I didn't have a nightmare that night… I was just running, chasing through the wind in a world that was not familiar to me. I crossed plains of thunder, lands of fog with large tree roots all about and beings that looked as though they too were clones. I did all this until I fell out of a place called "Lunatic Pandora". I moved across the ground, feeling my resistant legs as I watched the world about me. It was all like a desert wasteland… So I kept running, sensing a storm that seemed to combine all the thunder and fog that I had just passed and adding the pollution of that lower plate I had lived under for a time. Then emerged a girl with large white wings that lightened the landscape in a blue dress with blood stains on the chest.

"Ri…noa…" my voice murmured without me knowing of it. That girl…was that person.

This strange brotherly feeling came over me… Or at least that's what I thought it was. I had been an only child, so I wasn't so sure if that's what it would feel like. But I hated her…so much…but I didn't want her to die for the sake of others, like a brother would want his sister to live for their parents.

I tried to approach her, even if she was so far off in the distance. I took steps, slowly trying to move towards her until she just kept moving away. If someone is above you, you can't fly to them if you're human. You can never reach that which is above you until you gain wings…lose your humanity.

I wasn't human, so I let my wing cut through my flesh and flew up into the sky after, her, grabbing her by her shoulders and looking at her fear me. She tried to get away; she wanted to escape, but all I could bring myself to do was put my hands around her throat. Her black hair started to look longer… Her mouth smiling… All I wanted to do was kill her…kill Tifa for what she'd allowed me to do.

When I heard that silenced gasping sound I loosened my grip and saw the girl in her true form. Rinoa…not Tifa. It was Squall that must have had that brotherly feeling. It was Squall that had wanted to protect her, had failed. It was Squall that was pushed to the edge of anger to the point where he lifted his own sword and stabbed her through the chest.

That blood there on her dress…was from Squall. But who had he killed her for? Names flooded my mind… Seifer, Irvine, Zell, Laguna… None of them? All of them…? So Squall's weakness…was his affection for another person.

"He killed you?" I asked the girl.

"It's my penalty. Soon I'll return to my cage and have my wings clipped. This is the price of caring. Death. It was worth it to me…but if you want to approach that person…" she started before falling silent and falling to the ground.

I only had one wing, so I must have been more human than the one that would sink through the ocean water with her white feathers floating at the top. I wasn't that bad yet, even if I was stained black.

I opened my eyes and saw Squall right above me with his forehead against mine. I stared at him for a moment before I shoved him away. He had distracted me for a moment, but the dead know the best solutions to the problems they could have avoided, so I would do as the one that reminded me of Tifa suggested. Stay far away from death…because it means that everything will end.

I'm not ready to die yet.

"You have a fever," Squall muttered under his breath as he pulled me out of the bed. "It's time for you to take a bath. You smell horrible."

He pulled the single door exiting the room open and pointed towards where the bathtub was. I slowly stood up, rubbing my head as I pulled the boxers off in front of him, deciding he'd seen my endowments enough to have memorized what they look like. Besides, I was used to being naked under the public eye while in a fish tank for people to watch me swim around for hours, trying to figure out what I was. That's what that whole thing with Sephiroth had been about since the beginning of the journey anyway. I was a specimen to be watched by Hojo…and Sephiroth, as well as everyone I knew of from Wedge to Yuffie. I put on the most interesting show with my blood pouring and my tears dripping.

No one could swim as fast as I could.

"I'm going to go wash the sheets and clothes…you better be here when I get back," he muttered as he glanced over my body, sizing me up for competition. He thought I'd attack him, apparently.

He turned to go and shut the door behind him, leaving me alone to turn on the shower and slip underneath the beating water. It would be nice to clean my hair. I glanced to the size to look over what options I had for bathing. I stared for a moment when I saw raspberry scented soap and just shook my head as I sighed and looked away. I hadn't exactly expected to see something like that in such a cold guy's bathroom.

I washed my hair and body in haste, not feeling like sitting around there much longer. I just wanted to get into my clothes again so I could smell Vincent again…that mix of roses and blood. It comforted me in such a strange way…

I finished and sat against the headboard enjoying my cleanliness. I only wished that there had been sheets or something, but Squall had seemed to have ran out. I closed my eyes, just thinking about that girl as I waited for Squall to return. Strange…how I could so easily mistake her for Tifa. I wouldn't ever be able to think of Rinoa without connecting her to Tifa…so I'd have to hate her, just because she looked like someone else. I'm sure…that had I known her I'd have a better reason to hate her.

"Back," I was greeted, feeling like I was a housewife for a brief moment.

"Welcome home, honey," I replied as I rolled over onto my side and closed my eyes. With any luck he'd give me a new pair of boxers to wear. It was getting cold down there, and it hadn't helped that there hadn't been any towels.

"Here, asshole," he muttered as he threw bunny boxers with little pink hearts on them at my face. I raised an eyebrow at him as I reluctantly slipped them on, only to see him sigh. "Yuffie," he had said, as though it explained everything…which it did.

I sat for a moment, just watching him fold up the clothes before I rolled off the bed to give him a chance to put sheets on it. He grumbled something about me being lazy before he slipped the sheets on and the pillow cases. I chuckled under my breath and leaned against a wall, wondering if I should bother trying to speak to him.

"Is Rinoa who you want to protect?" I asked him, already knowing the girl was dead. Maybe I could hit a sore spot…make him angry. It seemed promising on the outside.

"…Who was it that told you that name?"

"I had a dream last night…where I didn't suffer and instead she did… Do you want to protect her from me, Squall?"

"No…it's better the pain is spread out…"

I wanted to ask why he couldn't just say she was dead. I wanted to ask why he didn't just say he killed her, but then I remembered it didn't really matter what he didn't want to say. We were too lost as it was. We had a long way to go before everything was better, but even so…our pains were different, so we'd never work together on them. This is why people like us would always be alone. It almost hurt…but I'd been alone since birth…

Notes: Done earlier than usual XD That's right, it's only 1 AM! Whee X3 (I update so late that I wonder if it counts as an update for the 31st or 30th? I guess it doesn't matter since I keep about the same schedule anyway ^^) I hope you guys enjoy it, it was sort of hard to not stab Rinoa with a spork D What? . I didn't make *all* the girls dead, just the ones that should be dead ^^ Well…Kairi should be dead Diiiie *stabs* Oh yeah, Yuffie is god XD I should make her visit…wait, no, that'd be completely off whatever slight plot is happening…meh *stops rambling*

Hmm, I'm really tired and want some ice cream (school clothes shopping=exhaustion) so I think I'm going to pass replying to everyone's comments today… Though, I am updating, and I think you can wait a day =P Maybe…hmm o.o and yes, spread the Cloud/Squall-Leon…wonder who will be seme? My bet's on Squall at the moment x.x; Who knows…Cloud could go happily domineering though… ^___^