs, encased in a strange red-brown hose, down to her black and white boots. She had enchanting purple eyes, and a green diamond set into the neck of her shirt. She caught Squall by the arms before he could fall again, and led him back into the house that he had awakened in.

            Squall found himself waking again. This time, the girl was sitting over him, mixing something in a bowl. Seeing him stir, she spoke softly. "There there, don't hurt yourself. You were in pretty bad shape when we found you. You're lucky that you survived… whatever it was that you survived…"

            "Where… am I?" he managed to murmur.

            "You're in Hollow Bastion. It's named that because of the waterways that run underneath the castle…" She stopped mixing. "But you probably don't care that much about it, do you?"

            Squall gave an affirmative grunt. His head was still reeling from the light.

            "Here, drink this." The girl tipped the bowl forward, and Squall felt a cooling mixture flow down his throat. He could still taste bits of herbs, however. Whatever it was, it managed to cool his throat enough for him to say: "Water!"

            "Oh, of course." She uncorked a canteen and gave it to him. He quickly gulped down as much as he could handle. He lay back down for a moment, trying to catch his breath.

            "Who… are you?"

            "My name is Elhyam Van Houten, though you can call me Elly. Everyone else does."

            "I'm… Squall… Why does my head hurt so much? And why is it so damn bright?"

            "Well, Squall, Dr. Uzuki thinks it's because you've been exposed to a large amount of darkness, or something…"

            At that moment a thin, powerfully built man with black pants and a white and blue shirt entered the room. "C'mon, Elly. It's late."

            "But, he needs someone…" The man grabbed Elly by the arm and pulled her to her feet, but strangely without any sort of force.

            "Citan will be in to see him."

            "Alright…" Her long hair swished around her while the man's long black ponytail swung from side to side as they left. The door closed, and Squall thought himself to be alone again, until a wise-looking man with a green shirt and white pants entered the room.

            "Why hello, you must be Squall."

            "Who are you?"

            "My name is Dr. Citan Uzuki. I'm the village doctor."

            "What's wrong with me?"

            "You mean your sensitivity to light?"

            "Yeah."

            "Well, the only beings I've studied that are extremely sensitive to light are those with darkness in their essence. I trust you know of vampires and other such creatures?"

            "Yeah."

            "Well, given that you are a human and don't seem to have any demonic heritage, coupled with the fact that you say this came about recently, would lead me to believe that sometime recently a large amount of dark energy entered your body very quickly."

            "Yeah…" Squall thought aloud. "That must have been it."

            "Do you think you know where this darkness came from?"

            "In order to use magic, I have to absorb it from an outside force, most frequently a monster that naturally possesses the ability."

            "Fascinating."

            "I remember… trying to Draw from a huge black creature… I must have absorbed darkness instead."

            "These black creatures… Where did they come from?"

            "We don't know… They just appeared one day and started killing people."

            "Taking their hearts?"

            "That would be one way of describing it."

            "I believe then we have both been caught in the same sort of situation." Citan stroked his chin.

            "What do you mean?"

            "Our world, where Fei, Elly, and myself come from, was destroyed recently by a strange army of shadow creatures. When the end came we were sucked into a giant black vortex. However, instead of dying, we were all transported instead to this world, where we have been ever since."

            "Yeah. Pretty much the same happened to us."

            "Since then we've had all sorts of strange visitors. It seems that this world is something of a crossing point; and we've also heard of other 'refugee worlds.'"

            "What kind of other visitors?" Squall was very intent to know if any of his fellow SeeD's had made it.

            "Well, there was this young girl a few days ago… she had long black hair and was very pretty…"

            Squall sat up. "Was she wearing a long blue coat? With angel wings on the back?"

            "No, I'm afraid not. She was dressed in a yellow jumpsuit sort of thing, with a white shirt. A very large man in armor was accompanying her."

            "Damn." He lay back down again, dejected. Where are you, Rin?