Shades and Shadows

Above the layers of tapestries and fabrics and a huddle of teenagers and an old couple, a black-clad wraith-like figure clung tightly to one of the drapes, peering down below at the crowd that drew much interest. His duty was to be a guide, a watcher, and most of all, a bearer of the cup of time. The immediate future, he could see as clear as the day, but the events that were to plague the world in the not so immediate future were obscure, clouded by a certain presence that prevented his powers from tapping into time's fabric. But that was none of his concern as of the present. All he had to focus on now was the little conversation that was going on from beneath.

From where he was, he could barely make out most of the words, even if his sense of hearing was excellent. He could, however, listen close enough to understand a few important words which he puzzled together to satisfy his curiosity. But, when the commander and the cowboy fled to one corner to talk about something that was most likely confidential, he felt the urge to use his powers…and he did. Melding the black hem of his fabric onto the velvety maroon of the luxurious drapes, his ethereal form glided through the seams and threads with ease, arriving at the base of the cloth in what seemed like only a few seconds. He listened intently, using his supernatural gifts to enhance his ears already more than his inherently enhanced capabilities. It was then that he heard their conversation.

Minutes later, all too pleased with himself, the entity glided once again through the crimson fabric stealthily as he did earlier, retreating into the dark depths of the Garden walls as he smiled to himself…knowing that soon, his revenge will be complete. His efforts had almost been stifled, and had it not been for his skill of manipulation, the tide of the battle would have been his. But now, the union of a sorceress and a knight, an event that had not been made known for over a millennium, was about to transpire in three weeks time. He had to wait. For years, he had been waiting in the shadows. Gradually, he had built up from the void a legacy that will, if all things go as planned, will inherit him the powers that he had been so deprived of. All in due time, he told himself as the trail of his ether wafted through the crevices of the Garden's rocks.

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Squall could feel the tension in the room when Rinoa entered in her wheelchair. While it was apparent that she was well, he shouldn't have left her alone in the infirmary for that long. But now, she was here, armed with the "knowledge" of a planned wedding. Hyne, I don't know what to do here.

"Squall," she sweetly beckoned him with one of her signature smiles. "Do you know what is going to take place in three weeks?"

Squall could do nothing but stammer and stutter before Rinoa looked at everyone in the eye and said, "Oh come on, you don't have to keep hiding that secret wedding from me. Squall told me all about it yesterday, so please stop acting as if you're all clueless."

Irvine was the first to speak. "Uh, Rinoa, we were wondering if…"

Selphie then interrupted loudly, "What colors you'd like for your wedding! First of all, I don't trust Squall when it comes to picking colors since he's a guy, and an unartistic one at that. Second, I think you are a very sparkly kind of person so I think it would be best to ask you about this so that you'd be happy for your wedding. Third…"

"Selphie, I trust you," Rinoa said as Selphie was just on the verge of blabbering about her decorating wiz for an hour. "You did a marvelous job with the Garden during the festival. I'm sure you will do a very good job this time."

Selphie looked flustered when Rinoa said those words, and clasping two of her palms to her chest, she thanked Rinoa. "Really? Oh thank you Rinoa! I won't let you down!"

"Cid and I will handle the invitations. And I was also thinking that it would be better and much cozier if we brought the wedding to Balamb Garden. What do you think dear?" Edea suggested to Rinoa first before asking Cid for permission.

This time, it was Cid who was stammering. "I…well…but of course dear! Splendid idea! And of course, all of your friends will be there. And I do agree, being in Balamb is much better for this wedding! I'd rather have it in a beautiful coastal town rather than this sprawling desert. I approve."

Edea gave her husband a discreet smile and slinked off with him to their residence quarters while saying goodbye to their children.

Irvine and Selphie looked at each other and decided to leave the two alone as well. Once everyone but Squall had left, Rinoa asked her nurse if she could leave them alone for a moment. Now, with nobody around, Rinoa gathered her strength and rose from her wheelchair. Resting her weight on one leg while standing up, she folded her arms together and gave Squall a loving look. "Squall, you know that you didn't have to lie to me."

Squall turned three shades paler and explained, "Rinoa, I hope you'd understand but I only wanted you to…"

Before he finished talking, Rinoa pressed two fingers against his lips, wrapped her arms around his waist, and rested her head on his chest. "I'm not dumb Squall. You guys may think that I'm just another rich girl without a brain but…I am not unaware when you're doing something without me knowing. I'm just glad that you had good intentions. I'm not mad at you Squall." She looked up at him innocently and said, "I don't care if you lied to me about going out of the room just to find your little committee. I want to be involved in this wedding as much as you are, even if it requires me for the remaining three weeks we have. Just so you would know Squall, even if it didn't turn out right, all I want is…" She stood on tiptoes and met Squall's soft lips, "…to be with you."

Squall brought her closer to the warmth of his body and caressed her back softly, playing with his hair. He enjoyed the scent of her luscious black strands and played with her tongue with his lips. When their lips parted, he rested his neck against hers, and stood there. "Thank you Rinoa. Thank you for understanding..."

It was her turn this time to play with Squall's chestnut locks. "Anything for you Squall. Anything…"

Atop the Esthar mountains, a small, rugged hut that showed much signs of age swayed back and forth as the desert winds swept across the tenacious slope. The old wood that the dwelling was built with creaked and shook with each passing breeze, the dilapidated state beckoning passersby to stray away from the structure. Despite the conditions of this house, within it's rotten doors and broken windows life was being sheltered. A woman cloaked in tattered grey clothes sat silently in the middle of the house in a praying mantises' position. She appeared calm, quiet, collected, but within her raged an inner battle that threatened to crush the magnificent city of Esthar below.

She opened her eyes. "Those fools! Young people do not realize what they are dealing with!" She leapt from her position swifter than a cat, grabbed a shard of glass, and hurled it against the wooden door, her incredible strength projecting it so far that it went through the dead wood.

She approached the window and waved her hands over the shards of broken glass, causing a reaction that made the shattered pieces mend themselves together to form what seemed like a puzzle. Once the pieces had rearranged themselves, blue light shone through the cracks, and the window was one again. The temperature had dropped significantly over the hour, and the storm was getting stronger. She needed a place to stay, and she couldn't get around Esthar without being noticed by the fashion-crazed citizens of this prosperous city. This hut was all she needed. As horrible as it looked, beyond the entrance there was a little room with a fireplace that could keep her warm for the night.

Pressing her hand against the fixed glass, she looked beyond the window down to the city below the cliff, directing her gaze to the luxury that was the Presidential Palace. She knew that Esthar Garden was directly beneath that edifice. To get past the Presidential Palace and the diminutive guards was an easy task. Challenging the wits of the more talented SeeDs, however, was infinitely harder. They had been trained to fight her kind. Certainly, they could be trained to detect her presence too. Her fight with the SeeD cost her a great price. Never again would this happen.

A flash of lightning lit the pitch-black sky, casting her wraith-like shadow on the old floor. Her tattered cloak with its many rips and tears threw another slew of frightful shades across the run-down hut. Turning around, she stealthily slinked around the tiny encampment, making her way to the little room. Throwing an energy ball on the fire place, she set the dead wood afire and made her makeshift bed. "Spartan, but it will do."

The room was surprisingly dry, despite the many rooms that had rocked the little house. One would have thought that the room would be damp and dank due to the abundance of moisture and humidity outside, but the one who had built this place obviously mastered the art of building well. Looking around, she noticed a small crack in this otherwise well-insulated room and walked towards it. Careful not to destroy the wood, she opened it gently with her magic and telekinetically lifted the wooden piece. Setting the wood down against the wall, she illuminated the inner walls of the "safe" with a bit of magic and found a sheet of old canvas sticking out from one of the compartment's little corners. Once again using magic to drag the cloth out, she stretched it out only to discover that the canvas was actually a portrait—a portrait of a man named Gualtiero with his wife, Imogene.

The woman smiled as she stared at the portrait, not too surprised as she had recalled the legend of the first sorceress knight and sorceress couple. This old building was most likely their hut, as legend says that Imogene and Gualtiero lived atop the mountains of Esthar. No wonder she had felt such a strong affinity with this place. It will be perfect.

Placing the canvas back into the wooden compartment, she replaced the cover and sat on her bad, digesting the thoughts which she had been processing over the past few hours. Tomorrow, she would begin the hunt again. Tomorrow, her goal would have been reached. Little did the teenagers know that they would be dealing with a force so powerful that could rock the history of their world.

A few decades ago, she had the opportunity to put an end to this, but circumstance did not allow her to make that crucial move. So, the prophecy cannot be fulfilled yet. In the months to come, she will prepare for one of the greatest battles the heavens, the earth, and the underworld shall ever bear witness to.

She had waited this long, too long in fact for her taste. Too long had she been hiding in the shadows. A smile crept across her face when she looked out of her window and saw the faint illusion of the shimmering moon across the other side of the night sky, an image she likened to a mirror. The shades of blue-white had spread across the expanse of the night, creating the illusion of two moons.

"And so it begins…I will have my revenge."

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Squall pranced back and forth in his office, his phone in one hand and a contact book on the other. Flipping through the pages frantically, he was looking for the "A" portion of the directory when the phone suddenly rang. Pressing the talk button, he put the device against his ear and heard, "…SQUALL!"

Squall felt like a tidal wave had just crashed against his eardrums. Once the ringing had stopped, he made another courageous attempt to put the phone against his ear.

"Speaking…may I know who this is," he coolly said. Now being one of the few instants where Squall brought out his steely voice, he said again to the receiver, "Is that you Laguna?"

"No Squall, it's me. If you listen hard enough, you will recognize my voice," the man said on the other side of the phone.

Squall rolled his eyes and guessed, "Seifer isn't it? Why did you have to shout like that?"

"Listen dude," Seifer said on the other side. "I know that we're not pals and all but I heard about this wedding thing and I wanted to help. Hyne, I can't believe I called you dude!"

Squall raised one of his eyebrows and replied, "Yeah, yeah…Help? And what kind of help would you offer, exactly?"

"Well, you know, I was wondering maybe I could organize the public relations thing. I know that you're no good when it comes to people so let me be of service. Besides, I want to have a truce," Seifer explained.

"You want to have a truce?" Squall asked him sarcastically. "Truce for what? For all those years you were a bully? For the times you bullied me? For my scar? For making fun of me in front of the other SeeDs? For giving me nudgies and wedgies in front of the girls? Sure, let's have a truce! In fact, I'm so glad that we're finally making up!"

Seifer nonchalantly answered, "Yeah, exactly for all of those. Besides, you're a klutz when it comes to romance. You may have a more fulfilled sex drive, plus a knack for wooing Rinoa, but otherwise you're still an amateur when it comes to making stuff like this work. You'll need the help of someone who…can play his way around something as serious as this. You don't want to ruin this experience for Rinoa right?"

Squall sighed heavily and slumped back against the couch on his office. "Ok, I see your point. But what do you know about weddings? You've never planned one before."

"And you're antisocial and Spartan, and I'm not," Seifer snapped back in a singsong voice. "What do you have to lose if you relied on me Pubesy?"

Squall paused to think about his words and uttered, "Everything? Seifer, how do I know that this isn't just another one of your little plots to make me look bad?"

"Because I'm over my devilish mode and I really do want to help. I couldn't trust you with a box of crayons and a coloring book. A wedding as grand as yours needs a true artist, a romantic. Didn't Rinoa call me that before?" he voice rang through the phone.

"She did, but I couldn't even trust you with a black marker and a white sheet of paper. Besides, Selphie's here to help, so why would I need you?"

"Because Squall, get this through your thick head. I'm not helping with the decorations. I know that cheerleader girl can take care of whatever bling bling she wants to stick all over the place. I was talking about you and the people business. Besides, I bet she would want you to invite daddy over. And I know that you aren't in very good terms with him, right Squally boy?"

"…whatever."

Seifer laughed and added, "Back to your old self eh? Well, I was right. I'll take care of that, and I can help you look good for the wedding. I don't think your SeeD uniform would make a very nice statement in the wedding."

"Why? That is a nice uniform you know."

"Because everyone has one. It won't make you stand out. If some other SeeDs were to attend, they would wear their own uniform too. Besides, I think I know something that would make everyone in the auditorium, girls and boys included, cover the floor with drool."

Squall took another heavy sigh and answered, "Alright Seifer. I'll let you help me. But please…please don't do anything that I wouldn't to."

"Au contraire Squall, if I did everything that you asked me to, the wedding will be black and white." Squall heard someone shouting in the background and Seifer barking at them in fluent Galbadian before he reverted back to the phone. "Ok Squall, I have to go. Some of my Galbadian friends are having trouble with the "techy" Estharian fishing techonology."

"You work here now? I thought you're enrolled in Esthar Garden?" Squall asked him.

"I need pocket money Squall. My business travels with me. Besides, it's not like I have any classes to attend on a weekend. Ok, Pubesy, I have a huge net of Balamb Bass, so don't make me drop this ahhhhh!" And the phone died.

Squall shook his head, grabbed one of the pillows on the couch, and covered his face. He just needed rest, that's it. Just rest. He closed his eyes and let the darkness engulf him.

Before he knew it…he was once again in the world of slumber.

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I'm sorry if I took so long to update, but I was busy with my engineering. Sorry my faithful readers for gripping you on my story like that without a single update for months. But I still hope you find the time to read and review. Thank you for waiting and the next chapter will be up soon.