Rinoa was annoyed. As she walked onto the stage, they had not even announced her before the crowd erupted in applause. She did not feel up to even looking at the crowd as she walked onto the stage. She kept her head bowed and picked up her microphone from the stand. Natalie looked to her for instructions. Rinoa paused a minute hoping vainly that they would stop applauding, but then she nodded, giving Natalie permission to begin.

Natalie began to play the piano, and the boisterous crowd finally died down and began taking their seats. Rinoa began to sing, but could not muster the will to bring her eyes up from the floor, partly because of the crowd's smothering attention on her and her friend, but also because of the pain in her heart that her song invoked.

You were once my one companion

You were all that mattered

You were once, a friend and lover

Then my world was shattered

Rinoa's mind wandered to Squall. She wished he could hear her. After the dreams she had been having the past week, she had come to miss him even more. It seemed almost like she could turn and he would be standing behind her. Her she continued to sing her words in a mournful, but hopeful tone

Wishing you were some how here again

Wishing you were some how near

Sometimes it seemed if I just dreamed

Somehow you would be here

Wishing I could hear your voice again

Knowing that I never would

Dreaming of you won't help me to do

All that you dreamed I could

Rinoa finally worked up the courage to look her audience in the face. She brought her head up and started scanning the crowd, starting at the stair case. As she sung, she recognized several people. All of them young men that her father had introduced to her, and all of them practically drooling over either her or Natalie, or perhaps both. She looked past them.

Three long years I've wept in silence

Held your memory near me

Three long years of murmured sorrows

Willing you to hear – ahh!

Rinoa's last word was replaced by an audible gasp. In the opposite side of the lounge was a well-built blond with his hair spiked in the front. Zell! Next to him was a man in a cowboy hat. Irvine! Next to him, half standing was... Oh Great Hyne...

Rinoa's heart stopped.

Natalie snapped her head up from her music. Rinoa's last word had come out instead as a gasp. Looking at her now, Natalie's mind forgot to continue playing the music that was in front of her. Rinoa was gaping, staring, in complete shock and looking on the verge of breaking out into tears. Natalie drew a mental line from Rinoa's eyes to....

Squall. What does he have to do with... Oh...God... Realization came crashing down on Natalie like a ton of bricks and she felt her jaw drop. Squall was half standing, with a look that eerily mirrored Rinoa's, minus the look of being about to break into tears.

Natalie's mind raced, at the speed of a thundaga spell, various pieces of information falling into place and creating a picture that was both horrible and hopeful at the same time. I thought Squall looked familiar! He was in the same pictures with Rinoa that covered the news! He is the Commander of Balamb Garden! But why is Irvine commanding this mission? Rinoa had fallen in love with someone at Balamb. She went through a lot with 5 SeeDs and Squall and Irvine's description matches Rinoa.

New thoughts began to flash through her mind. Great Hyne! What happened to make them split? They both said it was the others fault! Oh God, Rinoa is gonna collapse! Natalie saw her friend's knees shaking and looking on the verge of buckling. To make things worse murmurs began to circulate through the audience, showing that they were aware of some problem, but not understanding what it was, even though only a few seconds had passed since the interruption had started.

Natalie did the only thing she could do. She picked up the music at the point she left off at. Thankfully, this was one of her solo parts, so Rinoa would have a few seconds to pick up on it. Her fingers graced the keyboard of the piano again, though somewhat louder and more forceful, with the hope that it would penetrate the fog that probably occupied Rinoa's mind at the moment. Natalie prayed to the mighty goddess Hyne for help.

Rinoa could not believe her eyes. Staring straight at her was the stormy blue eyes which she saw in her dreams, the face which she saw when she closed her eyes. His face was covered in a light beard. She marveled at how much he looked like in her dream last night.

Going from Zell to Irvine to Squall took less than a half second, but had succeeded in paralyzing her completely in her tracks. Her vision tunneled, the only thing that she could see was Squall's face stuck in an expression of shock.

Strangely, Rinoa was not as shocked as she thought she would have been in this situation. She looked at his face again, marveling again how like her dream he looked. She looked past his face into his soul, and she felt more shock to find somehow that she could see pain almost radiating off of him.

Then her own pain of their separation hit her, and snapped her out of her stupor. Her hearing returned, to find Natalie was still playing the piano, and that the other woman's solo part was quickly coming to an end. Rinoa realized this is what she had always wanted in a way: Squall finding her so she could tell him how she felt. Her music was her words, her emotions, and her lifeline. Rinoa began to sing again to him, and only him.

Too many years fighting back tears

Why can't the past just die?

Rinoa's voice trembled as she sung, but her voice was strong, passionate and, to the audience, simply beautiful.

Wishing you were somehow here again

Knowing we must say good bye...

Try to forgive, teach me to live

Give me the strength to try

No more memories, no more silent tears

No more gazing across the wasted years

Help me say goodbye...

Rinoa's last four words came out as barely a whisper. She knew her voice was failing, and it was taking all her will power to stay standing. She mentally forced herself to finish the song with every last ounce of strength

Help me say good-bye!

Her last note soared from a quiet high F and cresendoed to fill the room with her rich voice. With the conclusion of her song, Rinoa's mind went completely back to the eyes that haunted her. She stared at them, through them for an eternity. She stared for a moment, a mere second. She stared until she could no longer bear the sight of them, yet she longed for more. Finally one thought, one mere word, or suggestion, penetrated her mind. Run! Her brain spent a moment to contemplate the command. When it had finished processing it, she ran.

Authors notes: This will be the last chapter for a short while I plan out the rest of the story in more detail, polish chapter 10, and finish chapter 11. I also went back and fixed a problem I noticed, namely my dividers weren't showing up. So now it looks cleaner and probably makes more sense go back and read if you want to. Uhh... last chapter, I had another nod to Ashbear's extreme skills as an author, for those who caught it bravo.

The song is Andrew Lloyd Webber's Wishing You Were Somehow Here from Phantom of the Opera. Expect more ALW songs... I love him, he is one of my favorite composers. I had to edit a few words in the song to make it flow with the story. My extreme apologies to ALW and the Really Useful Group©

Lastly, a personal note: This is the first chapter written. It was the idea that started this whole story. It was from this one scene that this entire story evolved I like it the best so far, and I think that there is only one chapter in the future (it is already written) that I like as much as this one (I cant tell which one I like better until I finish the story) The other chapter is the second chapter I wrote, and accordingly shaped the story as well.