Believe in Me
Authors Note: Hello everybody!!! This is my first fanfiction; so... don't get mad at me if it isn't good! ;) First, I would like to thank Exhile87, because she inspired me to write this, (Her fics are GREAT!!!) and Dark Raion, for writing best squinoas I've ever read. Second, I would thank, my friend Nikola cuz I know he'll read this and tell me his honest opinion (U will, right?). And the last, but not the least, big THANX to Square Soft for creating such an extraordinary and fantastic game (FF8 'course)! I don't own anything (poor me) except my ideas (so don't sue me)! (Words in ~...~ are thoughts.)
P.S. My mother tongue isn't English; so sorry if there are some mistakes.
Rinoica (majasverko@yahoo.com)
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*Chapter 1 – Return of a Knight*
It was silent sunny morning. Although it was still early, many students were outside, on the beach near Balamb, to swim or just enjoy sea and sun.
Squall had just waked up, and he was lying on his bed and thinking, as usual. He could hear other students, down on the beach, having fun, but he didn't really wanted to go out there alone. ~It would be nice to go with Rinoa, but she's in Balamb ... I think I'll wait her in Cafeteria. Maybe Zell is there already. ~
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~It's so peaceful here. ~ Thought Rinoa while she was walking through Balamb. She liked to go there on her own, to see what's new in shops, and rest from all that noise in Balamb Garden. Well, she wasn't alone Angelo was with her. He ran from one side to another, full of life as always, until he didn't notice a cat one girl was holding in her arms.
"ROARGH" He ran toward them and the cat jumped away.
"Li'l, come here! Lily!" girl yelled.
"Angelo! Behave yourself! ANGELO!" Rinoa ran after him. The cat climbed upon the tree and Angelo loudly tried to reach her.
"Bad boy, you scared li'l catty!" Rinoa punched him tenderly. Angelo lay down and gave her a sad look like if he wanted to apologize.
"I'm really sorry, he won't do it again." Rinoa said to the girl. "By the way, I'm Rinoa, Rinoa Heartilly, and this is Angelo." When he heard his name Angelo happily waved with his tail.
"Hey!" Said Rinoa, pretending she is angry. "I'm still angry at you!" But Angelo saw her smiling eyes and he jumped on Rinoa merrily.
"Oh I give up!" Said Rinoa smiling at Angelo.
"Don't worry, it's okay, really." Girl said quietly, forcing a smile. "I'm Elly Liverel, and this is Lilly, Oh...I almost forgot, do you know where Balamb Garden is, I'm kinda lost?"
"Sure I know!! I'm going there right now! C'mon, I'll show you!"
"So you're one of the students who defeated Ultimecia a year ago? Really?" Elly said calmly.
~She doesn't sound excited not even surprised. Strange. ~ Thought Rinoa.
Which garden did you come from?" She asked.
"Well, I recently passed SeeD test in new, Esthar Garden," Elly answered." but I was there just for a few months.
"Then you must be really good! Look, we're already here, come on, you must see Headmaster right?"
"Yea, but I'll go later."
~ Why is she looking so sad? ~
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It was so silent in Cafeteria when Squall entered. He could hear only Zell yelling.
"Heya buddy! So you decided to get up finally! Could you pass me one more hotdog, pleease!
~Geez, he'll never change. ~ Squall took a Sprite and two hotdogs.
"Here, your hotdog, one day or another you'll turn into one!"
"Who cares, I luuuuv them! Wait.... This was a joke, right?! What's happening to ya pal?
Where's our old Squall?
".... Whatever."
"What a relief, it is you after all" Zell laughed.
"......" Squall slapped a hand to his forehead.
"Did you see anybody? It's like they all disappeared."
"Rinoa is in Balamb, she should be back soon. Selphie prepared a surprise to Irvine at the beach, she and Rinoa giggled all night about it. I duno about Quistis."
"So we ale all alone, would you mind to giv me youl Splite, I'm soo thlsty." Said Zell with almost all hot-dog in his mouth.
"Sure, did you finish that hotdog? I would like to go out and wait for Rinoa."
"Yea, lets go, I'm bored anyway."
Squall and Zell were waiting for Rinoa near main directory chatting. Zell couldn't even dream about relaxed conversation with Squall a year ago, but he had changed a lot since then.
"What happened with that Library girl anyway, anything interesting?" Asked Squall.
"Don't mention her, please!" Zell said nervously.
"What happen'? Something serious?"
"She said I'm not her type, that I'm always overreacting!!! Can you believe it?!
~Actually, yes! ~ "Don't worry, you'll find a girl who will like your overreacting!" Said Squall pretending to be serious.
"What?!?" Yelled Zell punching the air around Squall! "I'm not overreacting!!"
"Whatever..." Said Squall with a smile. "Look, there's Rinoa" ~ She's beautiful today. ~
"Wow, who's that girl?" Zell asked. ~She is beautiful! ~ He thought.
Girl had a short violet dress and a black jacket. Li'l cat was sleeping in her arms. She had long, dark brown hair. Zell couldn't keep his eyes off her.
"Heya guys!" Said Rinoa when she came near them.
Squall went near her and whispered "Hi my angel" while giving her a kiss. ~ Somebody is in a good mood today! ~ She thought.
"Heya." Said Zell still looking at Elly. "Who's your new friend?" He asked.
"Oh, yea, this is Elly, she's a new SeeD from Esthar. Elly, those are Zell, my good friend and Squall, my boyfriend. She said looking at Squall with big smile. He was smiling too. He was kinda happy today; it was a nice morning.
Zell was looking into Elly's eyes. She had beautiful, deep eyes. He couldn't decide if they are brown or green, but they looked kinda empty, sad. ~ Strange, she looks so sad. ~
He wasn't the first one to notice it.
*Announcement: Squall Leonhart, please come to my office. *
After that crash in FH Headmaster had new office that could be entered from third floor, but he just recently started to use it. It was nice and cozy place.
"Looks like I have to go." Squall said and kissed Rinoa on her forehead.
"Bye bye, my knight" She said smiling.
"We'll wait you in cafeteria." Said Zell
"Ok, see ya." Said Squall.
"C'mon Elly, I'll show you where the best hot dogs are made." Said Zell. Rinoa giggled quietly.
Elly smiled. ~I like this guy, he's kinda cute but...~ Her smile disappeared.
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Squall went to the elevator thinking why would Cid wanted to see him. ~Maybe another mission, hope not I was happy to have this week off. ~
He hit the F3 button.
When he entered the room, he couldn't believe his eyes. ~ No! He can't be here! ~
"What is he doing here?" Squall asked trying to stay calm.
"Commander, Seifer's return has been accepted after proving that he was possessed while our war with Ultimecia."
~ What the... Possessed? And you believe him...~
"As you know," Cid continued, "yesterday was a SeeD test and three students passed it, including Seifer. He has a big potential and I expect you two to cooperate. "
~This can't be real! ~ "May I go now?" Squall asked. ~ Possessed? ~ He slapped a hand to his forehead.
"One more thing, tomorrow night is a SeeD party, and you should be there as our commander together with your teem... And Squall, Seifer, I don't want any troubles in my garden, understood?"
"Understood" Seifer answered politely.
~Like if I'm the one who's causing them. ~
"Squall?"
"...Yea." He said not looking at Seifer.
"You may go now." Cid said.
Squall turned around and started walking toward the door. He stopped near Seifer.
"Stay away from Rinoa" He said slowly and walked out.
~Is he crazy or what? He can't take him back! That guy is dangerous! ~Squall thought while he was walking toward Cafeteria. ~ And the day started so nice. ~
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Rinoa, Zell and Elly were sitting in Cafeteria. Zell had ordered one hot-dog for him and one for Elly. Rinoa giggled quietly, but no one noticed that.
~I can't believe, ~ she giggled again ~ Zell is so much interested in Elly that he forgot to eat his hotdog! ~ She heard footsteps behind her and turned around.
"Hey, look who's coming!" She yelled happily.
"Hi Rinny! Hi Zell! Who's your friend?" Selphie entered the Cafeteria cheerful as always and Irvine was right behind her. He was all wet. It was obvious that this was Selphie's fault because he was pretending to be angry with her but everyone could see that this was very amusing to him.
"This is Elly, Elly those are Selphie and Irvine" Zell introduce them before Rinoa could even open her mouth.
"Irvine what happened?" Zell asked when he noticed Irvine's wet clothes.
"Oh nothing, Sefie just wanted a breakfast on the beach in FIVE A.M., and she FORGOT to tell me that this breakfast includes a wet surprise!" Irvine answered pretending he is mad.
Selphie and Rinoa giggled.
"I just wanted to see the sunrise from the water, Irvy didn't want to jump in so ... I helped him."
"I better go change." Irvine said and left.
Quistis entered looking at Irvine."What happened to him?"
"It's a looong story." Rinoa laughed.
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Squall went to the Cafeteria and sat down without a word. He was so mad that he forgot about the others in the room.
"Squall, what happened?" Rinoa was worried. He looked around himself and saw puzzled looks on his friends' faces.
"...Seifer is back at Garden, they say he was possessed, that he didn't know what he was doing."
~ Yea right. ~ Zell almost started to laugh, "This one's good..." Than he saw Squall's more than serious face "...Oh, you're not joking... WHAT!? HE'S BACK!?"
Squall slapped a hand to his forehead.
Rinoa was terrified but she didn't want to show it, she was worried about Squall's reaction. He looked cool as always, but she could tell he was mad. She was worried he could do something stupid.
Squall saw Rinoa's frightened look "Don't worry Rinny, he won't hurt you, I won't let him."
"They can't let HIM back. He...HE...I'll..." Zell yelled while punching the air around him "I'll show him! "~ Why does he always have to overreact? ~
"Zell calm down, please." Squall said annoyed.
"They just let him back? Like if nothing happened?" Quistis was still confused.
"It looks like, he passed SeeD exam yesterday."
"Sorry, who is that Seifer guy?" Elly asked.
"He was Ultimecia's knight" Selphie answered. She was unusually quiet Seifer return was scaring her too.
"But..." Quistis was interrupted by somebody's loud entrance in Cafeteria. Everybody turned around to see who is making all that noise. They saw Seifer.
"What the hell are you doing here" Squall was mad.
"Well, dear puberty-boy, I'm now a SeeD as you are. I can go wherever I want!" ~Great work jackass! You really know how to screw it up. I really should shut up sometimes. ~
"You...YOU didn't have any right to become a SeeD," Zell had freaked out "YOU... were a sorceress's knight!!"
Everybody stared at him except Squall, who put head in his hands. Zell realized what had he said and lowered his had, but it was to late.
"You don't have to freak out, I just wanted to apologise. So sorry guys" ~I said that at loud? ~
Seifer left leaving silence behind him.
"I should go to the headmaster." Elly interrupted silence. Other barely noticed her.
~Seifer saying sorry? Something's wrong. ~ Selphie was confused.
"I don't know if I should believe him," Squall was talking to himself. "To many things had happened."
"Maybe he is telling true, maybe he is really sorry, I've never heard him apologise before."
Quistis was thinking at loud.
~And what if he is just pretending? ~ Rinoa didn't know what to believe.
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~Yea right, they believed me for sure. They probably think that I'm playing some sort of a game. Well, I don't blame them. ~ Seifer was walking toward his new dorm.
"Seifer?"
Seifer turned around and saw his old pals, Rajin and Fujin.
"BACK?"
"Yea." Seifer smiled.
"You're not mad cuz we abandoned you before, right? We just wanted to help ya, ya know.
We didn't want to fight against ya, ya know. We...YAY! Fu! It hurts, ya know. Why don't ya stop with... Ouch!!!
Seifer laughed silently, it was nice to see that his old friends didn't change. ~ Friends? Are they still my friends after all? ~
"Friends?" He asked.
"AFIRMATIVE!"
"We were always your friends, ya know." He wanted to continue but he saw Fujin's face. It didn't promise anything good so he stopped.
Seifer laughed.
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When she woke up, she felt something cold against her neck.
"Say a word and I'll kill you"
~Seifer? ...... What...what's happening? ~
They were in a round room. It was dark and creepy. She saw somebody in the centre of the room but it was too dark to se who was it. They were moving toward that person.
"Seifer? Why are you doing this to me?" The last time she was so scared was when she was in space, but Squall was there then and now she was alone.
They were mowing toward a strange woman. It was dark but Rinoa still could recognize her.~ What? It can't be her, she's dead, we...we have defeated her. ~
"So you brought me young sorceress. Great. Now I'll have my powers back. I'll be even stronger than before, and you, my faithful knight, you will have your reward as soon as I take her powers." Ultimecia spoke with her dark voice.
"Sorry babe, nothing personal," Seifer looked at Rinoa and laughed silently "Maybe just a little. You know there's two ways for her to receive your powers. You can give them to her voluntarily or she can kill you. You chose."
"I won't give her my powers." Rinoa said silently. ~Squall, where are you? I need you. ~
Ultimecia laughed, it was a creepy sound. "As you wish." She said and launched a fireball toward Rinoa. Seifer moved away.
In that moment she saw Squall running toward her "RINOA!!" He yelled. He jumped in front of her and fireball hit him.
"NOOO!"
Squall fell down with a gasp. He was dead.
Seifer laughed loudly.
Rinoa screamed.
"SQUALL!!"
She woke up screaming with tears in her eyes. She looked at the clock it was 05:30.
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Rinoa was walking trough main hall trying to calm down. Her eyes were still wet. Her first instinct was to go to Squall. She slightly opened the door to see if he's all right. He gave her extra card-key for his dorm, letting her know that Cid must newer know about it. She didn't want to upset him. She knew he would kill Seifer if he thought she was in danger. Anyway, it was just a nightmare; it didn't mean anything. Or did it?
It was so silent in Garden. It was past curfew so she left Angelo in her dorm, she didn't want troubles right now. She decided to go to the Quad, there was beautiful at night. She went there few times with Squall to watch the stars.
When she entered she heard silent sobs so she went to see what's happening. There was a girl sitting on a bench crying silently. Rinoa came to her and recognised her.
"Elly, what's happening?" Rinoa asked softly. Elly looked at her surprised and quickly wiped her tears off.
"It's nothing, really, I just couldn't sleep." She answered.
"Me neither, do you mind if I join you?"
"'Course not. Hey, you were crying, what's wrong?"
Rinoa smiled slightly: "Lets make a deal; you tell me why you were crying and I'll tell why I was, Okay?"
"I don't know... it's a long story"
"I'm not going anywhere."
Elly looked at her and began: "I came from a small village Elron in great forest north of Esthar, near Trabia Garden. There are few villages like mine in that forest. Some people there have some kind of powers. Nothing special, they have visions sometimes, can feel danger, their magic is stronger and things like that.... I'm ...one of them too."
Elly stopped to se Rinoa's reaction but she didn't react, she just listened carefully.
"Go on."
"There's a myth that tells that elves lived in our forest many centuries ago. It says that they are our descendents and that's why we have that power. In about a year ago strange things started happening. People who had power were disappearing, and if somebody without power were with them he would be killed or couldn't remember what happened. Only thing they remembered was white light." Elly looked at the sky.
"One day I was walking trough the forest with my boyfriend Manuell, we...we wanted to go to the waterfall we used to go every now and then. It's a beautiful place with lots of birds and flowers and clean azure water. It's like a heaven." She closed her eyes. "In one moment Manuell screamed 'Elly look out!' and jumped in front of me. I...I turned around and last thing I saw was white light. Next day they when I woke up I... saw him...dead. He was powerless. He... he sacrificed himself for me." Elly was crying again. Rinoa put her arm around her trying to comfort her.
~Oh Hyne...~ "I'm so sorry... I didn't know."
"It ... it's okay, you're the first one to hear this and it feels little better now that I told you."
"What about your parents?"
"I'm an orphan, my parents died when I was five, Malboro killed them. After their death my aunt was taking care of me, but she never really liked me."
"My mother died too, my father is still alive but we don't get along very well."
Two girls were silent for a moment.
"After that accident," Elly continued. "I went to the Esthar Garden, I wanted a revenge. I knew how to fight and use magic since I was about ten so after a month of training I passed the SeeD exam. When I passed it I went to the Headmaster to tell him about troubles in Elron, but he said that he doesn't have enough SeeDs for that and he suggested me to go to Balamb Garden. So I came here. I made a report on situation to Headmaster Cid yesterday."
"Did he agree?" Rinoa asked.
"He said that he is going to send few SeeDs to se what's happening. I couldn't pay him much but he was nice, he let me go too."
"Did he say who is going?"
"He said that he is going to inform me tomorrow."
There was silence again. Rinoa was thinking how hard must it be for Elly. ~I can't even think of what would I do if something happens to Squall. I couldn't live without him. ~ She remembered her nightmare. ~Poor girl. ~
"What about you?" Elly looked at Rinoa.
~What? ~ "What about me?"
"Why did you cry?"
"Oh...its nothing, really, just a nightmare." ~Really scary nightmare. ~
"Tell me, you will feel better, believe me."
"...You saw that guy Seifer this morning in Cafeteria?" Elly nodded. "He was student here in Garden and we were even together one summer. But then he passed on other side as Ultimecia's knight, now he says that he was possessed but ...who knows. I dreamed that he had captured me and took me to Ultimecia. When she wanted to kill me...Squall had jumped in front of me ...and………he died ... instead of me."
"Don't worry it's just a nightmare, you know that Ultimecia is dead, you were there when she died so you don't have to worry."
"Yea, you're right, thanks."
"Thank you, for listening."
"Anytime," Rinoa smiled. "I should go and try to get some sleep before breakfast, you're going too?"
"No, I'm not sleepy, I'll stay here. Sleep well."
"I'll try."
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Squall looked at the clock, it was 06:05. He had a strange dream, something about Rinoa and him in Winhill trying to catch one red chocobo. ~Gee, that was strange. ~
He realized he wouldn't be able to sleep any more so he dressed up. He decided to go to se if Rinoa is still sleeping.
Squall knocked twice silently; there was no answer. He used a card key she gave him. He slowly opened the door; he didn't want to wake her. As he opened the door, something big jumped on him almost throwing him on the floor.
"Angelo! Be good, you had just jumped on your commander!" Squall said hitting him tenderly on his nose.
"Where's Rinny Angelo?" Angelo started running trough the main hall.
"Angelo! Wait! Great, how am I going to stop him now."
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Rinoa was walking toward her dorm thinking of her conversation with Elly, when she heard footsteps behind her. It was still dark so it was little creepy. She hurried up when somebody caught her arm; she turned around and saw Seifer. Now she was scared, she wanted to scream but she was petrified by fear.
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A/N: I know it was boring, I just hope that it wasn't too boring. Next chapter will be more interesting, promise! Did anyone read this anyway? Well if someone did PLEASE review, any suggestions are welcome. Tell me what you think, I want an honest opinion!
I would want you to vote if you want me to put Seifer & Quistis and Zell & Elly together.
- Ashbear – Thanks, without you, I doubt I would even finish this chapter.