A/N:This story is set to the future world, the world where Ultimecia lives in the game and all the characters from the game are included to this world also. This is not AU (at least not a direct one) but more of a WHAT-IF-FIC. Confusing? I bet it is, but when you realise the main plot of this story, then it will all become clear.

Some of you may remember this story, as it has been up before, but I decided to post it again with some minor changes, hoping to get my inspiration back.

I'll be with You by Dawn
Chapter1: Howl to the Moon

The heaven was filled with hazy clouds that were abided by the late sun caressing the mighty horizons around the castle. A top of the high peaked towers and the sharp roofs, the layers of mist never faded away, not even in the morning or in the brightest seasons, which were most rare in this particular area where ghosts and monsters were roaming under the cover of the deep tranquil shadows.

This was the sight that stood there loyally. Scaring the people away from the distance.

Inside the sturdy but very sharp edged structure, the walls and old-fashioned furniture were dusty and darkened by their age. The wolfs' howls joined the winds roaming sound and wandered with it around the castle, taking over the dark corners and the damp surroundings, filling the castle with groans, screams and other indistinguishable noises, which gave chills to anyone who dared to visit it.

The walls were dark, messed up and foul, the corners were filled with thick spider webs, and the floor was completely on dust, giving this gothic fashioned castle a more scarier and haunting picture.

He looked down to the floor with an instant glare when the reeking smell of the castle invaded his nostrils while listening the mighty words of the majesty of his dreams. He was bent down on his one knee, acting as gallant as he could under her pressing gaze. Appreciating the scent that came down to him from her revealing garments, he felt the reek being washed away from his senses and being replaced by the scent that wowed him with eternal promises and hopes. The orders her smooth voice with a cold touch of icy flame announced down to him, came more or less in the way he had planned for in advance, and he continued listening to her briefing that was yearning for eternal blood.

"Yes, My Highness…" He repeated after the question she had asked, letting her know he understood the matter completely. His eyes ran along the stone floor and he could see the thin layer of gray dust on it, reminding him how old this place was.

The long and dirty trench coat hanged over the features of this man crouched down to the floor and the two red Hyperion crosses were embedded to the sides of those long sleeves. He had his loyal companion next to him, the one and only thing that had never failed him. His own beloved gunblade, Hyperion, he had named it.

"Make sure you kill them… I have no time to meddle with such mortals…" The blond man, her knight, lifted his emerald orbs to meet her devastating yellow ones, and the smirk, as wicked and arrogant as ever before, crossed to his lips when he heard her and understood her completely.

"Yes, My Highness… I will take them out with my own sword…"

She walked slowly around the castle's library, admiring the big and roomy bookshelves filled with the most beautiful books she had ever seen. This room was the only place that wasn't dark and didn't reek like the other rooms in this old castle. The library was slightly away from the other rooms and the corridor that led to this room wasn't in such a bad condition either and it was also probably the reason why it had survived longer than the rest of the castle.

She spent much of her time here, reading the books that had the most brilliant stories on them, some of them even filled with some very colorful pictures that brought joy to her lonely heart. The books did not only give her something to spend her time on but they also gave her information from the world and its cultures, about the animals, nature and about the history. This was her only place… Her sacred place where she could stay, wrapped to her own imagination and thoughts.

She didn't feel like home at this castle, but there was no place other where she could live. This castle had become to be her home ever after the day when Ultimecia had found her laying unconsciously on the beach near this castle, her memories from her past completely washed away. Yes, she had amnesia, but she had started to get used to living with it. Even when she often wondered about her past and about her life that she supposedly once had, she tried not to think about it too much. She had found it much easier and comforting to just read books and not bother about the world outside the library and the castle.

But it was also hard to live like that. Being only in one place, head filled with questions about her past and the only contact to the outside world being the books and the knight…

The knight… She didn't understand why he called himself one, but she was very much depending on him. He made her feel upset. This was something that she had noticed from the very first seconds of meeting him… It was the first day of her present life. The day when she had woken up here, laying on the floor with only one blanket wrapped around her shivering form. She had opened her eyes and the first thing she had seen were the green eyes, which were looking down to her, piercing through her whole form. At first, she hadn't understood anything what he was trying to say, but slowly she had started to become aware of her situation. She hadn't know what to answer to his questions filled with haughtiness, insisting need to have answers, but when he had simply asked what her name was, she had said it… The only thing that she knew… Her name… Quistis Trepe.

Suddenly the big door of the library started to open up, the rusty hinges of the old oak door squeaking a sound that made the shivers slowly go down her spine. She turned with shrugging shoulders toward the opening door, quickly covering her ears with her hands. The blond with a very annoying grin over his lips, looked toward her shrugging form as he continued to open the door wider, even when he was already on indoors.

"Stop it, Seifer…!" His smile just got wider, ignoring her demand completely as his eyes sparkled up with bullying gleam.

She kept her eyes closed up for a second before the horrible noise stopped. She opened her eyes carefully up and retreated her hands away from her ears when she stopped her angry gaze up to his approaching figure. "Well hello, Quisty…" He looked as smug as ever before, walking towards the big table in front of her and taking one of the red covered books into his hand, passing the pages through with a quick glance.

She hated when he called her Quisty. It never meant good.

Quistis walked pass him so that she could take the book away from his hands. "How many times do I have to tell you not to do that?"

Seifer looked up to her eyes, which held a look of annoyance when she took the book from him and started to walk over to one of the bookshelves.

"Sorry, I forgot…" He looked after her devilishly, when she started to put the books on their right shelves. He sat himself down to the corner of the wooden and sturdy table, tossing the end of his jacket -in the way he always did- on the air before sitting down. Quistis completed organizing the books on the shelf and now turned to look towards the man, who was still sitting on the table, looking around the room, examining it with exaggerated expressions.

"I don't understand how you can stay here all day long… Here is so-"

"Clean…?" She suggested, as she started to walk pass him again, gathering some more books into her arms from the table.

"Exactly my point." Seifer smirked with a smug face, as he swept the wooden table with his two fingers, seeing that there was no trace left to the shining and clean surface. She took another sigh in, this time sounding like she became serious again, getting enough of the empty and endless blather the two always ended on going through. "You had something to tell me or did you just come here to waste my time…?" She said this sharply and it made him smile again.

"Well, I just thought you wanted to hear that the White SeeDs are out there again…"

"What…?!" Quistis turned quickly up to him, totally forgetting the books on her hands, the big novels dropping down to the floor.

He chuckled and stood up from the table, glancing her with a smirk, fully enjoying the look on her face. He turned and started to walk away, while his words filled with haughtiness and with the simple mockery leaped out to the air: "Just as I thought…" Quistis stared towards his back, his mighty form disappearing to the darkness that the corridors were filled with. And that as her final sight from him, she stood up from gathering the fallen books and snorted, deciding that she wasn't going to give up like that. Before, she had never gone outside, but this time…

…she was going to go there too…



A/N: Review time...