Mirror Image

Squall returned to his dorm from his little trip to Imogene's past. After pressing his finger on the scanning gel beside his door, he opened the door and hung his coat on the rack placed near the entrance. Throwing the book that he had recently checked out of the library onto the couch, he lay down on bed and picked it up. After flipping a few pages, he silently mumbled to himself, "Who are you Imogene?""

Squall was staring into a page with a picture of the woman he had encountered only minutes ago. She was an exact replica of Rinoa, with the delicate bridge of her nose so well-defined, her lips luscious, full, and pink and her hair a deliciously flowing black, without the streaks of dyed brown of course. What puzzled him most was that this woman…this image magnetized his soul to hers, even if he had never known her before. Somehow, in the dream, when he had made love to her, he felt it was the spirit of Gualtiero taking over his. His words and emotions could nonetheless have belonged to the same man in the dream world.

Nevertheless, he continued reading the book, and the more he flipped across the letters, the more the messages displayed the relationship of Gualtiero and Imogene as lovers and as sorceress and knight. The letters also took into account the passing years as the baby grew into a young boy. After an hour or so of reading, Squall had just finished the book, the last of letters unfinished with a portrait of Imogene.

"This is odd. She looks so much like Rinoa…" he said aloud as he stared into the picture etched into the page. It was an aging hand painting of the sorceress. Her nose took the delicate shape of Rinoa's beautiful bridge, and her eyes radiantly displayed the warmth of chocolate. Her hair was deliciously flowing black, without the brown streaks of course, and she was without a doubt beautiful in every aspect. Squall couldn't help but gaze at such a wonder to behold. He looked back at the sorceress' last letter and began reading it to himself.

"Dear husband and beloved knight,

It has come to my knowledge that your recent trip to Esthar City has been a success. However, you say that you seek a more convenient place of residence closer to the city. My knight, this seems to be a most wonderful idea, but I differ with the notion of building a house in that Trading city. It may be the center of the known world's technology and all of those marvelous achievements man has stumbled upon, but I feel much safer residing in this mountain residence, away from those humans who may have more chances of coming to disturb the peace. I know your intentions are well, but do not condone the fact that I am feared, as I am a woman of power and you know that the mere mortals who live in that town fear difference and strangeness. But if you think it's for the best my knight, I put my faith in you.

Leonardo has begun to show some presence of magic within him. Isn't that odd? Our child has magic. I must begin to show him how to cultivate his powers when he is right of age. Perhaps within a few months? Do you believe my decision is right? Am I pushing his powers too soon..."

And the letter ended there. Some faint letter could be made out, but it seemed that the page had been somehow torn off. Squall touched the end of the page with his glove and checked to see if the manuscript had been torn before, but it apparently felt undamaged. Turning on his desk lamp, he held the page under the light and checked to see if the paper had been synthesized, but it appeared to be in perfect, homogenous condition. It was then that Squall got frustrated and decided to give Zell a call. After dialing his dorm extension on the phone, he was able to connect to Zell's room.

"Yo, this is the Z-man! Whatever the problemo, you can call me oh! Hello this is Zell, what can I do for ya?" came the voice from the other side of the receiver.

Squall snorted and told Zell, "That has gotta be the corniest thing you have to say Zell. Anyway can you come over here and help me check out some stuff? If you have some kind of device that analyzes the density of a piece of cloth or paper, that would work out great."

Zell ecstatically answered, "Then you called me at the right place at the right time! I'll be there in a minute or sooner, and if I can't fulfill your request, it's a full reimbursement from me! See ya there Squall!"

When Zell had put down the phone, Squall shook his head in disappointment and said, "That guy needs to grow up."

A few minutes later, Zell arrived, and he brought a special scanning device with him. When Squall opened the door, he said, "You're late."

Zell marched into the room and set the delicate equipment on the table. "Hey what can I say? I need a social life too Squall. Anyway, I brought the machine. It is perfect for checking out fabrics and manuscript parchment of all sorts by using x-rays. What did you need this for?"

Squall grabbed the book from the table and gave it to him. "There is a page in this book that seems to have something missing. I don't know how this would apply, but I guess x-rays would more or less do the trick." He indicated the missing page to Zell and let him do his magic with technology.

Zell set the bulky object down on the floor first and plugged it to the wall. Once it was up and running, he placed the book with the page face side down on the scanner and began doing a series of complicated operations. Once the machine made a series of beeping noises, Zell knew it was done. Connecting the device to Squall's printer, he configured it to do a detailed printout of the page. A few minutes later, a few pages of the printout had come out of the computer, and Zell presented the papers to Squall.

"Okay," Zell began. "From what I can see from these results, the paper on this page looks homogenous, but as you said earlier, there seems to be a faded outline of a word there right? Well, you are right. That is a word. I don't understand how you could read this dialect Squall but yeah, there seems to be, or seemed to be I should say, some sort of writing there."

He handed the first page of the printout to Squall before continuing. "As you can see from the first printout, the page seems to be in good order, but I decided to do a layer examination using this device and what came out was this." He gave Squall the second sheet and said, "It looks like a layer of some sort covering that page."

"So what can I do about this then Zell?" Squall asked his friend.

"Since it's a manuscript, I would advice against trying to rub the compound off. But if you can somehow find a way to reveal the image, that would be so awesome," Zell informed him.

Squall stared at the two printouts and told Zell, "Ok, I'll do that. Thanks Zell."

Zell quickly repacked his equipment and put it into his bag. "No problem man! I'll see you later because I have to go somewhere k? By the way, I'll be sending you the bill later so no hurries with the payment."

Squall accompanied Zell until the entrance and went back to the coffee kitchen to examine the printouts. He stared intently at the pictures and brought the book to the table. He looked back and forth between the manuscript and the printouts, and soon, he gave up. Soon enough, he found himself extremely frustrated and decided to go into his room with the book. He lay on bed and opened the book again, this time deciding to focus intently on what it was trying to say.

"Come on, I know you are trying to say something," he said before putting down the book for a moment to find a black bird outside the window. He saw it land on the window sill and caw at him.

'Frickin bird. I can't read if it keeps staring at me like that,' he thought as he stared into the bird's coal black eyes

He decided to continue reading and said aloud, "Storm, where are you when I need you?"

Outside, the bird just cawed and flew away. Squall was left alone in his room thinking about the missing text. As his eyes darted across the text, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickling as the temperature of the room seemed to drop suddenly. Pulling the blanket up to his torso, he continued reading will thinking, 'Damn, it is getting cold here.'

Turning the page over, he found a picture of a portrait of a woman who seemed to be none other than the woman in his dreams—Imogene. He stared into her features and gazed in wonder at the striking resemblances between the woman and Rinoa. He traced the outline of her face—her nose, eyes, and mouth. It seemed as though he was looking at Rinoa herself, but there were subtle differences of course. After several minutes of gazing into the mysterious portrait, Squall decided to further his reading of the manuscript. He decided to take a rest, however, and just as he put the book down on his lap, he found himself staring face-to-face with the transparent figure of a beautiful, life-ridden, female wraith.

"Gualtiero…" the figure whispered at him. She seemed to be made of sheer ether, and an inner glow emanated from her core. "Perche, perche, Gualtiero? (Why, why, Gualtiero?)

Squall froze in bed. He couldn't imagine looking at the ghost of this woman he had just been looking at earlier. Before him was the disheveled ghost of Imogene, undoubtedly in pain with the unmistakable look of anger and sadness mixed altogether in her eyes.

"Crudel! Uomo Dannata! Perché me ne rimuneri così? Lei ha abbandonato i suoi figli! Lei me ha abbandonato! L'ho amata tu con tutto il mio cuore! Uomo crudele!" (Cruel man! Damned man! Why do you repay me thus? You abandoned your children! You abandoned me! I loved you with all my heart, cruel man!" she spitted at him. Her ethereal figure floated towards him, her hand outstretched in order to seize the collar of his shirt.

"Do you realize what you have done to me you fool?" she asked him menacingly as she loomed over him with her blank, unearthly gaze. "How could you be so cruel to leave my child when he develops his powers? He is of your seed too! You faithless wretch!"

Squall was speechless. He barely whispered, "I…I don't know what you are talking about. Imogene I never did leave you!" Squall was surprised at how instantly he could have formed those words. It was as if someone was guiding him in his conversation with the outraged wraith.

Imogene threw her head back and cackled a spine-chilling laugh that echoed throughout the cavernous apartment. "Fool! You have the audacity to tell me that I am not aware of what you have done? I know what your true intentions were! And to think that I loved you!" she hissed. Widening her eyes and pointing one bony finger at him, she shouted, "I curse you and your bloodline forever Gualtiero! Lest you have another child, my sould shall forever hunt down each and every one that is born of your marriage! Trade me for that woman in that desolate city which you love so much, but my blood shall forever carry the sorrow that you have inflicted upon my heart! Even if I am physically dead, my powers will continue to pass through the generations to destroy each and every one of the children you shall spawn across the centuries!" After saying this, her eyes turned pitch black, and Imogene herself began swirling and turning into a cloud of smoke. Not before long, all that Squall could recognize from her beautiful form was her face, which gazed at him, hissed, and seeped into his mouth, very soon rendering him unconscious.

Meanwhile, a large cloaked figure had entered the apartment and slowly approached Squall. Placing his hand over Squall's forehead, he recited a few magical incantations before a flash of blue engulfed the room.

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Squall blinked his eyes open and stretched out his arms. 'Man, that was one creepy dream,' he thought to himself as he tried to shake off any feeling of drowsiness out of his system. Soon enough, the room appeared much clearer to him, but when he turned right to turn on the bedside lamp, he jumped up on the bed to find the large figure of Storm sitting on the edge of the mattress.

"Good afternoon Squall," Storm said calmly. "I believe you were having a nightmare."

Squall combed his hair with his hand roughly, and sighed. "Storm, please don't…"

"Squall, what did you see?" he asked him in an eerily monotonic voice. "I must know what you saw."

Squall paused for a moment to recall all that had happened before he had been knocked out. "Well, there was this ghost of a woman who appeared to me after I had read a book about her past. Her name is…"

"Imogene…" interrupted Storm as he gazed into an empty space. He snapped out of his senses and said "Oh, forgive me, please do continue."

"Imogene began cursing me anyways, and I discovered that her lover, Gualtiero, had betrayed her. Wait, why did you suddenly come here?" he demanded of the sorcerer.

"That is not a question you should be asking now Squall. You may have found a piece of the puzzle that I have been searching for all these years," he told the younger man.

Squall couldn't control his patience anymore. "Storm, I've been patient all this time, obliging with your request and such and so. Now will you please tell me, what is going on? Why isn't the battle over?"

Storm sighed and breathed very heavily. "Ultimecia is going to be resurrected again, and soon enough, if this event does take place, the witch will become immortal. You know very well that I cannot allow this to happen. As powerful as I am, there are certain things which my powers can never even cross. Please cooperate with me Squall."

Squall closed his eyes and shook his head. "I just killed Ultimecia. How on earth could she be resurrected again? We killed her in the future!"

Storm took Squall by the shoulders and shook him violently, "You don't understand Squall! There are some things that magic can do that science cannot even explain. Do you even know the full capacity of Ultimecia's magic?? I have faced her before and she isn't that bizarre creature you fought in time compression! Trust me in my saying that she is a million times more powerful when she is resurrected! Do you even know why she let you fight her in her world? Because she has for centuries been waiting for this one event! Now, tell me what happened or you will find yourself and the rest of the world on the brink of danger once this happens!"

Alarmed by the seriousness of Storm's tone, Squall dislodged Storm's hands from his shoulders, sighed, and continued, "She began cussing at me, accusing me for all the evil her husband Gualtiero had done to abandon her and their child upon knowing about the child's ability for power."

"I see," Storm said quietly, stopping again so as to let Squall continue.

"Imogene then pointed her finger at me and told me that she would curse me and my bloodline and that she would hunt down Gualtiero's children," he informed Storm.

After a long pause, Storm said, "The war has not yet begun then. Imogene had only appeared to you now, but until a sixth apparition of blood, Ultimecia will not rise. Squall, do you realize that Ultimecia possessed Rinoa in order to have you slay her?"

Squall shook his head. "No, I always thought that she possessed Rinoa in order to slowly shift the world from the present day to an era of time compression. I never thought she would resurrect."

"The problem is, she will," Storm blankly stated. "According to the prophecy, the sixth apparition of blood rises from the mist to unlock the gates of Ultimecia's despair."

Squall asked, "But wait, where does this all lead to? Beginning from the coven of sorceresses killed, to the many victims slashed by some renegade killer, to your trips to the past, to that dream where you led me to a chamber, to this apparition? How does this all lead to Ultimecia's resurrection?"

Storm answered, "Your dreams which I have invaded were efforts of mine to show you the past of the child which is to come. This child is the key to forever sealing the fate of Ultimecia. I have been forever researching about ways to kill the witch, and apparently one way is to have the child kill her during the event of the sixth apparition. The renegade killer who severed bodies and the coven of sorceresses was none other than I, since those people were hastening her release from her tomb. I have never told you this before, and this is something that must only go between the both of us. I cannot allow them to resurrect Ultimecia unless my son is realized, for without him Ultimecia can never be killed. All of this happened for a reason."

Squall paused for a moment to think. "Do you think Imogene is Ultimecia?"

"That, I would not believe. However, Imogene's disturbed spirit travels across the generations to find a suitable host for her ongoing war against Gualtiero's family. I would imagine Ultimecia to be the final threshold of her wrath. As of now, she doesn't have a suitable host, and thus I don't think Ultimecia belongs to this age," Storm told him. "Imogene was a sorceress of immense power. I would imagine the person who receives her powers to be a mage of an equal magnitude."

"Wait Storm, why did you let me see an apparition of Imogene? What was that all about?" Squall asked him.

Storm seemed to stare unknowingly at Squall from under his hood. "I don't know what you're talking about Squall."

Squall froze in bed. "Does this mean that the first apparition has begun?" he wondered.