Disclaimer: don't own FFVIII.

Chapter 15

The twilight's eyes blinked down upon the brightly lit cities and the ones made of rubble as a dark wind blew. They smiled down happily on all the peaceful, happy mortals that lay beneath them as the shadows grew closer. They lent warmth and delight to those who needed them until the dark ominous clouds spread like a thick blanket to cover their happy glow. The reflected in the haunted gray blue eyes of the brunette as he stared at them from his bedroom window. There were scents creeping into the room on silent feet to fly under his nostrils so he could take them in and make his body remind him of it's hunger. It stayed silent. His ears were deaf to the sounds of someone calling his name and his skin was nerveless when someone shook him. His eyes were sightless as his face was turned to stare into the speaker's. All he could see, feel, and hear were the sounds of the shadows as they moved ever closer to his safe little haven. A great warmth flushed through the front of his body and began to melt the little ice encased nerve endings in his skin.

Slowly, something forced the shadows in his mind to release him and let him float back to his body to see, feel and hear as he was meant to. As he began to feel again his arms moved up and encircled the little person that was hugging him tightly. As sight was restored to him he saw the room come into focus and a head of brown hair underneath his nose. The scent of strawberries reached his nose and he filled his lungs with that scent. He could hear the person talking to him as his ears began to function properly again. Warmth flooded his body once again and he blinked slowly, demanding that his eyes focus quicker. When they finally did and when his ears finally began to work properly he tightened his grip on the girl that he was holding. She shifted and moved to look at him, her worry ridden emerald eyes brimming slightly with tears. Confusion circled in his mind as he struggled to remember this ones name and why was she on the verge of crying. Did he hurt her? Had someone hurt her? What happened? The tears were whipped away and she smiled up at him clearly relieved. He blinked confused and tried to force his mind to work faster and to pull it from the mud it was stuck in. The wind from the slightly opened window sent a chill to his skin and woke him up a little more from the daze he was in.

The girl smiled warmly up at him and hugged him tightly. His mind was shoved harshly from the muddled mess it was in and forced to activate. The bright green eyes stared up at him happily and she said something. Something he couldn't hear quite right. She frowned faintly and said it again but his ears wouldn't receive it. They were to busy hearing something else and his eyes were to busy seeing something else. He swallowed heavily trying to get rid of the lump in his throat. Emerald eyes stared up at him fearfully but the haze he was being sucked into took that away. He could hear the shouts of people screaming and children crying clearly in his ears. There were flames leaping up into the sky from out of seemingly nowhere and there was a sick laughter floating down from the choking velvet blanket the twilight had become. His skin felt cold and his muscles ached and screamed at him as he started to move. There was blood creeping down his face and side and his vision swam sickeningly when he refused to submit to the blackness at the edges of his vision. There were people everywhere, some he knew, but most he did not. There was the loud bang of a rifle going off somewhere above him and the dark shadow looming on the horizon winced at the slight injury.

Thunder boomed up ahead and lightening struck the hideous creature. He felt his boots thud on the ground in time with his team's attacks. There was a second set of boots racing to meet up with him and a gray trench coat flew beside him as the creature howled from the monstrous attacks. His fingers clenched Lionheart's hilt and he felt his arms rise above his head as he leapt into the air, leaving his partner to attack the creature from down below. The blade came down and the trigger was pulled. Silence. A long empty silence. Then… the sound of someone screaming as he lay broken on the ground. The scream was cut short as the creature whirled on him. Then… eternal darkness… to be born again in some other place… in some other life… he rested…

The shadows thickened and bowed before the scraggily robbed figure as it approached the city wreaking and flooding with life. The stars were out and could not hide behind the thick blanket of clouds that had passed the other day. Oh no, the sky would be alight with the dancing of the orchestra and the stars would have to watch in agony as their children were struck down one by one. But he would have to move quickly for the Lion's reinforcements were coming by the droves across the land that he had torn and ripped apart seam by bloody seam. He felt the shadows wrap around him to create a fiendish armor beneath his tattered robes and his crooked smile broadened. The buzz from her eternal presence lingered through out his being and he shivered as her words slithered through his mind.

"Kill," they whispered. "Bring their blood to me so that I may be reborn and take this land which is mine." He felt himself shaking in excitement as he drew closer and the lights from this happy little city could be seen over the next hill. His fingers twitched in excitement as the wind carried over the feeling of panic swelling in their little hearts. It would take those pathetic little fools till dawn to get here and by then… he will have feasted well. As he began his ascent of the hill he knew… just knew… that they would be waiting for him.

'Seifer…' the flames beckoned him. 'Seifer… it is coming…' he frowned. What was coming? The heat that normally flowed through his veins became icy as the wind kissed his skin. His limbs refused to move as he heard Selphie's panicked cry from the bedroom. The pounding of feet reached his ears but the chill got worse. He forced his eyes open and looked around. Irvine was staring out the window, his muscles tight with stress and worry.

"What's going on?" Seifer asked concerned. Irvine turned troubled violet eyes to the blonde and swallowed past the lump in his throat.

"There's something coming. Diablos and Pandamona are restless," he whispered hoarsely. Seifer nodded in agreement.

"Ifrit can feel it to. Close the window would you?"

"I can't move," Irvine turned back to the window and it was clear that his limbs were just as paralyzed as Seifer's own. He could hear the girls fretting over Squall but that was slowly drowned as the roaring of the flames increased. There were panicked screams from the bedroom as the sound of shattering glass reached his ears. The spell was broken. In an instant Seifer had surged to his feet and followed Irvine out of the house at a dead sprint. There was a shadow moving down along the barely lit street towards the empty and shadow blanketed park.

"Squall!" he heard Selphie's voice cry as she began to catch up with them. Irvine increased his speed as the figure ran under a street lamp, revealing it to be a very scared and very injured Squall. The cold wind blew again and brought with it a sense of something coming closer, the feeling of death nipping at his heels and creeping up his spine. His heart lodged his throat and his skin lost it's color as the familiar brush of that insane magic swept like a cat along the outside of skull. He kept running, catching up to Irvine and matching his pace, hearing his boots thud on the pavement as they tried to keep up. Squall swerved through the neighborhood and hardly crowded streets of town, desperately trying to get away from his pursuers. The shadows were closing in quickly and the ice maiden nipped at the back of his mind, demanding to be let out from behind her wall of ice.

Darkness reached him, but the scent of trees and the familiar sounds of town let him know where he was. The cool soil of the park ground hit his feet as he stepped off the path and leapt into a nearby tree. He could feel it coming, this sense of evil and darkness that had tried to claim him twice now. The lights from the city were slowly dieing out as the clouds began to come in, drawn b this sense of wrongness that was starting to blanket everything. He saw them then. The people that he knew and that he trusted but… his mind drew a blank and he struggled to remember them and why they were the safe ones. He clung to the tree as he watched them search for him, scared of what might've happened to him. The shadows began to draw closer and as he watched them move closer to the tree he was clinging to he felt the shadows grab him as they had tried to do before… the night when the sky was crying… and that night in that very cold place… it was crying then too…

Squall struggled against the shadow's hold and twisted trying to make them let go. Their cold, icy, lifeless grip sank into his flesh and began to slowly freeze him to the bone. He squeezed his eye shut and forced his mouth closed to they couldn't enter through their. But… they were still getting in! Seeping into his body through the millions upon millions of pores throughout his skin and his nostrils and ears. He felt a scream build his chest as his hands lost their fight to beat the shadows from him and cling to the tree. He felt his body plummet to the ground below and he screamed, letting loose all of his terror and fear for everyone to hear. He kept his eyes glued shut and struggled to get away from the thing that was preventing him from hitting the cold hard ground. He could hear shouting, and the icyness receding from his limbs and chest but still, he kept his eyes closed. There was something warm brushing against his chilled skin and someone's warm fingers rubbing feeling back into his. There were two people helping him while the other stood guard. The wind blew harder and the shadows kept their distance from the glowing blade of Hyperion.

Hyperion? What was…? As the wind blew harder, stirring the shadows around them and making them move happily with anticipation he felt his chest begin to be released from the vice grip it had been encased in. He felt someone twinning their fingers into his and someone's arms coaxing his body to uncurl from the little bundle it had been in. He could hear someone's voice singing and felt a warm rush of breath stir his hair and he felt his body begin to warm again despite the death-ridden wind. He song tickled his hearing back into proper working order and the one holding him shielded his body from the cold. There was a third set of hands running their thumbs gently under his eyes, whipping the moisture from his cheeks. Was he crying? Slowly, frightfully, he opened his eyes to take in the view of the people around. He blinked slowly against the blurriness and saw Lony's relieved smiling face staring back at him. The arms around his tightened and he looked up to see part of Irvine's face smiling down to him. The fingers twined in his tightened and urged his gaze to turn towards Selphie. Seifer was standing with his back to them, tense and ready fro any enemy that might come their way.

He saw it before they did. He heard before they did. He even knew it before they did. There was an explosion near the entrance to the city and the sound of people screaming reached his damaged ears. Selphie stood quickly, letting go of his hands, as the shadows began to move quicker and quicker around them, their red eyes glowing. Seifer and Selphie both stood tense, ready for anything as more explosions wracked the city. Flames licked at the sky from not to far off in the distance, growing closer like hungry wolves that leapt from building to building, feasting on all that they pounced on. He opened his mouth to scream at the shadows to get away as they grew closer but his voice was frozen and his breath was clogged like cement in his lungs. The flames slowly grew closer and the shadows were swept away by a black wind.

"Seifer…" Selphie hissed.

"I know," he responded and gripped Hyperion tightly as their eyes finally saw the shadows moving into the flames and the black wind that came out of them. The people that they passed fell to dust on the ground and was swept away. The flames began eating away at the park and would not be doused by the numerous spells and GFs that were cast and summoned. He watched in horror as the people that he had met once or twice were struck down. He felt his body moving and realized that he was being carried away from the trees that he loved so much. The black wind chased them even as the shadows disappeared into the flames.

"We have to call Quistis and Zell!" Irvine shouted frantically to Seifer who ran only a few feet ahead.

"I did already!" the former knight shouted back. Squall's gray eyes roved the night sky for the stars and moon that he knew to be there and knew that he could solace in. He felt a stab of mournful grief wash through him as the flames began to try and eat those white points of light from the very blanket that they were sewn into. He could hear the mournful cries of the Ice Witch who tried to break free from her wall and felt the cold clutches of the greater darkness reaching for him. He struggled to get away and run but Irvine's arms were firm and would not let him down. He tried to scream and protest to being carried but the cement in his lungs had not yet cracked and freed his breath from its massonite grip. The black wind stilled and the screams from the people and the laughter of the flames rang in his ears. Irvine stopped running and froze where he stood. Squall struggled out of Irvine's grip but clung to his arm, looking for a way out.

Hard, onyx eyes were staring at him from somewhere close by and his ears picked up on the terrified and horrified squeak that Selphie emitted. He looked towards the woods and felt his body freeze. The demon was standing there. The demon that controlled the shadows and harbored a little tiny piece of her spirit stood at the edge of the woods. His torn and bloody robes lay hanging off his narrow, bony shoulders. His black hair lay in strings on his head an framing his peeling face. The black stone eyes peered out at them from sunken sockets and the crooked smile showed what few rotting teeth he had. The skin on his face was peeling away to show rotted muscles and yellow bone. His nose was missing and as his hand moved out towards them, the skin fell away from the bony, claw like fingers. Squall's heart was frozen in his chest as he gazed upon the demon that stood before him and rammed through the barriers in his mind to let loose the torrent of memories in one huge jumble. His felt the walls break and tasted the metallic liquid in his mouth as his gaze was forced to swivel up to the burning sky.