"ULTIMECIA" Squall said, surprised. "What do you mean Ultimecia is still alive? We beat her two years ago, I saw her fade out of existence."
He had a look that she had only seen once before, and it was when Seifer and his posse returned to the Garden to collect the rest of their stuff. She had never seen that look before or since that moment until this point in time.
She knew he was going to explode with fury at her for not telling him about the dreams earlier.
"I wanted to tell you earlier but I needed to make out the face of the person, and what you had and Edea had to do with it." Rinoa answered, hoping after hearing that, Squall would calm down and think it through from her prospective.
"I'm sorry, Rin" Squall said, trying to find the words to express how he felt without shouting at her.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier today about it, when I asked?" He replied, understanding that she had her reasons for keeping it to herself until she knew properly.
"I knew that you would want to know who it was and why she was cursing you, Edea and SeeDs for." She replied, trying to work out properly why it was her who had the dreams and no one else.
"We need to ask Matron about this to see what she thinks" Squall said, hoping that Rinoa would agree with him.
"You're right" she said "Ultimecia spent more time in her body then she did mine so she would understand more about it than I can."
She knew what she was saying made sense but a part of her didn't want to accept that Ultimecia was still alive and that they would have to go through all that again.
"Squall, can we just leave it for tonight, so we can go out and enjoy a drink and a laugh with our friends" She knew it would give her time to think it over if they did that and it might take her mind of it, now that she didn't have to share this burden alone anymore.
"Okay, Rin" Squall replied, "We'll do that and anyway we haven't had a good night out in a few months because we haven't had much of a topic to talk about. Well what I'm trying to say is that we all have to get a hold of our priorities now, since Cid and Matron are leaving us in charge."
He chuckled, thinking of Zell in charge of a group of students on an outing.
"What's so funny?" Rinoa asked puzzled, with what they just discussed, what was so funny that he started laughing for.
"I'm sorry, Rin. It's just thinking of Zell in charge of a group of students, while on an outing." Squall replied, hoping she would see the funny side of it. Rinoa thought about it and then started laughing as well, thinking who would be in charge, Zell or the students?
Then a knock interrupted them laughing, "Who is it?" Squall asked, "Zell and Irvine. Are you two ready to go or what?" Zell asked, he was wondering what they had just been laughing about.
"Yeah" Rinoa answered back, "Just give me a few minutes to get freshened up." "Hey, what were you two up to in there?" Irvine chirped up.
"Oh, nothing much" Squall replied "Just laughing at how funny it would be with Zell in charge of a group of students on an outing."
At that instance Irvine started chuckling to himself and replied "Yeah it would be funny, who'd be in charge, Zell or the students?"
"Hey!" Zell said kind of hurt by all of this "What about Irvine? He'd be trying to chat up all the women, if he went on an outing with the students." Irvine looked at him in shock and through the door they heard Squall ripping up with laughter.
"Oh, you two better stop it now before I crack up" Squall answered trying to be serious but he couldn't.
"Squall, you ready to go or are you going to lay there laughing all night?" Rinoa said, as she heard the whole thing from the bathroom and Squall could see that she wanted to burst out with laughter but somehow was containing it.
"Yeah, let's go. Oh man you to have me in stitches some of the time" He said as the door was opened by Rinoa.
"Let's go have some fun" replied Rinoa "The students in Zells case and Irvine would get a slap from Selphie, when she fount out" This started both her and Squall laughing again, as Zell and Irvine went "Hey!" in unison.
As they reached the club, they heard someone call out to them. They didn't know who it was due to the music from inside the club.
"Hey, it's me" the voice said from behind them. Squall turned around and said "Hey up Selphie, where's Quisty?"
"Is that all you can say I told you to meet me at the garage at 8 and here you are. Already here and without waiting for me and Quisty!" she moaned at them.
"Oops, I forget to wait for Quisty!" Selphie was so worked up about them leaving her behind that she totally forgot about Quistis.
"Hey guys" came voice from someone who exiting the club. The music died down, so they knew who was calling.
"Quisty they tried to leave me behind at the Garden." Selphie looked up and saw that Quistis was about to laugh.
"Now that we're all here, can we go inside and a good time?" Squall said, knowing that one off them would catch a cold. If they got inside, they could start to warm up.
"I'm going in, when Squall goes in that is." Rinoa replied, she noticed that both Zell and Irvine had a puzzled look on their faces.
"Will you two stop thinking of the most disgusting things you can come up with?" She remarked, and then they gave her a look of innocence, they knew it wouldn't affect her, but it made want to laugh at them.
She couldn't actually remember when she had laughed so much lately, she knew it was before those 'dreams' started.
"Well I'm waiting for all five of you", Quistis pointed out, stopping either Zell or Irvine from making any other comments, aimed at Rinoa.
As Zell and Irvine went past Rinoa and Squall, Zell pulled out his tongue at her. "Kids" she commented about his gesture. "When will he learn to grow up and that it isn't nice to stick your tongue out at people."
Inside the club, Squall and Rinoa were sitting down, taking it easy and beginning to relax after what they had talked about earlier that night, while they were in Squalls room.
Whilst they were doing that, Zell and Quistis went to the bar to order everyone their drinks; Irvine and Selphie on the other hand went straight to the dance floor and started dancing.
"So Squall did you sort out that dilemma you had earlier on today?" Quistis asked, handing them their drinks and making sure not to arouse Rinoa's suspicious nature too much.
"Yeah, it's all been sorted." Squall replied, seeing that Quistis was a little surprised at what he said.
"It's nothing to worry about right now. It's not that urgent at the moment." Squall was actually thinking the opposite of what came out.
He knew that when it concerns a sorceress like Ultimecia, that it was only the beginning.
'How could Ultimecia still be alive and why was she going after Rinoa again for?' This is what had occupied his mind mostly since Rinoa confessed up about what had been eating at her for the past few months.
He was glad that she told him but another part knew that he didn't want it to have been Ultimecia.
"Squall, can I talk to ya for a sec?" Irvine said, coming from the dance floor with Selphie watching him very closely.
"What is it Irvine?" Squall asked not wanting to show that he didn't want to discuss anything and that he actually wanted to stay close to Rinoa at all times.
"I need to talk to you in private about it." Irvine replied, showing them that he was a little apprehensive about it.
"Yeah ok" Squall said, and then he looked that at Rinoa and saw that she didn't want him to go. "It's okay Rin. I'll be back as fast I as I can" Squall was hoping it would calm her down a bit.
Then Squall gave her a kiss and got up and started to walk towards the front door with Irvine in suit.
"So what did you want to talk to me about Irvine?" Squall asked, showing his impatience.
"Ok, it's just that I want to ask you, how is Rinoa doing lately?" Irvine asked, knowing that Squall would know better than anyone else.
"I was asking due to the fact that she just kept herself from absolutely laughing her head back in Garden." He saw Squall's face and he knew there was something wrong but wasn't sure if it had anything to do with Rinoa or not.
"Irvine, I'm going to tell you this in private and you got to keep it secret, okay?" Squall replied, hoping that he got that across simply enough. Irvine just nodded; he knew that Squall was being very serious.
"We all know how Rinoa has been acting weird lately, well it is due to the dreams she's been having." Squall said, before continuing on.
"The dreams have just recently started to become more vivid, and today just before you and Zell knocked and heard us laughing. She actually told me who it was and it was someone I would not have expected."
Irvine was a bit confused with it all, "So who was it she saw Squall?" Irvine asked, wanting to know who it was.
"Well Irvine, it was Ultimecia." Squall looked at Irvine and saw that he was surprised by that.