This chapter is a little longer than the last two. I hope you like it and will review!

Chapter 3

Ayleia stormed into the newly bustling Airstation. The destruction of the Lunar Base, the Lunar Cry and the return of the Ragnarok had forced Laguna to reopen the Airstation. The new employees were busy learning the ropes from some of the former staff members, so no one really noticed her. She immediately found a quite corner to gather her thoughts. Ayleia had barely managed to control her anger enough to stop her eyes from igniting, but was unsuccessful in controlling her tears and once she lowered herself onto the floor, the tears immediately started their free-fall. Her mother's death and her father's suicide were obviously not two of her favorite topics, but she wasn't about to let anyone, especially the SeeD members that she came back to help, see her break down.

She must have cried for five minutes before one of her fondest memories started rushing into her head. Once it started, she lost consciousness.

"Ayleia, wake up! It's time to get ready for school," her father said. Uh oh! Not now, Ayleia thought, panicked. This had happened before. She opened her eyes and looked around. She didn't really have to, because she knew she was in her old room. The walls were the same color pink the sky often was when the dark waves of time's compression weren't dominating the horizon. The small bed was made of oak found outside of Timber and was decorated with pink, blue and purple pillows and a pink bedspread. Looking out the window, Ayleia could see that the sun was shining that day. She turned and watched as a little raven-haired girl with her same sparkling eyes, although they were a bit sleepy, sat up in her bed and smiled up at her father who was smiling lovingly back at her. He was tall and muscular, with brown hair and the same green eyes as the little girl.

"G'morning, Daddy," Ayleia said sleepily.

"Good morning, honey," he replied.

Ayleia immediately recognized the memory. She was five years old and it was her first day of school. Her father had bought her a new dress the day before. Ayleia had seen it when they had gone shopping in Deling City and instantly fell in love with it. It was extremely expensive, but her father willingly bought it for her anyway. It had cost him his entire paycheck, but Joshua Charmeling's daughter's happiness was all that mattered to him. She was the only living connection to his dead wife, and he refused to allow or cause her any sadness.

"Daddy, are you going to walk me to school?" the younger Ayleia asked hopefully.

Joshua sat on his daughter's bed and looked her over. She is the devastating image of her mother, he thought. Except her eyes. Her eyes are mine.

Yes Daddy, Ayleia thought to herself, I do have your eyes.

"Are you kidding me!" he replied. "I wouldn't dream of missing my little girl's first day of school. And I might just stay with you all day and after that, we are going to go to town for some ice cream!"

Satisfied with what her father said, Ayleia's younger self launched out of her bed with full force and threw her arms around her father's neck. He caught her with his weight and returned her hug with a tight squeeze. "Alright sweetheart," he continued seriously. "If this is what we're going to do today, you have to get ready and then come downstairs for breakfast. We're having your favorite blueberry pancakes."

As the memory faded around her, Ayleia realized that another memory was starting. The room changed around her and she looked around to see that the walls were now a light purple. The bed she had when she was younger was now replaced by a much larger, wider bed made of wrought iron and was decorated in purple and black. Without even thinking about it, Ayleia knew what this memory was and as more tears began welling up in her eyes, she heard a terrifying scream from downstairs.

Ayleia fled out of her bedroom and raced down the staircase into the living room. She surveyed the room around her and saw that the plush couch was covered in blood. She was literally reliving the most horrifying moment of her life. She began sobbing uncontrollably as she looked toward the floor. The image she saw was one she couldn't escape no matter how hard she tried

The same man that had taken her for ice cream on her first day of school was lying lifelessly on the floor. Next to his hand was a small pistol, and cradling his blood covered head in her hands was Ayleia's thirteen-year-old self. She had just returned home from school, eager to show her father her grades. She had passed all of her classes with flying colors and knew that her father would be so very proud of her. She looked over toward the coffee table and found a sealed envelope with her name on it with her father's handwriting on it. She gently lowered her father's head onto the floor and reached for the letter. Tearing it open she could see her father's letterhead, his name scrawled across the top with his signature in silver. Wiping her face with the less bloody sleeve of her shirt, she read her father's last words to her:

Ayleia,

I'm so very sorry that you're hurting right now, but I know that you're going to be okay. You are the best daughter that any

father could have asked for. I will miss you so very much, but I want you to know that your mother and I are together now,

so I'm just as happy as I was when I was with you. I know that you will be able to take care of yourself and that you're ready

for what I'm about to tell you. Every single strange thing you have dealt with in your life. The bright, dancing lights that you

would see floating around your room when you were sad were not a figment of your imagination. They were a product of

your mind. My darling, you are a sorceress, as was your mother. When she was pregnant, she knew that her power would

pass on to you. At the time that you were conceived, the sorceress you know as Ultimecia was killing other sorceresses, but

your mother's magic, combined with your own, helped to keep the two of you safe from her. Not wanting to see you killed at

birth, your mother cast a protection spell over you when you were first born. This spell holds even now. I only know this because

if it were not true, both you and I would both have been dead a long time ago. She also knew that once you were born, it was

only a matter of time before Ultimecia came for her, so she wrote journals to you explaining how to use your powers. I'm sorry

that I have kept this from you, Sweetheart, but you were far too young to fully understand this. I kept the journals in my bedroom

in the vault behind your mother's portrait. Take the key from my right pocket and open the locked compartment of my desk and

there you will find the combination. Take care of yourself and those around you, as I have taught you. I love you, my sweet girl.

Your Father

Up until that letter, her father had told her that her mother died in childbirth. She had spent thirteen wonderful years oblivious to her heritage. As Ayleia watched her past self begin to weep again, the memory faded away and she felt herself regain consciousness. As her eyes fluttered open, she saw that she was surrounded by Squall, their comrades, and several of the Airstation's awestruck employees.

Squall grumbled to himself as he walked through the entrance of the Airstation. He didn't know how Ayleia would receive his apology, but it was the best that he could think of. It was truly sincere, but he wasn't sure that she would be receptive.

Walking into the main terminal, Squall noticed that the entire room was extremely bright and the lights seemed to be pulsing. When they had landed in Esthar after leaving Edea's house, the Airstation was bright, but nowhere near this bright. The Airstation's staff was completely baffled as to where the light was coming from, but looking around, Squall immediately saw the source of the light.

Ayleia was slumped against the wall and unconscious, with a bright light emanating from her in long pulses. Yelling for the others, Squall rushed over to her and started to desperately try to wake her.

Selphie was the first to reach Squall, followed by Zell, Quistis, Rinoa, and then the others. "Oh Hyne!"Selphie shrieked.

"What in the hell is happening to her!" Zell asked.

"I don't know," Squall replied. "I walked in and found her and the entire room like this!"

Rinoa, Selphie, Irvine, Squall, Kiros, Laguna, Zell, Ward and Quistis all watched in silent horror as the bright, white light emanating from Ayleia changed and turned the room to near pitch blackness.

"Whatever is happening, we need to get her to the infirmary now!" Laguna declared. He was frightened that something terrible was happening to this courageous young woman who, not even two hours ago, had landed on her backside through a time portal to help save the world from uncertain terror at Ultimecia's hands.

Irvine started to step forward, but was stopped by Ward. Looking at him, Irvine understood that Ward was offering to carry her.

"The infirmary," Rinoa screamed. "She doesn't look like she'll last much longer."

"Do you think we can make it," Quistis asked.

As if by some miracle, the energy coming from Ayleia suddenly stopped. Laguna nervously stepped forward and began to check for any vitals. His sigh of relief was all that everyone needed to hear to know that Ayleia was okay. And then her eyes fluttered open.

She looks as if she's not surprised to see everyone standing around her, Squall thought to himself.

Ayleia groaned inwardly as she looked around and saw all the expressions of concern. She leaned her head back up against the wall and closed her eyes for a couple of minutes before reopening them and sighed.

"How long was I out," she asked.

"It seemed like forever!" Selphie replied, with relief in her voice. "Are you okay!"

"Yeah, you were out for like ten minutes after we found you," Irvine added. Ayleia muttered a swearword and started to get to her feet before Laguna stopped her.

"You should stay seated for a couple more minutes," he advised.

"I need some water." Ayleia replied. Laguna nodded and then, noticing that they weren't the only ones watching this scene, he asked one of the new staff members to get Ayleia some water.

"Ayleia, what was happening to you?" Rinoa asked. The others all seemed to be wondering the exact same thing and, looking from one face to the other, she could tell that all of them, even Squall, were both amazed, and relieved that she was okay.

"I don't know how to explain it," Ayleia began. "It's been happening to me since I was a kid. I didn't know that there were external effects to it until I was about fifteen because my father never explained it to me before he died. Even when it happened in school, no one would ever tell me what was going on. Most of the kids around me thought I was some sort of freak, but others seemed to be okay with it. But, well, whatever. When you found me, I was, what I call, lost in memory.

"Lost in memory?" Irvine asked. "What do you mean?"

"Alright, I'll do my best to break it down as best as I can," she sighed. "My strongest memories have a tendency to make me lose consciousness. The lights that come vary in color depending on the memory. What colors did you see?" she asked.

They all looked at each other, and then everyone looked from Squall and back to Ayleia. Finally Squall spoke. "I was the one who found you. You were slumped up against the wall and the light that was coming from you was bright white at first. After a few minutes, the light changed and the room nearly went pitch black."

After Squall finished, the staff member returned with a large glass of water. "Ayleia, what were you remembering?" Selphie asked, as she took the water from the young man and handed it to Ayleia and then sat down next to her. Ayleia took a small drink of the water and savored the feeling of the cool water going down her throat.

"Thanks. I was remembering my first day of school." She answered. She lovingly recalled in full detail the entire memory for everyone standing around her. Selphie smiled as Ayleia told the story of her fondest memory of her father.

"Um, that explains the bright white lights," Rinoa said. "Ayleia," she continued, "you don't have to tell us about the darkness. I'm pretty sure that we can all guess what it was."

After that, Ayleia's lip began to tremble and the tears started to well up again. She fought them with everything she had, but it was no use. The tears began again.

"I found him," she started, "I had come home from school to show him my grades. I'd passed all my classes, and when I got home, I knew he'd be in the living room." She began sobbing again, and Selphie took her hand as she continued.

"He was just lying there on the floor," she kept going. "The gun was lying beside him and the couch was all bloody. I rushed over to him, and I tried to save him, but he was so cold. I, I didn't know what to do. I think I cried for hours, and then I noticed the letter he left for me on the coffee table. It had everything I needed to know about my heritage in it. He told me about my mother's death. Up until then, I thought she had died giving birth to me. I wasn't even angry that he lied to me about how she died. "I just missed him so much."

"I had learned about events leading up to time compression and the Massacre of Sorceresses in school," she continued, "but I didn't know how personal it would become for me. But when he told me about Ultimecia and what she had done, I knew that she was to blame for my mother dying. So I made up my mind that I would use my power to fix things. I spent endless months doing little else other than studying my mother's journals and practicing my magic. When I finally mastered everything she wrote about, I started working on coming back here to help stop this."

After she stopped crying, she looked up at Squall who, unbelievably, was looking at her with sympathy. "Now that you know the whole reason that I'm here, can you accept that I'm here for the same reason you are?" she asked softly.

Squall had instantly realized how deep this really went for Ayleia when she began recalling memories of her father. He walked in front of her and, looking into her green eyes with his grayish-blue ones, he extended his hand to help her up.

"Let's go," he said.

Taking this as a sign that Squall had indeed come to understand her reason for being here, she allowed him and Selphie to help her to her feet. As their audience cleared a path for them, they proceeded to the Ragnarok.

Author's note: I made blueberry pancakes Ayleia's favorite because of my personal love for blueberries!