DISCLAIMER: DON'T OWN FF8, BUT WOULD LIKE TO

Chapter I

"When the feather breaks, to the world she shall take"

The ocean waves break against the fearsome storm. The dark sky begins to howl against the pressures of the storm. A swirling black gray it is. The waves begin to rage against the sides of the barrier wall. Lightning strikes, but only a soft rumble in the distance. The wind begins to pick up as it swirls around the woman in black. She stands fearsome against the raging storm approaching. Just standing there and not moving an inch. She watches as the water raises and lowers with the wind. Her long black hair begins to blow around her face. She doesn't bother to move it; just watches through it as a speckle of rain drops onto her shoulder. It's warm. Thunder begins to make its roar as the blackness begins to approach closer. She stares at it with nervousness. It begins to come closer and closer until it has covered all the sky. Darker and Darker the blackness grows. It comes for her. It comes for the one to take it. The woman looks up into the sky as the blackness swirls above her. She opens her arms as if welcoming it.

"Take me! I dare you!" She screams into the swirling mass of darkness.

"The feather has broken," It whispers back to her, "and now my daughter, you shall return to me."

"Do it!" She yells as tears stream down her cheek, "I shall stand strong against you, and I will continue on! You don't scare me! I know that I have nothing else but this, but I will not run, but fight!"

The blackness lowers itself in a pillar of never-ending darkness and swallows the woman.

Rinoa stirs in the bed in the dormitory and begins to open her eyes to the incoming sun. Her skin becomes a yellow tinge as the sun slowly rises to the east. Her eyes squint to the newly brought light and she turns herself over. She sees Squall's bare back and neck in front of her face. He still sleeps as she sees him move slightly as he breaths.

He's still tired from last night. Rinoa whispers in her mind. That was a long night last night. I wonder what happened, but it's best not to think about it. Squall always hates talking about his work.

Rinoa lays in bed playing with her fingers for a few minutes. She grips around her neck and feels nothing. She begins to panic slightly, but then realizes she took off her necklace last night. She reaches over to the nightstand and finds the two rings strung onto the silver chain. She sits up and slipped it around her neck and decided it was a good time to get up out of bed. She looks over to Squall as he also begins to stir, but he just turns over and continues to sleep.

Rare occurrence when I get up before Squall. It must have been really bad last night. She says to herself again.

She gets out of bed fully and stretches her arms slightly. She was dressed in a pair of Squall's boxers and a white sleeveless shirt that had the garden symbol on it. She took the two off and began to look through the closet for her favorite blue dress outfit.

"Putting on a show?" A voice behind her called.

Rinoa jumped in surprise and turned around quickly, covering up herself with her arms.

"Squall! You're supposed to be asleep!" She scolded him.

"Well, you woke me up when you got out of bed." He replied.

"You have a really sick mind you know!" She loosened up and continued to look through the closet, "You slept late today."

"I know, rough night." He sat up in bed, exposing his bare chest with his necklace hanging down.

"Why'd you work so late last night? I heard there was some sort of emergency." Rinoa turned around with her outfit in hand.

Squall looked down at the bed, "Some nights are like that, but it was nothing."

"Come on. I know you. You never work past midnight." Rinoa began to pry and knew that he was about to go off soon, but he didn't.

"It was nothing, we were just declining in altitude a little bit. I just wanted to make sure that there were no malfunctions. So can we please drop it." He pulled off the covers and got out of bed as well. He went behind Rinoa and hugged himself around her waist.

"Squall! Quit it! If we keep fooling around like this, we're never going to get to work!" She turned around to him and looked into his blue eyes. Those eyes were so blue. Like vast oceans spanning over a thousand years. They sometimes were calm and breezy, but sometimes they become raging hurricanes.

"Come on! I deserve a little break after last night. Besides, we never got to do what we planned to do last night." He began to smile to her before he kissed her slightly.

"I'm sorry, but I have to get ready. Today we get that new shipment of books and they have to be distributed to all SeeD members as ten this morning." She smiled a little too. she then kissed him and pulled herself from his grip.

"You always do this to me, you know. You figured I'd be the one talking about being punctual. But no, you're always leaving me with some excuse." He complained as he stepped back a little bit from her.

"Sorry, but I just...I....haven't been feeling right. I'm just not really feeling right to do it." She turned her back onto him feeling a little awkward.

"What do you mean?" He asked as he began to wonder about her.

"I've just...you know...feel like something is wrong with me lately. I don't know what it is, but maybe I'm just a little bored. Not with you I mean! I mean with the garden and all. Maybe after the party tonight, I'll feel a little better." She began to dress into her outfit and continue to hurry.

"I see. I used to feel the same way, but I think after you came into the picture, I became a lot happier." He smiled as she turned back to him.

"I love you, Squall," he kissed with her hand behind his soft brown hair, "and I hope you're right."

Rinoa finished getting dress and headed out the door before Squall could say a word.

"I love you, too."