A/N: My apologies for taking so long in updating. Life is rather hectic at the moment, and I have not had a chance to really sit down and think until just recently. But, enough of the excuses - here is your long awaited chapter. I do hope you enjoy; I feel as if it isn't the BEST of my chapters, but that is my opinion. For a chapter that was done on very little sleep and a most lovely headache, I think I did a pretty damn good job. Anyway, enjoy.

PS: If there are any spelling mistakes, please, do excuse them - I couldn't be more tired right now, so I do not feel like re-reading this to make sure everything is correct. Just push any mistakes to the side, please. Thank you.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything in this fanfic except for the stuff that I created - my characters, my creatures, and my plot, and anything else that is mine.

Chapter XXVII

Dreams Galore

XxXxX

As I try to sleep
My mind races.
It goes so fast
A thought isn't complete
Before another begins.
As the sun rises
A new day begins
Before the last one ends. -- My mother

x -X -x

Tossing and turning, the young man slept all but peacefully. Sweat stuck his white t-shirt to his chest, covered his face and gave him a glossy look. The sheets were entangling his legs like a white snake, twisting the legs of his loose black sweats.

Rushing water, screams of pain - he ran through the forest toward the water and screams. But he wasn't moving! Looking down, he found he was running in place; he ran faster, his normal black clothes feeling very heavy right now - his gunblade! It was gone! And what kept him from running!

More screams, but all he could do was run in place! The trees and bushes ahead of him moved out to the sides, revealing a rushing river, someone splashing -- no, DROWNING -- in it! A large fin circled the person drowning even as both the person and river flowed down stream. The water began to turn red -- but the person somehow managed to gain control of themselves and swim to land. He could now see the person rising from the water -- PAINE! She looked dizzy, not quite in a good state of mind, blood oozing from her right leg. He opened his mouth to scream her name, but nothing came out.

The badly injured woman wobbled toward him, but he could tell from the look in her red eyes that she didn't see him or anything at all. Suddenly her right side went down, her foot falling into a deep hole, twisting her entire right leg the very wrong way. She went one way, her leg the other. A scream of pure pain came out of her mouth -- he could move! At full speed he ran to her side, kneeling down and immediately seeing how bad the injury was. And it was bad.

Down in the hole, there were spikes that made themselves a home in her badly twisted leg. There was no way he was getting her leg out. When he looked at her face, he saw the tears rolling down her cheeks; she was in so much pain. "Shhhh, calm down. I'm here to help." He felt helpless -- he was helpless! Gently petting the side of her head, he tried his best to calm her down a little while he tried to think of how to help her.

There was no way!

As she lay there, crying out in pain, he had never felt so helpless before. His eyes grew wide as he just stared at the woman in his arms -- she was fading away! How -- it wasn't possible! She'd been lying right there, leg in the hole, but now she was gone! "PAINE!" Quickly he shot up to his feet, spinning around, looking everywhere for her.

Water sprouted up from the river, the beast that had attacked her showing itself: it was huge and gray, two large shark heads with white eyes looking at him. The monster was extremely LARGE. One of its eyes was easily the size of his hand! But it just stayed where it was, halfway out of the river. It began to shrink as it came toward him, slowly taking the form of a woman in a tight, black dress, the silver hair, purple marking on her face, and horns on her head UNMISTAKABLE - it was none other than Ultimecia.

He could not speak, could not move, could only watch as the evil woman walked toward him, stopping a foot away. "It does not feel so good to feel helpless, now does it, Squall?" She circled him much like the way the shark had done with Paine. "You look surprised to see me again. I was expekting a friendly greeting, at least." Stopping back in front of him, she continued to speak. "Do not worry so much about her, Squall; she is perfektly safe. Well, safe for the time being, anyway."

That bitch! What was she going to do to Paine! "You better not touch her, you bitch! If you do, I'll hunt your ass down and send you back to Hell where you belong!" Those words of his he said with the coldest, most harshest voice known to man.

She chuckled -- she just chuckled. "Keep your eyes open at all time, Squall. You're a worthy opponent - I'd like to see you make it past the much bigger threats. NOT!" Her evil laughter echoed throughout the entire place--

Squall shot up in his bed, breathing hard. He wiped the sweat off his face with one hand, lying back down and resting his head on the pillow once more. Ultimecia… Was it just a dream? It felt so…so real, though… Yeah, it had to be only a dream; he hadn't slept in days, was very stressed, so it had to be just a dream. Unwrapping the sheets from his legs, he sat on the edge of the bed, bare feet touching the floor. He sighed, pushing himself to stand and walk over to the bathroom feet away. The door to this bathroom was right next to his desk and gunblade case, so it wasn't very far away.

For a few moment he just stood leaned against the sink, head bowed. His fingers taped slightly against the counter, his eyes shut tight. What a headache he had. The more he thought about the dream, the more it seemed that it wasn't a random dream; maybe Ultimecia was- No. He would not think like that. If only he didn't have this headache… He looked up at the mirror above the sink--and stumbled backwards, eyes as wide as they could have been. Instantly he mouthed the name "Ultimecia" as he stared upon the woman's face that took place of his own in that mirror. Quickly his eyes blinked, now seeing his own face before him.

Thunder boomed outside, snapping him back to reality and causing him to jump slightly. He shook his pounding head, deciding it's just his imagination (well, that's what he wanted to believe, anyway), and left the bathroom to get his clothes from the dresser. After changing into his regular black pants and white t-shirt, he figured he didn't need his black jacket, so he left it there, hanging on the back of the desk chair. Slipping into his boots, Leonhart left the room after grabbing his flashlight, but the occasional flashes of lightning also helped guide his way out of the room and down the hall.

The power was still not on, all of the students in their dorms sleeping, making it a very dark and quiet Garden. Quistis is probably still watching over her for me, he thought, remembering that only a few hours ago he'd let Quistis watch over the coma girl while he left to get some rest. What time was it, though? He hadn't thought to look at the clock in his dorm. Oh well, it didn't matter; he wasn't going back to sleep anytime soon.

Nodding at the three SeeDs outside the Infirmary door, they let him pass and enter the room. The other four SeeDs inside the room stepped out of the way so he could walk up to Quistis Trepe, who was still at her place at Dr. Kadowaki's desk. Kadowaki was probably resting elsewhere.

"Squall! What are you doing up? It's three-fifteen in the morning!" exclaimed a rather surprised Trepe. Obviously she hadn't expected him to return this early in the morning.

So that'swhat time it is. "I couldn't sleep. Is she still…"

The woman shrugged, one hand motioning over toward her left. "Take a look yourself," she said with a sigh. His head turned to the right, eyes automatically seeing the young girl on the bed, appearing to be sleeping, but Squall knew better - the girl was in a coma. Like Seifer… His eyes narrowed and he spoke to Quistis, not once taking his eyes off of the little coma girl. "Maybe it's time for you to get some sleep," Crossing his arms, his head slowly returned back to look at the blonde haired woman. "I can watch her now." You need to sleep.

The woman, thankfully, didn't argue, just rose from her seat. "I suppose it would be okay. See you in the morning, Squall," she walked toward the exit--

Someone burst in, the door and person just barely missing Trepe by inches. "Hey!"

Squall put a hand on his face, sighing. "Hello, Laguna… What do you want?"

"Just wanted to let you all know that I'm going on back to Esthar. Someone called me back. It sucks… So much paper work I'll probably have to do…"

"Have a safe flight, Laguna."

"Yes, please be careful in this weather," Quistis looked out one of the windows, the rain outside heavy.

"Ah, don't you worry 'bout me, I'll be fiiiine." Turning on his heels, Loire left the room whistling. Soon after, Squall wished Quistis a good night's rest shortly before she, too, turned to leave, again.

It was quiet again, the storm outside being the only thing he heard. Well, that and the even breathing of the coma girl, as well as his. He placed his flashlight on the desk, the beam of light aimed on the body of the coma girl. Taking a seat down in the chair and stretching his legs out, he silently wondered where Rinoa was. It's almost three-thirty in the morning - where do you think she is? He silently snapped at himself. But…all night he hadn't seen her - not since he had left with Yuna to check on Nooj, and that had been a long time ago… She's just sleeping, like you should be. You can check on her later.

He yawned, folding his arms across his chest, his eyes slowly closing. The next second passed, and Squall had fallen asleep…

x -X- x

He stood there, completely surrounded by…nothing, complete emptiness; the only thing he saw was bright light all around him, yet he wasn't the least bit blinded. There was weight against him, and he looked down, seeing her body leaned against his, her head resting against his left shoulder. He noticed the only thing keeping her standing and leaned against him was his left arm, which was wrapped tightly around her waist.

"Don't get her killed; I still need her."

That voice - where was it coming from? It was the only thing he heard…why was that? Whose voice was it? The name was on the tip of his tongue, and yet, he just could not seem to remember that name no matter how hard he tried to!

Echoing laughter, causing him to turn his head left and right, up and down, searching for the source of that laughter and voice. The next words that he heard sent shivers up his spine.

"You might want to open your eyes, now! Soon you'll have company!" The cheerfulness in that voice widened his eyes as he opened his mouth.

"Ulti-" He blinked.

What a bad thing to do.

Red was now filled his vision, the sound of this water coming so suddenly to his ears that he nearly jumped out of his skin, and would have had he not been currently drowning at the time.

His head broke through the surface of the water, immediately he tried to fill his lungs full of air that he lacked right now at this moment. But this action only resulted in him coughing, salty and disgusting water rising up in his extremely dry, sore and scratchy throat, this water leaving his mouth only to have him swallow more of it.

Laughter. "Suffer, Leonhart, SUFFER! Things will only get worse from here!" More laughter.

A wave forced him back underneath the red water, him getting more of a salty taste and something even more distasteful like…like…blood.

"Don't lose her! Don't lose her, Squall!" This female's voice was more high-pitched, more young and that of a child. "Don't let THEM get her!"

Who was "THEM"? Wait - PAINE!

He opened his eyes after resurfacing - his arms were empty. Coughing, trying to rid his lungs of that water, he never had a chance to do much as another wave pushed him under. Resurfacing again, he saw glimpses of a large, gray…a large gray… Another wave, this time putting even more water into his lungs.

As he slowly began to sink, his eyes blinked slowly. He could not move, could not swim to the top - why? Why did he feel frozen, unable to do anything but…but drown? Although his vision was starting to darken, he saw something large and gray slowly pass in front of him.

It looked like…like a…

Silence now… His eyes closed, heart beat fading away.

Squall jerked to his left, both him and the chair he sat in falling to the floor. Salty, red liquid was being coughed up as he shut his eyes, the man on all fours, the fallen chair beside him. Someone ran to his side and kneeled down, placing a hand on his back.

"Get Dr. Kadowaki in here immediately!" shouted the man who was, more than likely, one of the SeeDs guarding the Infirmary.

"That will be unnecessary."

After finished up his coughing, he wiped the bloody liquid from his lips as he raised his head to see the pale girl with the blonde hair and blue eyes. Despite the fact that she was no longer in a coma, Leonhart still narrowed his eyes at the girl, feeling anything but thrilled to have her awake now. "What the fuck is going on?" he asked in a low and deadly tone of voice.

A sigh from the girl. "I have much to explain."

"No shit."