AN: 2 chapters in one day, I guess to try to make up for the long absence... I know it's not a lot, but I'm trying my best. Hope you like it.

They were all shattered, all of them. All little bits and pieces that didn't make sense. All fragments of the whole that Quistis couldn't put together.

It had been days since she'd first woken up. Her friends had left her alone, only visiting periodically and carefully avoiding the subject of what had happened during her coma. Quistis and ventured to ask a few times, but after the closed looks she'd gotten, she gave up. They wouldn't know. What had happened had only happened to her. They weren't her. They were distant.

"Quisty?"

Quistis woke up to reality and managed a small smile for Rinoa, who sat beside her in an uncomfortable looking chair.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, fine."

Rinoa sighed.

"Quisty, I'm really sorry."

"What for?"

"I... I want to help you, but I don't know how..."

It was Quistis' turn to sigh.

"It's okay Rinoa. I know you guys all want to help. It's hard though. You guys aren't me. You wouldn't know. You wouldn't understand."

Some of the bitterness and frustration that Quistis had been feeling as of late slipped through her carefully constructed guard and seeped into her voice. Rinoa looked hurt.

"I'm really sorry Quis. All of us are."

Quistis placed a cold hand on top of Rinoa's warm one on the bedsheets.

"I'm sorry for being so rude. It was mean of me to blame you guys."

"No, Quis, I really do want to help. Maybe... Maybe you could tell me what's going on. Maybe you could... Maybe you could let me in on what you're thinking... I dunno, I guess maybe it's a little too much to ask of you. It's okay if you don't want to share, I understand-"

"Rinoa?"

Rinoa stopped and looked up carefully at Quistis. The deep ice blue of Quistis' eyes pierced into her brown ones.

"Rinoa, I'm lost."

Rinoa's breath temporarily left her as she processed what Quistis had just said.

"Rin, I'm really, really lost."

Tears of frustration and confusion began to gather in Quistis' eyes. Rinoa gripped Quistis' white porcelain hand in slightly darker one.

"I don't know what's going on, Rin, I don't remember what happened. It's all broken up, like shards of a mirror that was shattered and scattered to the winds. I don't remember anything except all these little bits and pieces. I'm missing something, Rinoa. Something really important to me. I can't remember what it is!"

Rinoa was scared. For the first time in her life, she realized just what it was like to be Quistis. To be lost, without anyone there to guide you. She'd thought that Quistis had had her, and her friends, but after what Squall had said, she had come to realize that maybe Quistis didn't have as much of them as she'd previously thought.

"Quis..."

"It's all so confusing Rin! My mind won't let me figure it out! Every time I get this close," at this, Quistis wrenched her hand from Rinoa's gentle grip and stuck her forefinger and thumb together, showing just how close, "my head blows up and I get flung far away again!"

Quistis hit the bed with her hands, tears streaming down her face. She'd always been strong, stoic, controlled, but this was too much. Everything was too much. Whatever she was missing right now, she knew she needed, and if her mind wouldn't let her remember just what she was missing, Quistis was sure she wouldn't be able to last much longer.

Rinoa sat in her chair, riveted, but in fear and shock, not in amazement. She had never known, never realized what lay behind Quistis' calm exterior. Now, she knew. A tempest that had been held back and constantly smothered blew up into gigantic proportions and managed to break through Quistis' mask. Before she knew what was happening, Rinoa found herself wrapping her arms around Quistis' trembling form, pulling the shaking Quistis in towards her warmth.

"I'm so sorry Quis..."

Rinoa's voice trembled uncontrollably as she spoke, listening to Quistis crazed sobs. It was a long while before Rinoa's shoulder stopped cushioning the fall of Quistis' tears. Neither of them moved, longing for the other's contact and hoping desperately that the other wouldn't pull away. Quistis needed the contact to negate her overwhelming sorrow, Rinoa needed the contact to quell the aching guilt in her heart. If they'd been there for her, if Rinoa had just been there for Quistis, maybe none of this would have happened.

x x x

"What happened?"

"What do you mean what happened?"

"What happened?! Where's Quistis?"

"Quistis?"

"Yes! Quistis! What the hell happened to her?! Where is she?!"

A sigh sounded, full of discontent at the edge of insanity in the other's voice.

"You do not need to know. All you need to know is that you cannot be with her."

"And why the hell not?"

"She... She is your opposite."

"Opposites attract. Welcome to the world, you freak."

"She is your polar opposite. So alike in many ways, yet completely opposite. She is your inversion. You cannot be with her."

"Shut the fuck up, shut the fuck up!"

"You cannot deny this. Listen to me, unless you wish to bring upon yourself needless pain."

"If I can be with Quistis, to hell with pain."

"Then so be it. You are only making her feel worse, you are only making her weaker. She needs to be strong."

"And I'll help her be strong! She was doing fine until you took me away!"

"Was she?"

"Yes she was! What the fuck is wrong with you?!"

There was no answer. Miranda's scream was filled with anger and frustration.

x x x

There were flashes, painful flashes of memories that Quistis wasn't supposed to remember inside her head. It was like watching a broken movie, moving pictures written in fragments. She could remember holding someone with black hair. She could remember that that someone was slim, lithe, beautiful. Deep brown eyes. Dark black hair. Who was this girl?

Rinoa pulled away, and felt confusion. Why was Quistis looking at her that way?

"Quisty?"

"Rin... It's you..."

"Um... Of course it's me. Are you okay?"

Quistis stared in sudden revelation, but the notion was so illogical, she soon pushed it away. How? Rinoa had Squall, she couldn't be this girl. This girl, Quistis knew, was her other half. Rinoa, Rinoa was Squall's other half. It couldn't be, it just couldn't be.

Or could it? She just couldn't push it away. Rinoa had the same dark brown eyes, the same raven tresses. Maybe, maybe Rinoa was who she was looking for...

Rinoa sighed, seeing the distant, glazed look that Quistis often had when she was thinking. She wanted to stay, to see if maybe she could help Quistis with whatever she was figuring out right now, but her heart ached too much. She needed to see Squall, she needed his comfort. She got up, leaned over to brush a stray blonde lock that had fallen in front of Quistis' dazed ice blue eyes, and impulsively, pressed her lips against Quistis' smooth milk white forehead.

"I'll see you later Quis. Love you."

Rinoa never heard Quistis' faint yet heartfelt whisper as she walked out the door, intent on getting to Squall.

"... I love you too, Rin."