Chapter Ten: Just Come Home

Author's Note: Finally! I really was beginning to think that that night was going to go on forever! But we're all good now, and in order to properly everything that is going on, this chapter is going to consist entirely of flashbacks of all the characters. Some will be at points during the game, some will be before, and yada yada yada. Only one thing is for certain in this chapter: a whole lotta angst!

Edea was transported back in time, colors blurring into shades, spinning around in vortexes of pain.

She remembered one night with her and Cid. He had just learned that the sorceress behind all the attacks, and the war, was his one and only wife, his true love. Everything was still going strongly in her favor at that point, and she was confident that all her plans were falling directly into place.

Sitting in her throne room, silken drapes hanging all around her, she was thinking about her next move: the parade. It was going to be the perfect opportunity to draw those SeeD trouble-makers out and finish them off once and for all. She had basically every angle covered, and knew that her plan was going to go off without a hitch.

The door flew open behind her, slamming harshly against the walls. A breeze from the balcony fluttered past her, lifting her hair up beautifully around her. She was not unnerved, or frightened. Instead, she felt a rush of something like adrenaline run through her.

"What do you want?" she asked in a soft hiss.

The voice that answered sent her off guard, and she was glad her back was to him. Her smirk faded around the edges and she had to work to regain her perfect composure. "I need to talk to you…"

"Cid?" she asked harshly. She knew it was him, but she had to be certain, and couldn't risk turning around.

"You know who I am," he muttered, taking a few steps closer to her.

"Come any closer and I will have you killed." Thoughts of all she had done went spinning through her mind. All that Cid would not have approved of, not in a million years. "You can't be here."

He took one more cocky step. Edea raised her hand and waved it at him. A great flame shot forth and struck him dead in the chest. He fell backward, but did not make a sound. The only thing that told Edea her spell had hit was his back thudding solidly against the floor. Dragging himself back to his feet, he said, "You know you are going to have to do better than that to get rid of me."

"Why are you here?" She asked, trying her hardest to mask the hurt.

"Why else would I be here? I want to know what you've done! What you're… doing! What has gotten into you?"

She wanted to weep, and knew that he sensed that. He was coming closer and there was nothing she could do about it, nothing that she wanted to do. There was this… beast inside her, yes… Ultimecea, but deep down, she was still herself, and would forever remain that way. From the beginning she knew that Cid was going to be angry, but that did not stop her. Not in the slightest. With her newfound powers and Ultimecea's nagging, she knew that she would be unstoppable if she put her powers into use. Anyone with that knowledge would use that power, would do what they could. Or so she told herself.

Before she could stand to meet him, he was in front of her and put one hand on either shoulder. "Why are you doing this?"

She saw the tears in his eyes and wanted to collapse in his arms, but knew that she couldn't. One of the luxuries that she once took for granted had been ripped out from beneath her, and she was on her own, in this world she had created for herself, in this world that she was destined to rule. The pain showed in her eyes and she let it. "I am doing this because I have to."

"Have to do what? Kill?"

Meeting his gaze, letting a solitary tear fall, she whispered, "I have to do what I have to do."

Feeling Ultimecea rise within her, she pushed Cid back. He was off his balance and nearly fell, but Edea had to remain strong. She rose to her feet, her gown billowing behind her. Pulling her skin tight gloves taught on her frail hands, she moved out onto the balcony. "There is no other way, Cid."

"There is always another way, you taught me that, so long ago…"

When his hands wrapped around her from behind, the cool night breeze blowing her head back to rest on his shoulder, she knew that if she really wanted to, she could fight this. She could take on Ultimecea and win, but it was her own self-doubt that held her back. "Maybe the lesson you heard was different than the one I taught, Headmaster…"

He laid one gentle kiss on her neck.

Her lust rose up and threw Ultimecea back into the depths, sending her spiraling back downward with rolls of need, want. "Cid…" she breathed.

"No, I need this just as much as you do."

"We're enemies… I'm after your precious children…"

"The children that you helped raise! They are all there, all those kids from the orphanage!" Cid said with urgency. "You would never forgive yourself if anything happened to your children, and you know that, somewhere…"

Her body was beyond reacting to him at this point, and all she wanted to do was give herself over to him. "If you throw them in harm's way, there's really nothing I can do about that."

All she wanted was his body, the touch of his hand on her naked skin. "Cid…" she said, a hiss of breath. "Cid, forget about everything, and give me this night, please."

He pulled back from her and turned her to face him. "Are you telling me that this won't mean a thing tomorrow?"

Completely serious, she replied, "It will always mean everything to me, you have always meant the world to me. You will not get harmed as long as you don't stand in my way."

"You know I can't do that…"

"I know," she said, starting the process of slipping out of her dress. "I know…"

It was the start of their last year at the orphanage. Autumn was in full swing, and they gathered out on the beach for an afternoon game of tag. Seifer was "It" first, as usual, and the other players, Quistis, Zell, Squall, and Selphie, ran from him as he sat, giving them some time to run.

The game was always freeze tag, Zell's personal favorite, though he never told the others. He knew that if Seifer realized it was, he would choose not to play sometimes, and Zell wanted to continue on playing.

They were all reaching puberty, the girls filling out and the boys voices were changing.

A cold ocean breeze blew along the sand, tinted with the scent of salt. Selphie loved the beach, the ocean. Even if this one was a little barren, from what she had seen on trips and the like, she still liked this particular one immensely. It was home to her.

Quistis was reaching the age where she was getting too old for these childish games, but still liked to play. She knew that she was probably the least athletic kid in the group, but that was fine by her. On any given day she would rather be in her room studying, getting ready for Garden, but she knew that part of it was combat, and she needed to be spry if nothing else, so she always chose to participate in the games.

Squall wasn't really into playing the game, he would rather sit around and think about things such as his sister and more pressing matters, but he also had the childish motivation to fit in. Undergoing puberty, he was beginning to go through the trials of sexual awakenings, and felt that he could tell no one what he felt. One moment he would be getting "one of those things" for Quistis or Selphie, and the next he would feel something deep tug at him for Seifer or Zell. More Seifer, and as time went on, the other boy became lodged in his dreams, coming on to him, seducing him with his taunting and teasing.

No one knew where Squall would go, and he went there for a specific reason: Seifer knew about it. When they played this game Seifer would usually get a couple people tagged and then pretend to run for someone else, and go to the cove where Squall was on his way to now. They used to just play around and tease each other, but lately it had been getting more… intense, or something. Squall could not really think of anything to describe what he felt when he was alone with the blonde.

On this particular day, however, Zell decided he wanted to know where his friend went where no one could find him. It was no secret that Squall knew the best hiding place, but he was usually too fast to keep up with, and Zell would just round a bend and he would be gone.

Today he was determined to find out. He knew it was somewhere at the bottom of the cliff that held the lighthouse, and that it probably was in some hidden cave that you had to poke around for.

He found a nice spot where he was sure Seifer wouldn't see him, and waited until Selphie was tagged, frozen to the spot, water lapping at her ankles. Sometimes they would get tagged a little too far out and a wave would come and knock them over. That was always humorous, and Zell was slightly bummed that Selphie wasn't further out.

The girl in the waves saw Zell crouched behind some rocks and made pleaded looks at him with her eyes. Zell rolled his eyes back at her and pointed towards where Squall always disappeared to every time they played. She seemed to catch the hint and turned her head slightly in the other direction to look for Quistis. They all wanted to know where the boys went during their play sessions. Whenever one of them asked Squall about it, he would just shrug them off, like he did with everyone, all the time.

Taking off at a trot, the boy wound along the coastline a little way down, until he could look up and see the lighthouse directly above him.

"Now, where would you go?" he asked the air.

A little stream went from the beach and flowed between two large boulders. There wasn't much room to squeeze in, and one would have to get wet during the process, but there was a possibility that they went under there.

"That's nonsense," he told himself. "They were never wet when we finally would find them."

Of course… they were gone for long periods of time. That might be enough for them to get each other dry by standing around and letting the wind take care of it, but Zell could not be certain. He wanted to know, and he did not mind in the slightest getting wet.

Dropping on all fours, he wiggled his way between the rocks, trying to make as little noise as possible. He splashed around a little to wedge in, but he made it without too much of a fuss.

Sure enough, there was a cave under the cliff! Amazed, Zell was not certain what he thought it would be like, but this place stretched on for awhile. There was only a little bit of light that spilled around the edges of the rocks hiding the entrance.

He stood and listened for a moment. Thinking he heard a muffled grunt, his first impulse was to run and see who was hurt. When he opened his mouth to shout to them and to see what was wrong, he heard something else that made him shut it.

"Oh…"

Was that a moan? He thought. What the hell was going on?

There was some heavy breathing and Zell was compelled to take a look around the corner to see what –exactly –was happening. When he put one of his hands on the rock wall to steady himself, he brushed something that felt soft, and very un-rock.

Picking it up and holding it too the light he let out a quiet gasp of shock. He was holding Squall's shirt in his hands!

Now he was not sure if he wanted to know what they were doing or not. But something made him take that last step to see around the corner.

The light that made it this far hit bare legs on the sand. Two pairs were intertwined with each other, rocking back and forth. The tops of both bodies were in the darkness and hidden from view. Zell stared wide-eyed, but could not pull away.

Though he did not quite realize it, he felt deep down that this was what he wanted, that he would be in either of their shoes in a moment. He wanted what they had, that lust.

Anger boiled inside him when he thought of them having something that none of the other children at the orphanage shared, but he knew that he would do nothing about it. He wasn't one for confrontation, and he knew that anything he did they would shoot down. Both of them were too proud to think that maybe they could be open with this. Yeah, they would both deny that this ever occurred until the day they died. They were supposed to be rivals, right? And rivals never did… that, did they?

As Zell turned to run out of that cave, he splashed extra loud, a lot more than he had to, just to let them know that they had been found out, maybe to scare them. He wanted to feel like he was in control, when he knew that it was the last thing he would ever have…

"I have things to do, and I can't waste my time here," Rinoa spat at her father. The group had just stopped by his mansion for his help in stopping the sorceress, but apparently there was no interest. He did not want to risk anything that he had in order to aid his daughter.

"You ran out on me last time, and maybe I have some things I need to say to you!" Caraway yelled. "You are my daughter, you can at least hear what I have to say before you run out again!"

"Listen," she said. "After what I had to put up with, all of it, I had every right to leave. I did more than you will ever know by not going to the press with the story of how you helped advance your political career!" She tried to run past him to get out the door, but he grabbed her by the arm and violently shoved her back into the room.

"I am NOT done here!" He shouted. "Yes, you were a very good girl not to tell anyone. What do you think I would have done to you had you told a soul about what happened within these walls?"

Rinoa stared at him as though she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "What would you have done? Please, tell me what you would have done to your own daughter?"

"Whatever I would have to, to get you to shut up," Caraway threatened.

"How dare you still threaten me!" Rinoa said. "I am perfectly capable of making it on my own, and everyday I gather more and more powerful friends at my side."

"Rinoa, I know why you really came back," he said, dropping his tone.

Flabbergasted, she replied with, "Really? I would like to know." She crossed her arms over her chest and looked at him skeptically.

He moved closer to her, making sure to keep himself between her and the door. "You came back because you wanted more, didn't you?"

"Oh my God!" Rinoa screamed, backing up until her back hit the wall. "You are unbelievable!"

He put one hand on either side of her head firmly on the wall. "It's nothing to be ashamed of," he whispered lightly in her ear. "Just close your eyes, it will be like old times…"

"I'll scream, my friends will be sure to hear me. They are just downstairs!"

"So what?" he asked.

She was confused. "What are you talking about?"

He let one of his arms drop to his coat pocket. Digging around for a second, it emerged holding a small, plain looking key. "They are… preoccupied."

The girl's eyes filled with terror, which caused Caraway to smile. "No one will come to save you, no white knight will ride in on his horse."

"You bastard," she hissed.

He grabbed her dress, yanking it up with one hand and plunging his other one down the front of her undergarments. She scream and kicked at him, but to no avail. This had all been set up, and she was not strong enough to deal with this on her own. He knew that, and he planned for this to all go this way.

There was a window a few feet away. If she could reach it…

True, they were on the second story, but she knew a hell of a lot of healing magic, and that would sure come in handy after the fall. She might be able to do it quick enough so that she would have good enough of a head start that she could get to the parade. There wasn't a doubt in her mind that her friends down below had found the secret passage leading to the sewers, so she could definitely find her own way. She knew this city like the back of her hand, and could maneuver her way anywhere without being seen.

She just had to get there, and in order to do that, she had to play the game… no matter how much it hurt her.

Leaning in, she began to return her father's kiss, which took him off guard. She didn't wonder if her not wanting any of this turned him on, she knew the answer as sure as she knew she had to get out of there, and now.

Running one hand through his hair that only had the first signs of grey, she lead him on as she had done to few other men in her short life.

When it seemed as though he was buying her act, she brought one knee up hard, ramming it with all her might into his crotch, and he doubled over in pain, uttering a piercing wail.

Rinoa didn't think, and had no time to open the window, so she lunged for it, shattering the glass.

Clear blades cut into her pale skin as she fell, and she thought that she might black out once she hit the pavement. Connecting with the unforgiving cement, she heard something crack. Lucky it wasn't her skull, and glad for it, she pulled some spells to the forefront of her memory and pointed to different sections of her body. She looked up to see her father at the window, trying to straighten his clothes before leaving the room, knowing he should not leave any evidence behind.

No doubt some servants were knocking at the door, wondering what was going on. Rinoa got up quickly, brushed off some of the glass that stuck to her clothes. The bruises that didn't heal right away she would pass off as some of the roughness that she had to endure to get to the sorceress. None of the others were supposed to be with her, so she knew it would go over with them.

Staggering away, her speed was slightly reduced, but she managed to take off at a slow jog in the direction of the bright lights and loud music.

This isn't over, father, she thought, and ran to meet her destiny.

Author's Note: Wow that's a long one! And I wrote it in under a day? Wow! Matron, you, as usual… make me very happy.

I hope no one freaks out that I changed a few… minor details about the night of the parade. It has been a long while since I played the game, and I don't really have the time to go back and relive the experience. The things that have been altered were done so to enhance my story. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. :-P