She sighed as she walked along the hallways of her school with her hand tracing over the lockers and walls. As she walked, she passed people who would look at her before turning to whoever they were walking with and whisper who knows what. She rolled her eyes as she passed them and only stopped walking when someone stepped in front of her. All she saw was a white t-shirt with a leather jacket covering most of it up. Letting her eyes slowly scan upward, she saw that the torso belonged to her friend Squall who was looking down at her with worry in his blue eyes.

"Hey Squall…" she managed to say in a whisper.

Looking behind himself, he saw an empty classroom and gently took her hand before leading her to the classroom, closing the door behind her. Bringing down the blind he leaned against the door and looked at her as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"We can't keep going into empty classrooms. People might think something is going on."

"We won't stop until you look at me. Ever since Sora's funeral you haven't been able to look me straight in the eye or to even tolerate being in the same room with me. Your teachers also told me you haven't been to any of your classes Am. I'm worried about you but you won't let me near you to see if you're okay."

"Do you have to mention his name? Why do we have to talk about this Squall?"

"Because you are still in mourning Ambrosine. That's okay but I don't think you've even grieved for him. At his wake, you sat down the whole time and when his funeral came around, you just… I don't know! You stay locked inside your house and even when you ARE out of your house, you're at his grave… I mean I know you loved him but-"

"Will everyone stop telling me that! I didn't love him I was in love with him. There's a difference! Squall… I don't know what to do without him. Do you know how many times I wish that I was the one who had taken the beating instead of him? He didn't deserve it! He was only sixteen for fuck sake! I'm the one who got us into the mess so shouldn't I be the one to pay?"

Her face was by now streaked with tears and she was sitting on her the back of her legs rocking back and fourth. Squall walked over to her and kneeled beside her wrapping his arm around her.

"You didn't get us into anything. Ansem is after us because he wants power. He wants power that only we possess."

He then pulled her at arms length and stared her right in the eyes.

"And don't you ever wish you were the one dead. I bet Sora is turning in his grave. He would never want that from you. He would want you to live on. And don't worry about Ansem, if he comes after you, Cloud, Sephiroth and I will fight him."

"I wish this would all stop. No one else needs to die… Hasn't enough blood been spilt?"

Squall looked at Ambrosine's eyes seeing something he couldn't quite place. He really hated seeing her like this. It had been almost two months since Sora died and she still hadn't grieved or shown any emotion. Then again as he thought about it, the only person she really showed emotion to was Sora and sometimes Yuffie. The only time she had shown emotion to Squall himself was when Sora died and he was the only one there to comfort her.

"You're right. Enough blood has been spilt but I doubt that Ansem thinks that. The worst part is that now since we don't have Sora, we're pretty weak. He was the one with the most power. Right now the scale is tipped and it's in his favour. Now is the perfect time for him to attack so I just want to keep up the guard. I wouldn't want anything to happen to you."

Ambrosine looked at Squall and let a weak smile cross her lips.

"I know. You are the big brother I never had. I just don't want anything else happening… I guess that won't happen with who I am, huh?"

Squall gave her a comforting smile and hugged her as tears filled her eyes. Déjà vu hit her as she sat on the floor held in Squall's arms. She grabbed onto his shirt and pulled him closer as she started to cry more. Squall was whispering in her ear things she couldn't make out and stroking her hair. Deep inside she felt happy that she had someone to comfort her when needed. Then again Squall was ALWAYS there when she needed him the most and even though she'd push him away, he would always be there on the sidelines waiting. She buried her head into his shoulder when her crying had gone down and he held her there with his hold on her tightening letting her know he wouldn't let go.

They remained that way for the rest of what was supposed to be their second period. They broke apart as soon as the bell rang letting out the classes and stood up. Ambrosine weakly smiled at Squall giving him thanks as she opened the classroom door. She turned back to look at him and spoke.

"I'm gonna go to third block… Cloud will yell at me if I miss another class. How about you, Cloud, Sephiroth, and I walk home together? It'll be like old times… Almost."

"Yeah… That'd be great Am. Should we all meet at the usual spot?"

Ambrosine nodded softly and gave Squall a hug before he left the classroom. She too was about to leave when she remembered her school things on the floor. She walked to the centre of the room and picked up her things before turning to face the doorway seeing something she didn't expect or want to see- Lexaeus and Vexen in the doorway with sly smiles on their faces.

"Hey Ambrosine. How's my old buddy?" Lexaeus asked as he stepped through the doorway with Vexen behind him.

Vexen closed the door behind him and grinned as he looked at Ambrosine before smiling wickedly at Lexaeus.

"What do you guys want? I'm gonna be late for class…"

"We just wanna talk with our old buddy. Enjoying your new life? The path of light? The path that caused the person whom you loved the most to die…"

"Fuck you Vexen…"

"When and where baby…"

Ambrosine rolled her eyes as she started to walk between them but was stopped by a hand grabbing her arm. She glanced down at her arm seeing that it was Vexen who held her and tried to pull away but his grip only got tighter.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?"

"Let go of my arm."

"Answer my question first."

"No. You let go of my fucking arm."

"No. I gotta take you to Ansem so I'll keep this hold on you."

"How is he by the way? Still sulking about the scars from the light?"

"I don't know. I do know he's not six feet under unlike your precious little Sora…"

Ambrosine's eyes stared to glow at Vexen's words. His grip tightened on her arm challenging her to try something.

"Come on Am… I know you aren't going to do anything. We both know it's not wise to show off our powers in public."

"It's a risk I'm willing to take…"

"Suit yourself…"

Before anything else could happen, the door opened and in walked a male with shaggy silver hair to his shoulders, ivory skin and piercing aquamarine eyes. He raised a silver eyebrow at the scene before him. A beautiful raven-haired female stood clad in black leather pants and a purple and black corset top. Her silver eyes showed so much anger that he believed if looks could kill, the man holding her arm would be dead.

She looked away from Vexen to the person who had just arrived. He was wearing black and red bondage pants with a black hoodie which gave his ivory skin a fluorescent look. His eyes were glaring daggers at the male whom was currently holding her by the arm very tightly.

"Vexen… What the hell do you think you're doing? We're supposed to leave them alone during school. That's Ansem's main rule other then slaughtering them…" he said shuddering at the last part.

"I just couldn't pass up having some alone time with the princess. I mean there's no more Sora so I might as well have my fun now…"

"You son of a -"

Before she could finish her sentence, she felt herself being held while Vexen fell onto the ground holding his cheek.

"What the hell was that for Riku!"

"She's not a fucking toy, you know! She's a human being! She should be treated as such…"

Ambrosine turned her head slightly to look at who was holding her and sure enough, it was Riku with his arms protectively wrapped around her waist. She gave him a look of confusion but decided to drop her question when he let go of her waist mumbling an apology for holding her so close.

"Ansem's gonna hear about this Riku. You're gonna get it!" yelled Lexaeus as he grabbed Vexen and disappeared in a black cloud.

Riku rolled his eyes at Lexaeus' words before turning to Ambrosine and slightly smiling.

"Don't you know it's bad to use magic out in public?"

"Don't you know it's bad to cut in when a man is about to get his ass kicked?" she asked with a sweet smile.

"What the hell happened anyways? I could feel your power down the damn hall. It's a good thing none of your friends or mine are on this hall or there would have been a full out war at school."

"Why did you help me? Why not just let Vexen do whatever before taking me to Ansem? I mean isn't Ansem the 'head guy' or have things changed since I left?"

Riku shrugged his shoulders as he sat cross-legged on the floor looking up at Ambrosine. She sat before him but made sure to keep a good distance between them.

"I'm not gonna let anything happen to you no matter what side we're on. I've known you the same amount of time that I've known Sora. Nothing could make me hurt either of you… Hey, I never told you how sorry I was about Sora. I would have been at his funeral but I was out of town with family."

"Yea I heard about that… So why didn't Sephiroth go with ya'll?"

"You know why…"

Riku's voice changed at the mention of his elder brother. It was now cold compared to the warm, caring voice it was before. Ambrosine apologized for bringing up his brother only to get a smirk from Riku. She glared at the male for a moment before standing up and dusting herself off.

"Where are you going?"

"None of your damn business. I'll tell Sephiroth you said 'hi'. Later Riku…"

Riku watched as Ambrosine picked her things up and walked out of the room. He shook his head as old times came to his mind. Back when she was like him… with him in the darkness. He sighed and glanced at the clock only to find out that there was still four class periods left. Groaning he stood up and walked out of the room with thoughts of the old days filling his head as he went to class.