Disclaimer: THIS DISCLAIMER WILL LAST FOR THE WHOLE ENTIRE STORY OK? So um yeah…squaresoft doesn't belong to me…don't sure me. I don't own anything from final fantasy 8.

How can you see into my eyes, like open doors
leading you down into my core
where I've become so numb
without a soul
my spirit sleeping somewhere cold
until you find it there and lead it back home

Evanesence , Bring Me To Life

Rinoa P.O.V

She was staring at me. Analyzing me. Her green eyes piercing into me as sharply as her blade, strapped to her waist.

Her blonde hair waved slightly despite the lack of wind. Her features were soft, yet she looked so strong and brutal. Her pointed ears made me think of an elf. In fact I began to Believe that's what she was. An elf…?

" Rinoa…aren't you?"

Should I answer? I was so confused. A wolf had stood there moments before, and now stood her. Should I trust her? The words escaped my mouth before I could think of what not to say.

" Yes"

I must have sounded nervous. Because her eyes softened and her tone was soothing, like a mother tending her child.

" Don't be afraid, I'm here to help…I've been watching you and I'm surprised. I would have expected you to give up and die. Most people do…but you, you kept going. Why, why do persist?"

"Because I have so much ahead of me, so much I need to resolve, dying here would be running"

She laughed slightly then, in a friendly way. I knew why. I was running anyway. It didn't matter if I died here or anywhere. I am running. Running from my fears. Running from my friends…

So I asked the simplest of questions. " Who are you?"

" My name…I have no name but who can call me what you want. I am a descendant of an elf. I have lived in these mountains for all my life. Watching over the people of Crescent Winds. Watching those who journey here die"

No name. How awful to not know what to call yourself. To have no comfort in who you are. I feel that having a name means you say to yourself. 'I am what I am' and know it. Without a name…you're nothing.

" How do you want to help me?"

" I'm a…what do you call it…a GF…yes that is it. I'm a GF. I can aid you whenever you call me. But for now I will let you follow me back to your friends"

She held out her hand and lifted me back to my feet. As she touched my hand, the wound on my side shrank and disappeared, and leaving no trail to show it had ever existed.

I looked at her for a moment and then smiled.

" Thankyou"

So I followed her through the snow path, forgotten trails that were hardly visible and over the rocky terrain in which resided in the mountains. With her by my side, I was no longer cold and desperate to live. I knew I was going to live.

We stopped just before a rock wall in which we had to climb. I wondered why we had stopped. I guessed that just after this wall was the spot we left the chocobo's.

" I will be with you all the time. If you need me, call on me. Just remember that ok? Do not tell anyone about me. It is important that I am your secret"

" Ok, but will you always be here?"

" Always"

And just like that, she disappeared. Her form matched with the snow and drifted along the wind. Such a sudden departure.

I climbed the wall, and sure enough, there they were. Seifer, Lance, Meryl and Squall. I was so happy just to see them again I cried out to them and ran at full speed down the snow slope. Squall ran to me and met me half way. We threw ourselves at each other and I held onto him so tightly I thought I would burst.

He let go and held my face with both hands.

" Are you ok?"

I smiled at him and leaned in closer, hugging him again.

" I'm fine…really"

He seemed happy enough with my response and dragged me over to the others. Meryl hugged me too and started jumping up and down saying how much she was worried over me.

It turned out that they had searched for me and found nothing. They returned here to hope that I would come here too.

How had she known?

The chocobo's weren't here and I thought that maybe they had run off. I was sure the cold wouldn't have affected them. Chocobo's don't get cold.

I was wrong. They had been slaughtered. Squall showed me an area just west of where the chocobo's had originally been. Both of our chocobo's had been ripped apart and their insides and thrown all over the place, making the snow seem like a red velvet carpet.

It was sick to look at and disturbing. Not only the fact that were had to walk on foot from here, but the thought of what had killed them.

That's when it clicked. That Grat looking…thing. Whatever it was, it must have come through the mountains in the same path we did and found the chocobo's.

" That thing must have been following us, tracking us by scent or something maybe"

Squall nodded. It all seemed so weird. And honestly I felt scared.

Meryl ran up to us and dragged us away from the scene.

" Well is our little fun trip gonna start or what? It's off to Bryne Wasteland!"

She said as if she was off to the place of her dreams or something. Scary. Did she even know what a wasteland was? Had anyone told her about where we were going.

Lance and Seifer seemed like the moody couple. Hardly ever even saying anything and mumbling when they did. It was like the old Squall again…but doubled!

Although he wasn't much help, Lance did know the direction of the Bryne wasteland. So I guess if I wanted to have a conversation with him, I just needed to ask for directions.

How bad is that huh?

We started off by walking away from the mountains in a direction closest to Deling. I had to admit that the amount of walking almost made me faint. But we eventually stopped at night and slept. I slept so peacefully with a non-smoke fire beside me and the memories of Crescent Winds; I had nothing to fear.

Squall woke me up a little while after everyone else. He said I he wanted me to get more sleep while they packed up. I was grateful and decided to be an angel for the rest of the day and not complain at all.

I also knew I had to think of a name for my new companion. I wouldn't let her go on without a name. So I would think of one to best suit her.

The Bryne wasteland was at least three days away. That was lot of walking. I had my good moments though. Meryl was always eager to hear about our story to defeat Ultemecia. She always wondered why the villans get to die so much and the good guys get through it with not so much as a scratch. I wondered it myself.

I spent the second night helping watching Meryl do her tapestry. She brang with her in hopes to finish it before she got home. I loved to watch her. She was so quick and the stitches always seemed to fall into place perfectly.

Things were going slow and I knew it. It would be a while before we actually got to the Bryne wasteland but I really tried to keep morale up I the group, although I knew that it was normally Selphie's job to do that. We always had particular jobs in the group back then. Even if we didn't know. It was my job to nag, Zell to complain, Quistis was to always stress at Squall, Irvine was to make himself look good in the group and give the guys 'tips', Selphie cheered everyone up with her bubbly atmosphere and Squall, well Squall had to keep up with us.

I noticed that over the two years since Ultemecia's defeat our jobs had changed. Mine had changed to comforting people and killing monsters with low magic defense. Irvine stayed the same, so did Selphie. Zell was more quiet but more opinionated. Quistis was always keeping us standing on two legs and helping Squall as a leader. Squall was a big leader. He was more cheerful and spoke more. He was the way I imagined teenagers to be like. So young but so grown up.

I hadn't imagined things to turn out this way at all. But I cant change these type of things, sorceress or not.

Authors P.O.V:

Quistis had kept a close eye on Dean. She was worried that he was taking matters into his own hands too much. He was trying to find something out about these mutations. If they Council was behind it, then maybe there was some way she could use her authority to get further inside. But I they had kept this from all the Gardens, then what chance would she have?

She was alone near the small Council car. Her team was going to join up with her soon. The uniform was making her itchy and she desperately hoped they would hurry up. How long was she supposed to wait here while they took tests on water? She had complained about the stupidity of taking the tests but decided against it after a very large argument.

She had found out from Dean that to be able to put the stone into the Collector, the person wielding the stone had to posses some sort of great power. Magical power. Preferably a sorceress. Quistis knew this posed as a problem, because Rinoa was the only sorceress and she was no where to be found.

The stone needed to harness the person's power and use it to send out the negative wave to kill off the mutations. This meant if Rinoa used the stone her power would be taken from her temporarily, making her vulnerable. If Donas knew this, she would have some sort of a fail-safe plan.

Quistis needed enough information on Rinoa's whereabouts from Selphie and Irvine, which were looking at some files back at the Station. The Council told everyone that they were searching for Rinoa and Squall so they had to have 'some' information so far.

Her only hope lied in the amount of time they had. So far no one knew when this wave would be sent out upon the dragons. If the dragons turned onto the Gardens, no one would survive.

Quistis rubbed her forehead. She was getting a headache from too much thinking.

Please, let me live through this.

Her group came back. Their test tubes were full of water and the equipment was messily hanging from the cases. As they packed everything into the car, Quistis jumped into the passenger seat.

" Where to now?"

The team leader, in the back seat answered with his gruff and obviously tired voice.

" Back tot he station. Where else. We're gonna grab some gear and head up to the Bryne Wasteland. We gotta stop at the Station first"

This new information was strange to her, but Quistis kept her mouth shut. She knew better than to ask too many questions.

Authors Note: Not as long as the other chapters, but I suppose its good enough. I'm starting to like the way it's going now!

Thankyou sooooo much to lionhearted. Thanks for your suggestion! I really appreciate all suggestions and opinions. So thankyou soooooooooooo much!