Disclaimer: I do not own FF8 in any way and all the characters from the
game are not mine.
AN: I'm going to try to update quicker now that I'm not as busy. Thanks to those who actually took time to review this story, it means a lot to me and it's really what keeps me writing ^_^ Just to let you guys know, this is not as shallow a story as it seems right now and it will be part of a very long saga eventually so please stay tuned!
Chapter 17: Secrets kept from you Rinoa's POV
What was my dad thinking? Is it because it's been three years since Emi's death? Yeah Emi was my sister. She was one year older than me. Emi was also a very strong metasite.
I guess I should fill you in on this story that everyone who was in Balamb three years ago is familiar with. My sister and her friend Zone were one of the few metasites who knew they were metasites at a very young age. That is why they were naturally chosen to be our spies. The most dangerous job that any soldier could have. Emi and Zone were sent to Galbadia Garden when they were both five and trained there their whole lives. Emi changed her last name to Carrelo so that they would not be able to trace her back to my father, Zone didn't need to change his name. They promised me that my sister would return to me in eleven years when she had learnt the Galbadian's secret eleven year training program for metasites which made their metasites superior to ours. Of course, they weren't our only spies but they were our only metasite spies. My mother, Julia Carrelo, was also a spy although not a metasite, she took care of Emi and Zone.
Emi would often give secret briefings back to us about how she was doing. She never seemed like she had any problems especially with mom around. I was confident that my sister and my mom would come back to us. On the day that we had arranged for her to come back, something terrible happened. Nobody knows exactly what happened but we got close enough. Emi and Zone were supposed to rendezvous with us at Dollet along with our other spies. Somehow, for reasons unknown to us, there was a metasite at the scene. We think this metasite is the elite known as Seifer Almasy since he is the only known metasite that would remotely stand a chance against Emi and Zone. The puzzling part is that even Seifer should have lost to two metasites of such a high level. But apparently he didn't. When we got there, all we found were bodies. Lots of bodies. There were no survivors which is why we don't even know what happened. Maybe Seifer just got lucky, or maybe there were more metasites. Nobody knows except for the people who murdered my sister and the rest of them.
Actually, the president was telling this story. Of course my version is much more detailed but he did a good enough job. Obviously everybody already knew this story. I was glad he didn't make a reference to me being in the crowd or anything like that.
I looked over at Squall and noticed a slight spark in his eye almost like that of fear. But he quickly dispatched it and looked at me.
"Was that your sister?" he asked quietly. I nodded, somehow after even after all these years it still hurts me. I could feel hot tears welling up in my eyes. Squall took a napkin and wiped them away.
"Thanks Squall" I said.
"No problem, I'm sorry about what happened." he said.
Then a something hit me! Squall was a metasite in Galbadia at the time!
"Squall, you said you were from Galbadia. I need to know something...Did you know who killed my sister?" I said this very fast because I was so excited.
He hesitated then said to me "I don't know.... I really don't know. They didn't let me in on it and I never asked.... It wasn't a big deal in Galbadia although I know it was over here.... But the guess that you guys have is quite good. Almasy is your best bet."
"D-did you know that Seifer Almasy guy?" I asked him.
"Yeah. I did." he said with almost a grimace. "We used to be friends until he became fiercely competitive...then we hated each other." he let out a little laugh like it was stupid.
"I swear I will one day kill the person or people who killed my sister." I said. It was not the first time that I said that. I told my dad that many times and he said he liked that sort of determination. I don't know why but I expected Squall to say the same thing.
"You're crazy." he said. It hit me like a slap across the face. All this time I've been going on and on to anybody who would listen about how I would kill my mother and my sister's murderer and Squall is the only one who reacted like this.
"You can't win a fight like that. Not against someone who slaughtered an army and two metasites. Just let it go." his advice rang in my ears.
"Squall, I can't believe I'm hearing this from you. I never thought you would be one to 'let go' of things." I said disbelievingly.
"Some things are called reality Rin. Trust me, just let it go." he said it again.
"I will not let it go. You can say what you want but you watch me, one day I will avenge my sister and my mother's death." I was deadly serious.
"Okay, but right now we better get home. Come on, I'll take you on a shortcut." he said.
A shortcut? Well, sure why not...
"Alright, let's go." I told him. Squall and I threaded our way across to the exit saying our goodbyes to people. I told Selphie that we were going to walk home instead of go with Irvine. Turns out I didn't walk at all...
Once we were outside, Squall took my hand and lead me to the back of Balamb Garden. He put a finger to his lips and then I could see in the pale moonlight the familiar tendrils of a metasite. Within seconds, Squall was completely in his metasite armor and the blue markings glowed eerily in the dark.
"Have you ever seen Balamb from the top of Balamb Garden?" he asked.
Oh HELL NO. I had a feeling what he was going to do. HELL NO!
"No and I don't want to!" I said. I was scared to death. I probably didn't mention this...but I have this thing about heights.
Squall didn't even say anything. In a movement too fast for the human eye to catch, he dashed towards me, lifted me up and then using the boosters on his back, jumped. I have to admit, it was a wonderful feeling with the cool night wind blowing through my hair. It didn't freak me out nearly as much as I thought it would. But then he landed and I looked down. Bad idea. Never, NEVER look down.
I almost fainted, we were so high up that the people leaving the Garden looked like small toys and the cars looked like cockroaches. I held on tight to Squall.
"Don't look down. Look over there." he pointed out to sea. And then I saw it.
I never knew Balamb looked like that at night. It was so pretty with lights of every color that illuminated the shore. The water around Balamb looked like it was dyed many different colors by the glow of the town.
"Wow." I said. Oh give me a break, it was all I could think of!
We both sat down on the top of the Garden. I never noticed how big the roof was. It was sloped but it was so huge that we could sit on it like it was flat.
"Hey I got a question for you." Squall said.
"Yeah?" I think I could guess what question it would be. And I really didn't want to answer it.
"How come nobody mentioned your sister to me before?"
There it was. I was wondering when he would ask that.
"I'm sorry Squall. I wanted to tell you before. But it still hurts to talk about what happened to my sister and my mother. They were practically the only women in my life aside from Irene. We stopped talking about it because it was so tragic. Nobody in Balamb mentions it anymore, in fact, tonight was the first time in three years that it was brought up. Maybe my dad just felt that it was time their deaths got honored."
It was the truth.
"The only keepsake of my mother and my sister that I have is the ring that I wear around my neck. I wear it around my neck instead of my finger because that way it shows me that something is not complete. That something is to avenge their deaths. When I kill their murderer I will return the ring to my finger where it will stay." I didn't know why I was telling Squall this. Something inside of me just told me that he should know.
Squall didn't say anything. Because he was still in his metasite armor, it was almost impossible to tell whether he was happy, sad, angry, or anything because his face was hidden underneath the exoskeleton mask. His "face" now looked fierce because of the slanted compound eyes, but they always looked like that I don't know why, but all metasites have that same fierce downward slant in their eyes that makes them look angry all the time.
"Hey Squall, my turn to ask you a question."
"Shoot."
"How come all metasites look angry?" I asked.
I always wanted to know that, maybe he could tell me.
"Oh that? It's because we block the sun."
What the hell was that? I don't get a thing he's saying.
"What?!"
"You see, it's like we always wear a mini hat. There's a ridge above our eyes that shields the sun so the reflection won't screw us over. That's why our eyes always look angry because there's a ridge over them." he said.
Oh, that was it? I would have thought it would be for like intimidation purposes or something.
"Oh I get it. It's getting cold out here." I said. The wind was picking up now that we were so high up and I was still in nothing but that damn short skirt Selphie made me wear. I was literally shivering.
"I can't feel it but if you say so, let's go."
He picked me up again and lightly hopped off the side of the Garden. I shut my eyes tightly and buried my face into his chest plate. It felt oddly warm, maybe metasites had internal heating or something.
It was a vertical drop of a good three stories. My hair was being blown all over the place. When Squall landed I hardly felt a thing. It was as if he just jumped two steps on a staircase, but you could tell the impact was SUPPOSED to be huge by looking at the surroundings. The place he landed had a crack on the ground and all the rocks and leaves were blasted away.
"I don't like landing that way. Makes too much noise." he said.
"How do you normally land then?" I was curious.
"With these big ass boosters on my back. Haha, they soften the landing so that there's not as much of a boom."
I was impressed. In fact Squall could probably teach our class a lot more about metasites than Quistis!
We walked the rest of the way home. Squall took off his armor, gave me his jacket, and then put his armor back on.
"It's pretty cold out here, but I can't feel a thing when I'm in here. You might as well take the jacket." he said. I thought that was pretty sweet coming from a guy who doesn't even know how to dance.
I arrived home at around eleven o' clock and was greeted by my father who had just gotten back from his meeting.
"Dad, I need to talk to you for a moment." I said.
"It's about Emi isn't it?"
How does he know these things?
"Yeah it is. You gave the president the OK for that speech he made today right?"
He nodded.
"Why?"
"Rin, you know it's been three years. I miss them...it's been nagging at me for quite some time now how they don't get the recognition that they deserve. Before you say something, listen to me, I know you don't like it when mom and Emi are brought up again but I felt that it was time." he said.
Fine, but one thing didn't tie in at all with his 'I miss THEM' story.
"You miss THEM don't you? If you missed THEM so much then why the hell did you only get the president to mention Emi and not mom as well?!" I was getting angrier by the moment. I specifically told my dad three years ago that I did not want him to ever bring this up again because it would cause too much pain and suffering.
"Because if I brought mom into the picture then you would get all that attention that you don't want. But by limiting it to only Emi and Zone, then the link to you is much less. I'm sorry honey but I wanted them to be respected tonight and if it hurt you that much then I'm truly sorry."
I didn't know what to say. I knew dad didn't want to hurt me and deep down inside he probably feels worse about mom and Emi than I do since he actually knew mom for a much longer time than I did. I was washed with feelings of guilt and I hugged my dad tightly.
"I'm the one who should be sorry."
AN: More of an informational chapter than anything, although there was a bit of Squinoa in it =) Thanks again to my reviewers, hoping for more reviews as this story gets going again. Please don't stop reading because of my delay!!! Thanks!
AN: I'm going to try to update quicker now that I'm not as busy. Thanks to those who actually took time to review this story, it means a lot to me and it's really what keeps me writing ^_^ Just to let you guys know, this is not as shallow a story as it seems right now and it will be part of a very long saga eventually so please stay tuned!
Chapter 17: Secrets kept from you Rinoa's POV
What was my dad thinking? Is it because it's been three years since Emi's death? Yeah Emi was my sister. She was one year older than me. Emi was also a very strong metasite.
I guess I should fill you in on this story that everyone who was in Balamb three years ago is familiar with. My sister and her friend Zone were one of the few metasites who knew they were metasites at a very young age. That is why they were naturally chosen to be our spies. The most dangerous job that any soldier could have. Emi and Zone were sent to Galbadia Garden when they were both five and trained there their whole lives. Emi changed her last name to Carrelo so that they would not be able to trace her back to my father, Zone didn't need to change his name. They promised me that my sister would return to me in eleven years when she had learnt the Galbadian's secret eleven year training program for metasites which made their metasites superior to ours. Of course, they weren't our only spies but they were our only metasite spies. My mother, Julia Carrelo, was also a spy although not a metasite, she took care of Emi and Zone.
Emi would often give secret briefings back to us about how she was doing. She never seemed like she had any problems especially with mom around. I was confident that my sister and my mom would come back to us. On the day that we had arranged for her to come back, something terrible happened. Nobody knows exactly what happened but we got close enough. Emi and Zone were supposed to rendezvous with us at Dollet along with our other spies. Somehow, for reasons unknown to us, there was a metasite at the scene. We think this metasite is the elite known as Seifer Almasy since he is the only known metasite that would remotely stand a chance against Emi and Zone. The puzzling part is that even Seifer should have lost to two metasites of such a high level. But apparently he didn't. When we got there, all we found were bodies. Lots of bodies. There were no survivors which is why we don't even know what happened. Maybe Seifer just got lucky, or maybe there were more metasites. Nobody knows except for the people who murdered my sister and the rest of them.
Actually, the president was telling this story. Of course my version is much more detailed but he did a good enough job. Obviously everybody already knew this story. I was glad he didn't make a reference to me being in the crowd or anything like that.
I looked over at Squall and noticed a slight spark in his eye almost like that of fear. But he quickly dispatched it and looked at me.
"Was that your sister?" he asked quietly. I nodded, somehow after even after all these years it still hurts me. I could feel hot tears welling up in my eyes. Squall took a napkin and wiped them away.
"Thanks Squall" I said.
"No problem, I'm sorry about what happened." he said.
Then a something hit me! Squall was a metasite in Galbadia at the time!
"Squall, you said you were from Galbadia. I need to know something...Did you know who killed my sister?" I said this very fast because I was so excited.
He hesitated then said to me "I don't know.... I really don't know. They didn't let me in on it and I never asked.... It wasn't a big deal in Galbadia although I know it was over here.... But the guess that you guys have is quite good. Almasy is your best bet."
"D-did you know that Seifer Almasy guy?" I asked him.
"Yeah. I did." he said with almost a grimace. "We used to be friends until he became fiercely competitive...then we hated each other." he let out a little laugh like it was stupid.
"I swear I will one day kill the person or people who killed my sister." I said. It was not the first time that I said that. I told my dad that many times and he said he liked that sort of determination. I don't know why but I expected Squall to say the same thing.
"You're crazy." he said. It hit me like a slap across the face. All this time I've been going on and on to anybody who would listen about how I would kill my mother and my sister's murderer and Squall is the only one who reacted like this.
"You can't win a fight like that. Not against someone who slaughtered an army and two metasites. Just let it go." his advice rang in my ears.
"Squall, I can't believe I'm hearing this from you. I never thought you would be one to 'let go' of things." I said disbelievingly.
"Some things are called reality Rin. Trust me, just let it go." he said it again.
"I will not let it go. You can say what you want but you watch me, one day I will avenge my sister and my mother's death." I was deadly serious.
"Okay, but right now we better get home. Come on, I'll take you on a shortcut." he said.
A shortcut? Well, sure why not...
"Alright, let's go." I told him. Squall and I threaded our way across to the exit saying our goodbyes to people. I told Selphie that we were going to walk home instead of go with Irvine. Turns out I didn't walk at all...
Once we were outside, Squall took my hand and lead me to the back of Balamb Garden. He put a finger to his lips and then I could see in the pale moonlight the familiar tendrils of a metasite. Within seconds, Squall was completely in his metasite armor and the blue markings glowed eerily in the dark.
"Have you ever seen Balamb from the top of Balamb Garden?" he asked.
Oh HELL NO. I had a feeling what he was going to do. HELL NO!
"No and I don't want to!" I said. I was scared to death. I probably didn't mention this...but I have this thing about heights.
Squall didn't even say anything. In a movement too fast for the human eye to catch, he dashed towards me, lifted me up and then using the boosters on his back, jumped. I have to admit, it was a wonderful feeling with the cool night wind blowing through my hair. It didn't freak me out nearly as much as I thought it would. But then he landed and I looked down. Bad idea. Never, NEVER look down.
I almost fainted, we were so high up that the people leaving the Garden looked like small toys and the cars looked like cockroaches. I held on tight to Squall.
"Don't look down. Look over there." he pointed out to sea. And then I saw it.
I never knew Balamb looked like that at night. It was so pretty with lights of every color that illuminated the shore. The water around Balamb looked like it was dyed many different colors by the glow of the town.
"Wow." I said. Oh give me a break, it was all I could think of!
We both sat down on the top of the Garden. I never noticed how big the roof was. It was sloped but it was so huge that we could sit on it like it was flat.
"Hey I got a question for you." Squall said.
"Yeah?" I think I could guess what question it would be. And I really didn't want to answer it.
"How come nobody mentioned your sister to me before?"
There it was. I was wondering when he would ask that.
"I'm sorry Squall. I wanted to tell you before. But it still hurts to talk about what happened to my sister and my mother. They were practically the only women in my life aside from Irene. We stopped talking about it because it was so tragic. Nobody in Balamb mentions it anymore, in fact, tonight was the first time in three years that it was brought up. Maybe my dad just felt that it was time their deaths got honored."
It was the truth.
"The only keepsake of my mother and my sister that I have is the ring that I wear around my neck. I wear it around my neck instead of my finger because that way it shows me that something is not complete. That something is to avenge their deaths. When I kill their murderer I will return the ring to my finger where it will stay." I didn't know why I was telling Squall this. Something inside of me just told me that he should know.
Squall didn't say anything. Because he was still in his metasite armor, it was almost impossible to tell whether he was happy, sad, angry, or anything because his face was hidden underneath the exoskeleton mask. His "face" now looked fierce because of the slanted compound eyes, but they always looked like that I don't know why, but all metasites have that same fierce downward slant in their eyes that makes them look angry all the time.
"Hey Squall, my turn to ask you a question."
"Shoot."
"How come all metasites look angry?" I asked.
I always wanted to know that, maybe he could tell me.
"Oh that? It's because we block the sun."
What the hell was that? I don't get a thing he's saying.
"What?!"
"You see, it's like we always wear a mini hat. There's a ridge above our eyes that shields the sun so the reflection won't screw us over. That's why our eyes always look angry because there's a ridge over them." he said.
Oh, that was it? I would have thought it would be for like intimidation purposes or something.
"Oh I get it. It's getting cold out here." I said. The wind was picking up now that we were so high up and I was still in nothing but that damn short skirt Selphie made me wear. I was literally shivering.
"I can't feel it but if you say so, let's go."
He picked me up again and lightly hopped off the side of the Garden. I shut my eyes tightly and buried my face into his chest plate. It felt oddly warm, maybe metasites had internal heating or something.
It was a vertical drop of a good three stories. My hair was being blown all over the place. When Squall landed I hardly felt a thing. It was as if he just jumped two steps on a staircase, but you could tell the impact was SUPPOSED to be huge by looking at the surroundings. The place he landed had a crack on the ground and all the rocks and leaves were blasted away.
"I don't like landing that way. Makes too much noise." he said.
"How do you normally land then?" I was curious.
"With these big ass boosters on my back. Haha, they soften the landing so that there's not as much of a boom."
I was impressed. In fact Squall could probably teach our class a lot more about metasites than Quistis!
We walked the rest of the way home. Squall took off his armor, gave me his jacket, and then put his armor back on.
"It's pretty cold out here, but I can't feel a thing when I'm in here. You might as well take the jacket." he said. I thought that was pretty sweet coming from a guy who doesn't even know how to dance.
I arrived home at around eleven o' clock and was greeted by my father who had just gotten back from his meeting.
"Dad, I need to talk to you for a moment." I said.
"It's about Emi isn't it?"
How does he know these things?
"Yeah it is. You gave the president the OK for that speech he made today right?"
He nodded.
"Why?"
"Rin, you know it's been three years. I miss them...it's been nagging at me for quite some time now how they don't get the recognition that they deserve. Before you say something, listen to me, I know you don't like it when mom and Emi are brought up again but I felt that it was time." he said.
Fine, but one thing didn't tie in at all with his 'I miss THEM' story.
"You miss THEM don't you? If you missed THEM so much then why the hell did you only get the president to mention Emi and not mom as well?!" I was getting angrier by the moment. I specifically told my dad three years ago that I did not want him to ever bring this up again because it would cause too much pain and suffering.
"Because if I brought mom into the picture then you would get all that attention that you don't want. But by limiting it to only Emi and Zone, then the link to you is much less. I'm sorry honey but I wanted them to be respected tonight and if it hurt you that much then I'm truly sorry."
I didn't know what to say. I knew dad didn't want to hurt me and deep down inside he probably feels worse about mom and Emi than I do since he actually knew mom for a much longer time than I did. I was washed with feelings of guilt and I hugged my dad tightly.
"I'm the one who should be sorry."
AN: More of an informational chapter than anything, although there was a bit of Squinoa in it =) Thanks again to my reviewers, hoping for more reviews as this story gets going again. Please don't stop reading because of my delay!!! Thanks!