"We're SeeDs! We're trained to kick the sorceress' ass!"
-Zell
PASSING OF A KNIGHT
Squall lived, but he was never the same after that. One could almost mark the date of his injury as the date of his death. He no longer had any flare to him. His age was part of it, the injury the rest. The gash on his left side healed, but the pain was also there, nipping at him whenever he moved or walked. He was not in shape to even move far distances, nevertheless be the knight for a Sorceress in hostile times. Rinoa's love and worry for him also lived on, though she was unsure of everything at that point.
It even got to the point where Gilmahn had to help him walk over the rough terrain. Due to who they were, going into a town or village was out of the question completely, so they managed with what they had. Then the day came that Squall passed away. It was quiet, and painless. Well, painless at the moment it happened at least. His life had been full of pain, physical and emotional, especially after he became her knight, and Rinoa knew it.
They find a clearing in the middle of a forest. They decide that will do. They lay out Squall's body along a large stone pedestal. They set him up facing upwards, his hands up to his chest holding his gunblade in a very noble position. Rinoa falls to the ground right near the pedestal. She moves her hands slowly though his hair. Her eyes stare at him, but she doesn't seem to be thinking about anything, the look in them completely empty. After a while of silence she talks quietly.
"I feel so...old."
Her hair now has streaks of gray amongst the deep black. Gilmahn had noticed it, but he hasn't said anything.
"Thinking like that will get you nowhere." He stands back quietly and politely, holding his hands in front of himself.
"But...I...he..." She puts her head down and cries a little. Gilmahn just watches, and blinks for a few moments, and then decides to continue talking.
"Well, I am still with you..." She continues to cry. This apparently wasn't much comfort to her, and Gilmahn frowns a little and scratches his head. He speaks a little more seriously now.
"Rinoa..." He moves over right next to her and he places his hand on her shoulder and rubs it a little as she continues to cry quietly. Eventually he kneels down right next to her, looking right at her although she buried her face in her arms.
"Your time with Squall was the most precious thing to you. And his time with you was his. There is no more one could ask for than to get the most out of love, and you two have, I have watched you for a long time. I never have seen anything like it." Rinoa peeks up a little at him, her eyes bloodshot.
"And from there, you can still get everything out of your love for him. By holding on to the strong memories of the loved...and lost. But also not letting the grief hurt you. Squall wouldn't want that. I don't want that either." She finally moves forwards and hugs Gilmahn, clutching his cape with one hand, and holding Squall's ring in another. He looks much more pleased with this response than the last one.
"I love him."
"I know." Gilmahn remains motionless as she grasps onto him, and talks.
"My protector is gone...I am so vulnerable. Maybe I should just...build a house in the sky. There no one could get me."
Gilmahn's expression goes from understanding to annoyance fairly quickly. "That won't save you from anything."
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Train was the quickest way back at this point. From there, a boat or something can finish the trip, Temoren thinks to himself. He hadn't been in Balamb in a long time. Or even the garden for that matter. He always enjoys the peace and quiet that can be found there. Ironically, as he thinks about that, a train goes tearing by him. It creates a wave of wind and noise on each side of the tracks as it passes, like a thunderstorm happening right next to him. He watches it go by, waiting for the next train, which would be his.
The problem at this point was to get out of the situation that had been created in Deling. A sorceresses knight went out and slew a SeeD cadet. People will be out for blood, and his superiors would be asking all sorts of questions about why he was so careless during the mission. What was he suppose to say? "Hello, your cadet is dead, because he got trashed and went after people who didn't do anything, and gave the SeeD an even worse name than they already have at this point" ? He decides to stay away from a response like that and avoid the suspension.
Temoren hit hard against a large crate. The knight pulled out his sword while he is on the ground and held it up into the air, coming down quickly onto him. He rolled across the crate so avoid the slash, and the sword imbedded right into the wood. The knight struggled to pull it out, while Temoren got back to his feet. They thought they could sneak through Galbadia by train? They were wrong. Though, he gave them credit for hiding fairly well amongst the maze of boxes on this freight train. But his feelings led him to them, it always did.
He ran full speed at the knight, in turn knocking him down onto the crate. The knight grabbed on to Temoren's leg as he tried to back up, nearly making him fall. He reached down and punched the knight across the face, leading to the release of his leg, and he stood back a little. The knight slowly began to fall off the crate, at the very end he reached for a handle to stop himself. Temoren removed his short sword from his side and walked over to him.
He turned the sword around, so that the handle was farthest from him. He raised it into the air and came down so that the handle struck the Knight's hand, which was clenching onto the handle. Temoren felt a bone break under the pressure. "Aggh!" The knight let out a yell as the handle hit his hand. He grabbed the crate with his good hand and let go with the other. Temoren raised the sword again and came down onto the other hand, hitting it even harder than the first time. "Ahh!"
The knight let go of the crate completely and fell from the box onto the train car itself. It was a flat car that had a lot of boxes sitting upon it. A long string of fire came from the freight car in front of them, Temoren rolled across the crate to get out of its path. The sorceress was still over there somewhere. He began to make his way from one box to the other, getting closer to the connection between the two cars. Meanwhile. the knight moved along the bottom, also trying to get to the same place.
It was hard to keep balance since the train was moving so fast, but they managed. The knight got there first, he nearly sits on the car's edge and began to fiddle with the connector between the two. He frantically tried to get them apart, using his strong hand to pull on things, and his broken hand to help a little. Temoren realized what he was trying to do, and jumped down from the crates right behind him. He grabbed onto the knight's shoulders and pushed him with all the strength he had left. The knight went off the car and onto the grass near the tracks, rolling a good long way before coming to a stop. He looked up helplessly from the grass to the train that was quickly moving away.
He saw the sorceress on top of one of the crates on the freight car in front of him, she was looking back towards her knight who had been thrown off. Temoren looked down at the connector, and it began to loosen even more and come apart. The knight had accomplished his mission at least, he though to himself. He pulled out his gun and quickly climbed to one of the crates on his own freight car and looked to the sorceress, holding the gun out in front of him. She was young too, with long blonde hair, and he couldn't make out her eye color from where he was. The distance between them increased quickly because her car was still attached, and friction was making his come to a stop. Why did they always stand still?
He kept the gun pointed out at her for a while. Eventually, he put it back into its holster, and hopped down from the crate as his part of the train slowly came to a stop.
