Help.

"Are you sure that everything is okay? There is nothing wrong with him? Nothing at all?" Quistis' uncertain and very concerned voice plagues the busy Balamb Garden physician for the countless time, as the usually calm and strong woman had been reduced to a complaining, irritating bug, which the poor doctor was itching to bat away.

"Mentally, there is nothing wrong with him." The doctor calmly repeats, bustling around and trying to get on with her work around the distracting SeeD woman.

"But that can't be right. He is not getting any better. Isn't there anything you can do?" The distraught blonde asks.

"No my dear, there isn't I'm sorry. But it is his problem." Doctor Kadowaki looks sympathetically at Quistis Trepe, who was nearly reduced to tears.

"Yes, but..." She tries again, even though she had verified her points with the other woman a thousand times, and was aware of the pointlessness of her 'conversations', however, that doesn't seem to matter to her, as she still stuck to her like her life depended on it, or Squall's did. Quistis is cut off, and the doctor is forced to harshly prevent the woman from beginning again.

"No buts Quistis. I understand your concern, but he has already shown how much he appreciates your concern. He did nearly drop you off a cliff, did he not? Now, to make sure that Squall doesn't leave us over night, I would advise you to, in his words, 'keep you nose out and leave me alone."

"When did he say that?" Quistis sounded shocked, and seemingly ignorant of the fact that the usually kind doctor had just told her to leave her alone.

"Some time when you were not letting him get a word in edgeways." The usually patient Doctor Kadowaki sighs exasperatedly, her sharp tongue directed at the woman, which was a first. Usually it was kept for trouble students or people who weren't following the rules. Having Quistis on Squall's back was one thing, but not letting the doctor get on with her work, and not stopping about it for well over three months would have anyone else in a mental institute, or at least in anger management.

Squall wasn't doing to good. Ever since the sorceress war. He had not been seen out of his office in well over three days, and even then, he had only come out to train at the ungodly hours of the morning. Quistis had been the secretary, until Squall had gotten out of control with her 'concern', and he'd nearly done some serious damage. Now she hung around with the doctor, who was at the end of her tether.

"Is there really nothing you can do?" The blond woman says with a frown.

"He is the commander, Quistis. There is nothing I can do, that I haven't already done." Despite her impatience towards the other female, she too was immensely worried for their stubborn SeeD commander's well being. However, as she had said many times before, she couldn't do a thing to help him. Not if he wasn't willing to accept her help.

Squall hadn't recovered from the sorceress war. Whether it had been from Rinoa's transformation and disappearance at the end, or simply something else, nobody but he knew. All they knew was that nobody had seen Squall for weeks. He hadn't been eating, hadn't even left his room. At first he had simply stopped talking again, not uttering a word at all, not even nodding. Then he had spent days at a time in the training centre. When he ran out of energy to do that, he had simply retreated to his room, locking the door. Paperwork was slipped through a slot in the door, but the amounts were getting less and less. After hearing Squall yelling in his sleep, he had stopped sleeping, ding everything to keep himself awake. It was a week ago that he'd nearly dropped Quistis off a cliff when he left his room at last.

She had just tried to help. But he didn't want help. She kept insisting, and eventually, his emotionless mask shook, and she was dangling over the edge, his hand at her throat the only thing from keeping her from falling. He didn't complete his errand, and had simply returned to his locked room.

One SeeD cadet had seen Squall nearly two weeks ago, heading to the training centre. "He had dark rings around his eyes, and he was like a ghost. He looked really thin", the kid said, "and when he looked at me, his eyes were...scary. Like they were vacant."

Nobody else apart from those two had seen Squall in the last month. Only a few had seen him in the last two. Six months of steadily deteriorating health was doing him no good. He had abandoned his friends, pushed them away. They were all worried, but Quistis was the only one trying to confront him now. She was letting her feelings cloud her judgement; otherwise she'd have left him alone long before he nearly sent her to an early grave.

Squall hadn't spoken since the night Rinoa changed.

Only Irvine and Zell had actually seen it, the others were unconscious.

To prevent the cycle, to stop Edea getting Ultimecia's powers, Rinoa had stepped in. Nobody had time to stop her, not even Squall. Rinoa changed then. She didn't even look human after that, but in a way that helped Squall kill her. Because that wasn't Rinoa.

Flashback

Wisps of black smoke swirled around the once most beautiful woman Squall had ever known. Running through her hair, caressing, like a lover. The smoke had engulfed her, eating her whole. The brown eyed princess had even screamed. Loud and clear, her soft voice was sharp, but soon the noise was gone, and the black smoke was all that was left. Punishment for breaking the chain. She was made to suffer.

The black smoke swirled and massed, and suddenly was no longer smoke. Instead, it was an angel, a grotesque, disfigured being. That was all Zell could remember, as he was slammed hard against meteors rained down upon him. Irvine followed soon after.

Leaving only Squall, battling the remains of his lost love.

End flashback

Nobody knew what happened during that battle, but Squall had come out of time compression silent and broken. He looked worse than the others, like he'd been there for a long time, even though you can't age in time compression. He'd run off, straight to his room. But now, his face held another physical scar. One small symbol etched into his face, just in front of his left ear. It was only small, delicate, but often it burned, like nothing he'd ever felt before. After one night of horrendous nightmares, Squall had refused to sleep. He pushed his friends away, even hurt them to get them to leave him alone.

It hurt everyone to know what was happening to Squall. To know that he would never talk to them. To watch as he hid himself from the world; locked himself behind his walls, never to show himself again.

Things were bad around Squall, before he'd locked himself away. People treated Squall differently since the war was over. Laguna wanted to be his father again, wouldn't leave him alone or shut up. People would notice that Squall just wanted to be alone, but Laguna didn't. He just kept on harassing him, until eventually he had simply snapped, and nearly knocked out his father. Not that he had even acknowledged him as his father. He just punched him in the face, hard, and sent the president of Esthar to the ground.

Squall needed help. He just didn't want it. He didn't want anything, only solitude.

Wasn't there someone, something that could help?