Part Two: The Flower
DAISY
Rinoa was really screwed now. She was trying to destroy the DAISY program through her undercover hacking. But it turned out that Selphie had known about her from the beginning. She was being played her the whole time. Now, when Selphie got the chance, she took the opportunity to suck Rinoa into this virtual world. The headset that had came onto Rinoa head was her pass into another dimension. Rinoa's mind was stuck in this world. She had no way to log out of the program and no way to communicate with her physical body. She was a prisoner in this world.
When Rinoa awoke, or booted up, she felt the warm sun on her skin. The smell of the gentle breeze of spring filled the air, and she heard the laughter of many from all around. A peaceful day in a peaceful world.
She sat up and looked about the world. There wasn't anything different from it than her own. The smell, touch, sight, taste, sound was all there. There was nothing to dictate whether or not it was the real world. All she knew is that it wasn't.
She stood up and looked at herself. She was wearing her old blue dress that she did when she first met the SeeDs. She was almost sickened by this. But she figured that these were the clothes that Selphie had programmed her persona with. She sighed and continued on.
If Rinoa knew anything about computers, which she did, she knew that there had to be someway to shut them down. Rinoa just needed to hack into main system and destroy it. Then she would be free of this world and could continue her mission. However, she had no way to hack in with her body immobilized. She was just a helpless puppet of this world. Most likely, Selphie was controlling the whole program from behind the scenes.
Rinoa walked carelessly through the streets of this virtual city. It was quite peaceful. People were enjoying the beautiful day, not even thinking this world was real or not. They were all programs; that was there job. Rinoa wasn't though. She was a real person stuck here. She had to get out of here. But Selphie was just toying with her. She was letting her experience her masterpiece before deleting her mind. Rinoa had to stay strong. If she was smart, she could use Selphie's ego to escape. Selphie didn't know that Rinoa was also a skilled computer artist. Even though Selphie taught her a lot, Rinoa had learned from others.
She sighed as she observed this world of Selphie's. She did have to admit that it was really a work of art. Everything was so real. But there had to be something with it that made Selphie not want to make it public. Rinoa didn't understand why Selphie didn't make millions off of this already if the program was complete. Maybe she was afraid to let it go.
Rinoa heard a screeching noise inside her inner ear. The sound was petrifying and distant. She knew she was hearing it inside her mind.
Think you can kill me, Rinoa? Well, you're mistaken. I'm going to be the one to kill you.
Rinoa though hard for a second. Maybe she had a chance to communicate back.
Selphie, quit hiding behind your virtual world. I'll kill you with my bare hands. Face me like a true warrior.
Think I'll do that? Well, too bad. I'm going to let you be the first to experience my program, and I'm sure you'll enjoy it.
What are you talking about, Selphie?
You'll see.
The earth began to shake underneath Rinoa's feet. She saw as the sun began to fade as clouds passed in front of it. Suddenly, a large, green vine flew from the ground and high into the air. The people of the virtual world began to fade like ghosts and the buildings of the city slowly melted into desolate mountains. The streets soon sprouted luscious, green grass. Rinoa steeped back, but was almost hit by another soaring vine that erupted from the ground. Soon, four vines were squirming around her body like snakes. Rinoa jumped away from their swings to see that, from the ground, came two gigantic, venus flytrap-looking monsters crawled out. Green, saliva dripped from their gapping mouths and knife-looking teeth. They hissed as their tentacles shot like lightning towards Rinoa. She quickly dodged them with a cartwheel roll.
Rinoa saw that Selphie had created some protection against her. Rinoa searched herself for her weapons, but knew she wouldn't find them. Selphie had no intention of giving Rinoa a chance to beat these creatures.
She began to run from then. But they seemed to run much faster as they quickly spread around to surround her. Rinoa gasped. There was no way she could beat them. She was helpless in this world. She just fell to her knees. She was defeated right here. Her entire streak of revenge was defeated right now. She didn't even get a chance to fight one of her ex-colleagues.
"Persistence is the key, Rinoa." Squall's voice comforted her.
"Squall, you've told me that about a hundred times. Are you going to keep saying that." Rinoa laughed.
"Of course. You'll learn someday that it really is the deciding factor. You must never give up. Just keep at it and you'll make it through." He kissed her.
Rinoa melted in his arms as his hands held her still, and she let him take her in.
"I love you, Squall." She whispered.
Rinoa groaned. Her body was stiff and she couldn't see anything except for the world she was in. But now, she felt the chair she was sitting in. She felt the arms and could hear nothing from the other world. Her body was still in shock, but she could at least move her hands. He took a deep breath and knew that she didn't have a whole lot of strength to fight the program. She had to move quickly and finish this. She reached for the keyboard in front of her. She needed at least a fighting chance. She quickly typed in whatever came to her mind. She smiled with what little strength she had before the real world began to fade around her back into the virtual one.
The hissing continued as the tentacles flew at Rinoa. She felt them in her hands and she used them. With her deadly reflexes, she used all her strength the swing the gunblades in her hands to chop off the tentacles. The hissing turned to screams as Rinoa slowly stood on her feet. The tentacles soon faded into a bunch of numbers. She rushed with the Angel and the Lionheart in her hands. She jumped into the air, slamming the gunblades into their heads. At that instance, the explosions took place as she pulled the triggers and blew the monsters to pieces.
Rinoa brushed the sweat from her forehead, realizing that her body was reacting just like it would in real life. All Rinoa had to do was find the main system. She had already found the way to eradicate it with her gunblades. Surprisingly, she held Squall's Lionheart in her hand. The large, blue blade, emanated a pulse as it faded from using its awesome power. But before she could marvel at her splendid blades for long, they faded from existence in this world. The grass plane turned dark. All Rinoa saw were a bunch of numbers flashing across the dark space. She had finally upset Selphie, and she wasn't going to stand for it. But without any weapons, her hopes of defeating the program were gone.