With the conversation they had the first night they settled the bedroom arrangement, Squall realized he didn't really have definite time on his hands as far as Rinoa's presence is concerned. It was a complete sham regarding her true intention of being here, however, Squall couldn't think of any acceptable explanation. She just came out of nowhere, and she had appeared to him at different times in his life. She was completely invisible to everyone except himself. So, what is she? A ghost? A premonition? Or a sign of his deteriorating sanity? Squall considered the latter one rational, though, he found it practically impossible to claim his own insanity. Actually, he felt like laughing really hard at that. Since the very moment Rinoa emerged into his life, he frequently finds himself caught up in between irritation and mirth. The next day, he thought about clearing things up with her… well, although he practically had no idea what sort of clarification it is he's expecting to have.

"I told you." Rinoa answered. "You won't believe me."

Squall exhaled. "Ok. So that's it. What do you plan to accomplish by being here, then?"

Rinoa gave her a what-do-you-mean look.

"I'm sure people in your time are looking for you as we speak."

Her beautiful face sobered as a touch of fondness dawned at her features. "I'm sure."

"And they'll be dead worried."

She nodded, and then looked away. "I know."

Squall exhaled. He couldn't believe a woman years older than him would act so impulsively regardless of the consequences. Actually, he doubted if she indeed gave even the slightest thought about consequences she had to face. "Now that you've warned me… I guess your mission here is done."

She turned to her with that serious, near-tearful look on her face. For a moment, Squall couldn't figure out why he wanted to let her go when she, in turn, seemed so eager to stay.

That's it. She's here to stay!

Squall didn't know if he wanted to curse or celebrate.

After long minutes of silence, Squall finally gave up. This woman before him is beyond his understanding… everything about her is irrational: materializing from a time way ahead, her purpose, her judgment. She simply wouldn't make any sense. And Squall detested things that don't make sense.

"Are you mad at me?"

He looked at her, the lines on his face still evident.

"For being here..?"

He surprised himself by shaking his head. "No. Not really."

"Not really?" she asked. That's as good as 'yes'.

"For one thing…" he stopped to think of an appropriate word. "Your very presence judges my sanity."

She chuckled at that. "You really don't understand love, do you?"

He shrugged, and heard himself whisper…"Whatever."

The entire day he spent doing anything just to get as far as he could from her. She, on the other hand, astonished him by not making any appearances whatsoever.

Well, I won't be getting near him in anyway if that's what he wanted. Rinoa resolved as she stared out into the familiar grounds from Squall's window.

Meanwhile, at another point in time, Sorceress Raja looked into her mirror and felt relieved at something she had seen through it. Things were going just as she wanted them to go, and she had never felt this victorious in centuries. If only she had known that evil magic would give her the revenge she had always wanted, she would've sold her soul even to the demon himself. At first, she had seen the young sorceress as a threat to her brilliant plans, but eventually, fate had twisted towards her liking. The once threat had become a very essential ally.

"Excellent job, my sweet. Really excellent job."

"Will you please let me into my room?!" Squall said in forced calmness. He kept knocking on his door, hoping that the pretty, moody  girl inside – whose unpredictability never failed to test his patience - would finally open the door and let him rest in his room. For minutes he had tried pleading, which obviously didn't work, and now he's into threatening her.

"Will you just say something? Are you in there?" he demanded, keeping his voice as low as possible. Should anyone see him begging the door to let him in, he'll be doomed.

"Can't you just say the magic word?" Rinoa, with her back against the door and its key dangling in her index finger, reprimanded.

"Rinoa, please." He said. She noted the dangerous hiss he used.

"That's not what I want."

"What you want? How about me, do you wanna know what I want? I want to…" he trailed off as he heard nearing footsteps and immediately straightened. However, it probably took a different route for it suddenly died in the silence. "Rinoa!!!"

"Couldn't you just say it nicely?" she demanded.

Gritting his teeth, Squall faced the door and struggled to keep his temper at bay. "Rinoa," he began gently, "Please… I need to sleep. A busy day is waiting for me tomorrow. Please?"

Rinoa felt tears stinging the corners of her eyes as his gentleness reminded her of the Squall she loved… and loved her in return. "Ok." She opened the door and found him standing there, facing her. The murderous look on his face made her think twice about the prank she had just played at him.

He exhaled in relief. "Thank you." Then he stepped in. Throwing another glance at Rinoa, he said, "I need to change clothes."

Rinoa nodded. "Ok. I'll go outside. Call me when you're done."

Squall nodded and closed the door as Rinoa had stepped out. Then, he locked the door.

"I knew you were gonna do that?!" Rinoa growled. "Squall," she threatened, "If you don't open this door this instant, I'll bang it like I've never banged any other door in my life and the entire Garden will hear it! I swear." Hearing no reply from the other side of the door, she slammed her clenched fist against it and, to her surprise, she went through the door. Squall was half dressed when it happened, and they stared at each other in  shock.

"I thought you…?" his words trailed off as the shock of her walking through walls had hit him again. Rinoa, on the other hand, was in shock as she stared at him standing at the other end of the room, his shirt in his hand. For a second she even hoped she had entered a little bit later when his pants are…

I went through the closed door!

She started to panic. "I… I'm a ghost!"

With unconcealed astonishment, he crossed the room and stood face to face with Rinoa. He reached his hand out, and adding up to his near-insanity (which he had started accepting just early this morning), his hand went through her face.

"What the--"

She tried to grasp his arm and failed. "Squall… I've… I've become a… a ghost!"

He stared at her, refusing to answer.

This is tragedy as I have expected. Squall thought to himself as he looked at Rinoa standing by his window, her thoughts drifting and her eyes blank, her arms crossed protectively over her chest.  This is definitely tragedy. And same as before, he had no logical reason left in his hand to keep his thinking straight.

"What happened to me?" she asked. "Was there something wrong in the spell I used?"

Squall sighed. He really had nothing to say to that.

"Or maybe… impossible!" she said, continuing her monologue. "No one at home would vanish me… and no, if I was vanished to remain in this time to be able to reseal the link between the past and present, I have probably materialized and became visible for everyone to see, not other way around."

"And… could it be that they knew some other way to… Stop thinking!!!" she told herself. "Stop thinking! This is your fault. This is your consequence. Just… just… let… it… come." Completely distressed, she closed her eyes and blocked her ears. The next minute, Squall was behind her.

 "Wasn't this what you wanted?"

She looked at him as if he had said the dumbest thing on earth. "No." she shook her head. "I merely wanted to warn you and…"

"You couldn't face the fact that the one you love is gone… so you went back through time to change things… and when it dawned at you that you couldn't…"

His words stung. "Stop!"

"You preferred to stay here… where the one you love is alive."

Rinoa felt like crying. She was on the verge of a big problem and he's lashing her with… with rationality. He was right.

And Squall knew it. He wanted to feel victorious, but he was feeling just as miserable. One reason why he hated miserable people is this… they contaminate the world with their misery and even he had no escape. Come to think of it, he could feel her misery, too. Rinoa's story was utterly romantic, he had to admit, but romance robs even the most intellectual person of his ability to think. With a secret laugh, he vowed never to be that miserable and that… that stupid.

"I'm sorry." He mumbled under his breath.

"For what?! What else is it for?" Rinoa retorted. She wanted him to think that she was furious at him in order to cover up the fact that she thinks he was right. If this guy before her is the Squall she first met, he would probably say "I knew it all along" with a knowing look on his face. She didn't want that.

"Because he died." Squall said, still refusing to acknowledge that he and her Squall are but one person.

Rinoa shrugged. "I guess… I don't really know what will happen to me. If I die or something, will you at least remember me and be extra careful in the days to come." She started to sit down the bed, thought about it, and chose to remain standing instead.

Squall nodded. "Sure. For now, what do we do?"

Rinoa eyed him as if it was really stupid of him to ask. "What to do? What to do? Nothing else but wait till my clock ticks off."

"Until your clock ticks off? Are you sure?" He shook his head. "Do you know how serious this is, really…"

Rinoa shrugged. "I don't even know what to think."

"And that's why you're not thinking."

She frowned. "I am thinking."

He shot her a cool I-don't-think-so look that got Rinoa's temper shooting up to danger zone.

"Listen.." she said as she stepped closer to him, pointing her finger to emphasize her point. "If you're not going to sympathize with me, I'd greatly appreciate it if you'd just shut your mouth!"

Ellone was looking at Selphie, all the answers to her questions in her eyes. Just minutes ago, Selphie came banging on Ellone's door, enlisting the latter's help to contact Rinoa whichever way they can and finally tell her to come back. Or if by any case she  didn't know how to return, they could help her out. Unfortunately, none of the possibilities surfaced because Ellone couldn't find Rinoa. There was completely no trace.

"Where could she be?" Selphie broke the deafening silence, reading the misery in Ellone's usually twinkling eyes. "She wouldn't have used a different magic, something you are not aware of, right?"

"I know everything about magic, Selphie, believe me, and this only means one thing…"

Selphie had foreseen the answer even before it escaped Ellone's lips. "She's dead." She whispered with mixed horror and grief.

"However, I'm worried that maybe Rinoa doesn't know the trouble she'd got herself into."

Rinoa gave Squall a crestfallen look. "I can't even eat. I'll die!"

Squall, who was surprised when she suddenly emerged beside him in the Training Center and was simply too proud to admit it, sheathed his gunblade (not the one she had been familiar with, but an older, smaller and undoubtedly lighter version).

"I can't even touch a thing!" she demonstrated this by attempting to snatch a twig off the tree behind them and failed. The twig simply went through her open palm. "I can't sleep. I can't eat. I don't sweat. I don't feel anything! I'm practically nothing… like… like air!"

Squall had seen glimpses of this outrage, and he had dealt it the best way he deemed possible: ignoring her.

"Ok. Ok. I forgot. You don't care."

"I told you." He said softly. "And my logic doesn't match yours…"

"Fortunately."

"Unfortunately." He argued. "I don't know anything about whatever spoof you've done to yourself."

"Spoof?!" That was too worse a term. "This is no spoof?! I am real. And I am nothing."

He eyed her, in that way that never failed to make her feel like she'd said something absolutely dumb. And rechecking herself, she did say something dumb… but that's how it is. She's here, in this time and place, and yet she's but a… a ghost!

"I hate you!" she told him.

Squall simply shrugged as he bit his lip from saying: so there's no more  reason for coming here. He was being rude, but what's there to be done? Days ago, he barely believed she was for real, and now, he couldn't bring himself into believing that she's not-so-real all of a sudden. But then again the girl never failed to bring out the kindness he couldn't believe he possessed and after a few rounds in the Training Center, he brought her to Balamb.

"A FORTUNE TELLER?!" Rinoa hissed as she dragged Squall out of the creepy, smelly tent and toward the back of a vacant house nearby. "What are we doing here. Are you out of your mind?!"

Squall found an ironically funny reply to that. "In the past few days, I couldn't help but think so."

Rinoa threw her head back and closed her eyes. "Oh geez!"

"I don't know anything about this weird magic of yours and there is no one here capable of understanding that but the fortune teller."

"And you're naïve enough to believe that these people do have magic."

"No."

Rinoa shrieked.

"But I'm taking my chances."

"You're crazy."

"Yes, and despite the fact that the gypsy in there will think I'm clinically insane, I thought about doing this in hopes that she might be of any help.  Yes, I think I've completely ran out of logic in attempting to help you."

The logic sank in, and Rinoa have never felt so embarrassed in her entire life!

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got more meaningful things to do." He was about to leave.

"No, wait." Rinoa said softly, crimson shame creeping up to her face. "I-I'm sorry… and thank you for helping me. I-we should get in there now, I think."

Squall exhaled, and without a word, walked toward the small tent and, lifting the flap serving as its door, he stepped inside.

Looking down at a pond of mirror-like still water, her shrieking laughter echoed in the dismal forest of the cursed.