Disclaimer: Final Fantasy isn't mine! NO NO NO NO!
Authors note: Enjoy and please review!
Speech "" Thought ' ' Dream ******
Chapter 1: Another day
Dariel stepped out of the shower and stroked his hands through his soaking hair. Walking towards the basin he stopped and placed his hands on the rim and stared into the mirror at the man looking back at him. He was six feet tall with short dark hair that spiked up at his fringe, dark blue eyes showed years of experience and heartache. Dark bags underlined them from yet another night of interrupted sleep.
He pushed himself up and away from the basin and entered his room stopping to pick up a pair of trousers from the littered floor as he approached the bed. Doing up his baggy black trousers he slumped down on the edge of the bed to tie up his dark boots. In the corner of the room stood a pine coloured wardrobe, opening the doors he reached inside and pulled from within a thin black long sleeved shirt, pulling it on he slowly did up the buttons leaving the top and bottom two undone.
At the base of the bed sat a similar pine coloured chest of drawers. Getting down on his hands and knees he gently opened the bottom drawer. Inside sat a long package that he undid with nimble fingers and gently pulled out the contents, his mother's katana. 'What does it all mean?' He stroked his fingers over the indentation of a dragon on the sheath and placed it back into the drawer, checking his watch he realised he had a class to get to.
The class was dull and drawn out, having Instructor Trepe teach you for the past hour about the importance of magic and how guardian forces were a major asset in the struggle against Ultimecia was not his idea of fun. The only downfall was that continuous usage of the GF would cause loss of memory, advised only to be used in desperate circumstances. 'That's all well and all but they don't have one lodged inside their head.' Dariel rubbed at his forehead as he felt another headache coming on. He had been getting them more and more as of late, whenever he dreamt of his mother's demise. The nightmare bothered him; it was accurate all except one major detail. He had done more to help his mother. He had stood side by side with her, being unarmed he had been easily knocked back and only regained his footing when his mother was down. He closed his eyes and remembered what happened next.
* * * * * * *
The sky erupted overhead as another streak of lightning lit up the night sky; he looked around for his mother and saw a figure sprawled on the floor struggling as her assailant stood over her. The man lent on his sword and smiled as it dug further and further through her stomach, the look of pain on her features was priceless to him. He laughed out loud and continued to apply pressure, gently twisting the handle making her scream louder.
Dariel searched frantically in the mud for the discarded sword, finally his hand made contact with something cold and hard. He gripped the handle and whipped the sword in a downwards arc causing the clinging mud to splatter to the floor. He ran to his mother and thrust the sword straight out at his opponents lower back and was rewarded with crimson flowing down the length of the blade, warm to the touch. It was his first kill; he wiped the blood off on his trousers frantically and gathered up his mother. In the distance he thought he could hear his name being called. "Dariel?" he shook the thought out of his mind and looked at his mother. "Dariel?" he looked around "Dariel, wake up!"
* * * * * * *
Dariel opened his eyes and sat up banging his arm on the desk in front of him "Ah shit!" a group of girls in the back row found this hilarious and started giggling. Instructor Trepe stood next to his desk arms folded, a look of concern on her face. "Now girls please, Mr Serall?" he looked up at her and raised an eyebrow "Are you okay?" he thought about this, did she mean because he smacked his arm or because he was having a bad dream. He nodded. "Good, then less of the cursing in my class." "Sorry." this caused the girls to start giggling again. 'Whatever.' "May I have a word with you outside please?" he lent foreward and tapped the monitor's screen causing it to shut down. Every classroom came with these built into the students table, a lot less time wasted than the regular pen to paper. He pushed himself up and away from the table and made his way to the door where she waited propping it open for him.
She pulled the door to as he passed. "Dariel are you okay?" he looked around the hallway 'I already said I am.' He looked at her "I'm fine." She tipped her head to the side as if analysing him "Really?" 'I don't need this.' He shrugged "I haven't been sleeping too well." She walked towards him, each footstep echoing off the marble tiling as she did and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Anything you want to talk about?" she seemed generally concerned. 'Not with you.' He looked at the ground "Not been having bad dreams have you?" Dariel looked up at her in shock 'How did she . . .' "Why would you say that?" she smiled "You didn't look like you were having the time of your life back there in class." Dariel looked around at nothing in particular just so she couldn't see his face. "What do you mean?" 'Shit, hope I didn't call out.' She tried to peer around him to see his face "You just kept twitching and mumbling. You sure you're okay?" he nodded again relieved to have not called out. "Go to the infirmary and see Dr. Kadowaki and get something to help you sleep." 'Great like that's going to help.' She smiled suddenly "You remind me off someone I know." He turned around and headed for the elevator not wanting to get too friendly. She shouted after him "He always used to keep to himself as well!" 'I don't care.' Dariel stepped inside the lift and pressed the button for the first floor. The elevator lowered from view and Quistis laughed to herself 'Exactly the same.'
Dariel set foot off the small elevator and looked around at the area that made up Balamb gardens first floor. Straight ahead and down the few steps stood the garden's information terminal, using this you could get a basic floor plan of the whole garden. A few first year students gathered around it each of them as puzzled as the next, Dariel walked down the steps, the sound of his boots on the marble tiling clattered loudly around the vast first floor. The gentle sound of swaying water in the surrounding pond was peaceful to his ears, it soothed the gnawing pain at the back of his brain. Which made him even more conscious about the fact that he had to see Dr. Kadowaki. At the base of the steps he looked to his right and saw the off-shoot that led to the infirmary, surrounding the path sprouted many small trees and brush.
The doors parted with a hiss as he removed his hand from the wall mounted controls. He took a step inside the newly furbished room, it had taken some damage when Galbadia garden had invaded. So he had been told anyway. His steps were muted by the plush dark red carpeting, he ran a hand over the smooth wooden counter and pushed the wheel mounted chair under it. 'Where is she?' he called out "Doctor?" from one of the back rooms behind a divider he heard movement. "Coming." He moved back towards the counter and leaned against it. From behind the divider Dr. Kadowaki appeared, she took one look at him and smiled. "I knew you would come." 'What is she talking about?' Dariel turned his back on her and started tinkering with a microscope. "Quistis called ahead to inform me that you were coming." Dariel turned and raised an eye brow "Why?" Dr. Kadowaki placed her hands in her bright white lab coat. "She was concerned about you, now if you would like to take a seat?" she indicated to the empty bed and Dariel took a seat.
"Now the left one?" Dariel closed his right eye and re-opened the left while Dr. Kadowaki shone the thin beam of light from the petite silver pen light into it. She clicked the light off and placed the pen light back into her pocket. "Hmmm." she walked over to the counter and started rummaging through the drawers and pulled from within a thick leather bound book. The book had seen better times, its frayed pages and cracked spine stained yellow with age. She quickly flipped through the pages and stopped and turned her back to Dariel. Dariel sat staring at her with interest until the silence was broken. "Do you suffer from any thing else other than these headaches you seem to have?" Dariel shifted uncomfortably on the bed "I have had a little problem with sleep lately . . ." she cut in ". . . Lack of concentration and dizziness?" He looked up at her "How did you?" she pushed the aging book into his hands. He held it gently almost afraid it would crumble in them. He read to himself from the passage that she pointed at.
Everything that he had wrong with him had been documented in this book, including an colour photo of a single puffy, blood shot eye. "Your eyes have not yet become blood shot but the puffiness is obvious, easily passed off as lack of sleep." He closed the fragile book and handed it back to her. "So there is someone else who has this, where can I find this person?" Dariel got up and walked towards her placing a hand on her shoulder. She gently shrugged it off and walked to the window and gazed out at the beautiful sky, the few clouds that hung there could not hide the brightness of the sun. "There was someone else." He looked at her intently "Was?"
"The patient in question died a few years back when this was documented, the only one ever to be diagnosed with it." Dariel lent against the wall, his mind turning as it took in all this new knowledge at once. "What happened?" he said hesitantly. "As time went by, nothing could be done for him, eventually the brain stops receiving signals and shuts down causing the patient to eventually die." This was to much for Dariel to take, he made his way to the door and stopped as they hissed open. "Can anything be done?" She lowered her head and slowly shook it "I'm sorry, we'll find a . . ." The doors shut behind Dariel as he left cutting off her sentence.
Dr. Kadowaki walked to the divider and pulled it back "I assume you heard all that?" her question was aimed at the young dark haired man sat down, he smoothed back his fringe revealing a thin scar diagonally across his nose. He nodded. "So nothing can be done?" She shook her head and reached into the medical cabinet and retrieving a small cylinder she handed it to the man. "Here Squall give these to Rinoa this should help her morning sickness." Squall nodded his thanks "Maybe I should have a word with our young friend?" She nodded "Wouldn't hurt to try and from what I hear he is a lot like you used to be." She suppressed a laugh at the look on Squall's face. As he got up to leave he stopped to face her "I'll have a word with our friend, I don't think any of us would know what it's like to be a dead man walking."
Authors note: Enjoy and please review!
Speech "" Thought ' ' Dream ******
Chapter 1: Another day
Dariel stepped out of the shower and stroked his hands through his soaking hair. Walking towards the basin he stopped and placed his hands on the rim and stared into the mirror at the man looking back at him. He was six feet tall with short dark hair that spiked up at his fringe, dark blue eyes showed years of experience and heartache. Dark bags underlined them from yet another night of interrupted sleep.
He pushed himself up and away from the basin and entered his room stopping to pick up a pair of trousers from the littered floor as he approached the bed. Doing up his baggy black trousers he slumped down on the edge of the bed to tie up his dark boots. In the corner of the room stood a pine coloured wardrobe, opening the doors he reached inside and pulled from within a thin black long sleeved shirt, pulling it on he slowly did up the buttons leaving the top and bottom two undone.
At the base of the bed sat a similar pine coloured chest of drawers. Getting down on his hands and knees he gently opened the bottom drawer. Inside sat a long package that he undid with nimble fingers and gently pulled out the contents, his mother's katana. 'What does it all mean?' He stroked his fingers over the indentation of a dragon on the sheath and placed it back into the drawer, checking his watch he realised he had a class to get to.
The class was dull and drawn out, having Instructor Trepe teach you for the past hour about the importance of magic and how guardian forces were a major asset in the struggle against Ultimecia was not his idea of fun. The only downfall was that continuous usage of the GF would cause loss of memory, advised only to be used in desperate circumstances. 'That's all well and all but they don't have one lodged inside their head.' Dariel rubbed at his forehead as he felt another headache coming on. He had been getting them more and more as of late, whenever he dreamt of his mother's demise. The nightmare bothered him; it was accurate all except one major detail. He had done more to help his mother. He had stood side by side with her, being unarmed he had been easily knocked back and only regained his footing when his mother was down. He closed his eyes and remembered what happened next.
* * * * * * *
The sky erupted overhead as another streak of lightning lit up the night sky; he looked around for his mother and saw a figure sprawled on the floor struggling as her assailant stood over her. The man lent on his sword and smiled as it dug further and further through her stomach, the look of pain on her features was priceless to him. He laughed out loud and continued to apply pressure, gently twisting the handle making her scream louder.
Dariel searched frantically in the mud for the discarded sword, finally his hand made contact with something cold and hard. He gripped the handle and whipped the sword in a downwards arc causing the clinging mud to splatter to the floor. He ran to his mother and thrust the sword straight out at his opponents lower back and was rewarded with crimson flowing down the length of the blade, warm to the touch. It was his first kill; he wiped the blood off on his trousers frantically and gathered up his mother. In the distance he thought he could hear his name being called. "Dariel?" he shook the thought out of his mind and looked at his mother. "Dariel?" he looked around "Dariel, wake up!"
* * * * * * *
Dariel opened his eyes and sat up banging his arm on the desk in front of him "Ah shit!" a group of girls in the back row found this hilarious and started giggling. Instructor Trepe stood next to his desk arms folded, a look of concern on her face. "Now girls please, Mr Serall?" he looked up at her and raised an eyebrow "Are you okay?" he thought about this, did she mean because he smacked his arm or because he was having a bad dream. He nodded. "Good, then less of the cursing in my class." "Sorry." this caused the girls to start giggling again. 'Whatever.' "May I have a word with you outside please?" he lent foreward and tapped the monitor's screen causing it to shut down. Every classroom came with these built into the students table, a lot less time wasted than the regular pen to paper. He pushed himself up and away from the table and made his way to the door where she waited propping it open for him.
She pulled the door to as he passed. "Dariel are you okay?" he looked around the hallway 'I already said I am.' He looked at her "I'm fine." She tipped her head to the side as if analysing him "Really?" 'I don't need this.' He shrugged "I haven't been sleeping too well." She walked towards him, each footstep echoing off the marble tiling as she did and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Anything you want to talk about?" she seemed generally concerned. 'Not with you.' He looked at the ground "Not been having bad dreams have you?" Dariel looked up at her in shock 'How did she . . .' "Why would you say that?" she smiled "You didn't look like you were having the time of your life back there in class." Dariel looked around at nothing in particular just so she couldn't see his face. "What do you mean?" 'Shit, hope I didn't call out.' She tried to peer around him to see his face "You just kept twitching and mumbling. You sure you're okay?" he nodded again relieved to have not called out. "Go to the infirmary and see Dr. Kadowaki and get something to help you sleep." 'Great like that's going to help.' She smiled suddenly "You remind me off someone I know." He turned around and headed for the elevator not wanting to get too friendly. She shouted after him "He always used to keep to himself as well!" 'I don't care.' Dariel stepped inside the lift and pressed the button for the first floor. The elevator lowered from view and Quistis laughed to herself 'Exactly the same.'
Dariel set foot off the small elevator and looked around at the area that made up Balamb gardens first floor. Straight ahead and down the few steps stood the garden's information terminal, using this you could get a basic floor plan of the whole garden. A few first year students gathered around it each of them as puzzled as the next, Dariel walked down the steps, the sound of his boots on the marble tiling clattered loudly around the vast first floor. The gentle sound of swaying water in the surrounding pond was peaceful to his ears, it soothed the gnawing pain at the back of his brain. Which made him even more conscious about the fact that he had to see Dr. Kadowaki. At the base of the steps he looked to his right and saw the off-shoot that led to the infirmary, surrounding the path sprouted many small trees and brush.
The doors parted with a hiss as he removed his hand from the wall mounted controls. He took a step inside the newly furbished room, it had taken some damage when Galbadia garden had invaded. So he had been told anyway. His steps were muted by the plush dark red carpeting, he ran a hand over the smooth wooden counter and pushed the wheel mounted chair under it. 'Where is she?' he called out "Doctor?" from one of the back rooms behind a divider he heard movement. "Coming." He moved back towards the counter and leaned against it. From behind the divider Dr. Kadowaki appeared, she took one look at him and smiled. "I knew you would come." 'What is she talking about?' Dariel turned his back on her and started tinkering with a microscope. "Quistis called ahead to inform me that you were coming." Dariel turned and raised an eye brow "Why?" Dr. Kadowaki placed her hands in her bright white lab coat. "She was concerned about you, now if you would like to take a seat?" she indicated to the empty bed and Dariel took a seat.
"Now the left one?" Dariel closed his right eye and re-opened the left while Dr. Kadowaki shone the thin beam of light from the petite silver pen light into it. She clicked the light off and placed the pen light back into her pocket. "Hmmm." she walked over to the counter and started rummaging through the drawers and pulled from within a thick leather bound book. The book had seen better times, its frayed pages and cracked spine stained yellow with age. She quickly flipped through the pages and stopped and turned her back to Dariel. Dariel sat staring at her with interest until the silence was broken. "Do you suffer from any thing else other than these headaches you seem to have?" Dariel shifted uncomfortably on the bed "I have had a little problem with sleep lately . . ." she cut in ". . . Lack of concentration and dizziness?" He looked up at her "How did you?" she pushed the aging book into his hands. He held it gently almost afraid it would crumble in them. He read to himself from the passage that she pointed at.
Everything that he had wrong with him had been documented in this book, including an colour photo of a single puffy, blood shot eye. "Your eyes have not yet become blood shot but the puffiness is obvious, easily passed off as lack of sleep." He closed the fragile book and handed it back to her. "So there is someone else who has this, where can I find this person?" Dariel got up and walked towards her placing a hand on her shoulder. She gently shrugged it off and walked to the window and gazed out at the beautiful sky, the few clouds that hung there could not hide the brightness of the sun. "There was someone else." He looked at her intently "Was?"
"The patient in question died a few years back when this was documented, the only one ever to be diagnosed with it." Dariel lent against the wall, his mind turning as it took in all this new knowledge at once. "What happened?" he said hesitantly. "As time went by, nothing could be done for him, eventually the brain stops receiving signals and shuts down causing the patient to eventually die." This was to much for Dariel to take, he made his way to the door and stopped as they hissed open. "Can anything be done?" She lowered her head and slowly shook it "I'm sorry, we'll find a . . ." The doors shut behind Dariel as he left cutting off her sentence.
Dr. Kadowaki walked to the divider and pulled it back "I assume you heard all that?" her question was aimed at the young dark haired man sat down, he smoothed back his fringe revealing a thin scar diagonally across his nose. He nodded. "So nothing can be done?" She shook her head and reached into the medical cabinet and retrieving a small cylinder she handed it to the man. "Here Squall give these to Rinoa this should help her morning sickness." Squall nodded his thanks "Maybe I should have a word with our young friend?" She nodded "Wouldn't hurt to try and from what I hear he is a lot like you used to be." She suppressed a laugh at the look on Squall's face. As he got up to leave he stopped to face her "I'll have a word with our friend, I don't think any of us would know what it's like to be a dead man walking."