A/N I released a new Fan-Art in the forums. Check it out.

'Beowulf…please…don't go,' Reis mumbled in her sleep, tossing and turning uneasily, 'Please…don't go…I need you to be with me…Beowulf!'

She sat up, bolt upright, sweating furiously. Wiping her sweat-drenched face with the sleeve of her nightgown, she began to sob into her open hands. It has been quite a long time since she had communicated with Beowulf at Mustadio's workshop…and an even longer time since his death and burial. The dream…more like a half-nightmare…brought grief back into the forefront of her mind. His death meant…her loneliness, her pain, her sadness. Everything.

Standing up, she opened her dormitory door silently, knowing that it was very late in the night—even in the morning, for all she knew. Tiptoeing to the nearest garden, she sat down on one of the wooden benches.

Staring at the sky, she began to remember everything once more…Beowulf proposing to her…the day that Beowulf saved her life as a girl…the fateful evening when she took the full blast of the polymorph curse that turned her into a dragon for at least twelve long, dreary years…all the pains and joys of her life.

It was all too much. She missed Beowulf greatly, wishing that if she could even see him for a single, sixty-second minute, she would give her soul in exchange. It was just too painful to be separated from the one you love, the one that you were to be married to, to be paired together for life or death.

'Why can't he still survive?' she cried in her hands, tears streaming down her arm, 'Why did he have to die?'

'Reis…' the voice of Quistis said from the garden wall, soft and kind unlike her usual try-to-be-hard self, 'What is this that I am hearing?'

'Oh…it's nothing…' Reis said, wiping her still-leaking tears with the white sleeve of her linen nightgown.

'You may be able to trick others, but not me,' Quistis spoke, suddenly stern, hard, 'What is it that is bothering you?'

'If you would like to know…oh…it's just too much for me to say again, let alone to another person,'

'Reis. I need to know. It might be important for us to know so that we can help you,' Quistis whispered into her ear, stroking the long blonde sheets.

'Very well…It's just the death of my fiancé several months ago…We were intended to be wedded only three days after his death. Now he's gone, and I'm alone…life just isn't fair. Why can't I be with somebody? Why can't I have somebody to talk to? To be with for the rest of my life? My family…my friends…my blood relatives…all gone! By the cruel hand of fate...'

She broke down into more hysteric sobbing, Quistis trying frantically to stop the tears in every way she could think of.

'Calm down, Reis. It's not only you that's lost loved ones. Think of those orphans. They have never learned the love of a family, never exactly learned the caring of siblings or relatives. You were lucky enough to once have those things. There are others in the world that haven't had those rights at all,'

'Y-You're right. I'm more fortunate than some…' Reis sobbed, still crying.

'Listen! What have you taught in training? To calm down! And do you practice it? No! So start doing it now and do us all a favor. Show us that you can use techniques that you have made yourself!' Quistis spoke loudly, stern and formidable.

'I'm trying, Quistis,' Reis said, her voice returning to its normal pitch.

'Good,' she sighed, relieved that it was over, 'Now, go back to bed. There is, after all, a night curfew. Do try not to get caught out of your dorm in the middle of the night, especially you, being an instructor. Should Cid have caught you, you might have been thrown out. An instructor is to show other students how to behave in the Garden,'

Walking back through the metal door of the dorm room, Reis lay down in the soft warm bed. She still made soft sniffles every now and then—it was impossible to get rid of that image, the ultimate sacrifice that Beowulf made to allow her survival. I must go on. There is nothing left for me in this world…only if I manage to create some sort of link with the world of the dead will I make a difference…Wars will still rage on, time will still flow. Even if I died nothing would matter. If I lived it would not matter. Either way, I must attempt to find a way into the land of the dead…

Next morning…

'Miss, what happened to you?' A student asked Reis, supporting her by the arm as she nearly collapsed of tiredness for the twentieth time for that day.

'I…I…have some unfinished matters to resolve…' she replied, eyes bloodshot and wounds liberally spread over her body.

'Is it something that we can assist with?' the students chorused, expectant.

'Unfortunately, no. It is something that I will deal with. Something that I alone must deal with. The lesson for today is over, students. Dismissed,'

She stood there in the balmy heat of the training centre jungle, watching the students go. Finally, as the last one left, she began her work.

First…I must prepare my combat skills once again…

Five Grats surrounded her in a tight ring, waving their long green tentacles in the air menacingly. Reis had specially requested a second katana from Quistis; it had been provided for her. Drawing both of them out of their sheaths in time, she twirled them between her fingers, brandishing them at the Grats menacingly.

'Come on, you fools,' she growled at them menacingly, 'Turn to stone! Break!'

A pillar of rock enveloped the nearest Grat, petrifying it in a tight casing of hard stone. The others backed away slightly, producing odd gargling sounds from their misshapen mouths.

'One cannot exist without a soul! Death!' she cried, creating a wave of negative energy and sending it at lightning speed at the Grat behind her. It stopped instantaneously, all movement ceased, before crashing down in a cloud of dust, lifeless, unmarked.

'Matter, release your energy! Flare!' Reis yelled, stabbing both blades downwards into the yellow earth below. A searing heat spread over her, spreading and blasting all within twenty feet of her to ash. Panting, Reis sat down on the charred remains of a Grat, sheathing her blades.

'Well done, Reis,' a familiar voice called out to her from a distance away, though wherever she looked she could not find the person who said it.

'Beowulf?' she whispered to herself, the grim expression on her face changing to joy, 'Is that you?'

'Yes, it is, love. I'm speaking to you, courtesy of Mustadio's machine,'

'I missed you,' Reis muttered, staring at the ceiling, 'I missed you so much,'

'Me too. I saw an image of you in my mind. You've learned a lot about the arts of the Temple Knight in a short time,'

'I have?' Reis said, taken aback at this. When did she learn the proper arts? 'When did I learn it?'

'You used the arts without knowing that it is the Temple Knights' specialty? That Break spell? Wow…you're as intelligent as ever, learning things without explanations. I had to learn that over several years,'

'I didn't…well, attempt to learn it on purpose. I just felt that I could do it,'

'All the same, very well executed. And the Death spell and the Flare…I can't beat that, you've set the record for us now, Reis,'

'Thanks,'

'Try not to worry yourself too much about—ARGH!'

A cracking noise filled the air, one which nobody else could hear. Whips…flails…ropes, all weapons of torture that Reis could think of. That dreaded sound. She clenched her fist as she listened to the tormenting voices of the demons in the land of the dead, while they whipped her beloved Beowulf.

'I'm…fine…don't worry…about…me…'

Then there was no more. DAMN! Down here I'm no use; up somewhere Beowulf's suffering! I must hurry!

Walking quickly towards the exit, she was met by a group of three red reptiles blocking the entrance, which could be nothing else but T-Rexaurs.

'I've got no mercy for you today, bastards,' she muttered, her blue eyes turning into chips of ice as she sliced off limbs and chunks of flesh. Rendering the three dinosaurs to large chunks of meat, Reis walked off towards the showers, coated in blood and scraps of gut. People looked on as the angered instructor moved quickly through the academy, storming through doorways as though something terrible had happened.

'What's wrong with you today, Reis?' one of the students from her class asked her, as Reis began to take off her filthy clothes and put on fresh new robes, 'You look as though you've over-killed something,'

'I guess I overreacted to three T-Rexaurs,' she chuckled, tying her two katanas onto her back, 'I diced them too harshly, they sprayed out copious amounts of blood. Who says that women can't fight?'

The student giggled, and resumed her scrubbing of the dirt-matted shower floors.

Reis visited the library, hoping to find a clue on the land of the dead, just as Quistis walked into the book room.

'Have you heard? Zell, Squall and Selphie are on their first mission!' Quistis exclaimed, rubbing her hands together, 'I wished I could go watch after them…but then, Cid gave me orders to look after you for the rest of this week. He thinks you're working too hard,'

'Oh, it's alright for me,'

'So, what're you looking for in the library?'

'A book on the Land of the Dead,'

A stunned silence followed these words. All the boys in the corner stopped speaking, while the librarian quit her scanning of the books for a few seconds. Quistis bent low into Reis' ear and whispered, 'Why are you looking for that dreadful book! It gives me nightmares just by reading its first few chapters! And I'm used to blood!'

'Listen. I need to perform an important task in the land of the dead. I will accomplish it, even if it means my life…for then, the people that I love and care for may be revived. That is why I must find that book,'

'Very well,' the librarian called out, 'Young Miss Dular, I hope you find good use for this book. I have forbidden anyone to read it, but for this one occasion, I will allow you to borrow it,'

'Thank you, madam librarian,'

'No need for such formalities, we're all staff here,'

'All the same, thank you,'

Reis flipped through the yellowing parchment pages, ignoring the pungent reek of rotting flesh and blood from within the depths of the book. Hellish scenes dominated the edge borders, while images of torture filled some. Now she could understand why Quistis could not stand reading this book. It was the very embodiment of the sufferings of people, the scent of death accentuating the grim reality of life's end. It was simply…a horrid book to read, but otherwise useful. In the centre was a complete map of the Universe of the Dead; four corners linked at the centre, in the shape of a cross. Five points were labeled on the map; but as the writing had been washed away at some time, it was impossible to decipher what they had read before.

'Ugh…one horrible book,' Reis gasped, pulling her nose away from the stinking pages and tossing the ancient book to one side of her room. The stench of the book she had ignored for the last hour, the parchment's strange texture cutting into her skin, now exposing red, raw flesh beneath the soft creamy skin. Now holding her mangled hand, Reis began to moan in pain as she began to feel the full reality of the damage done to her by the book. It was now quite clear to her why people hated to read that book…it was a book that induced death in its own way; slow, but potent. Walking as quickly as she could towards the infirmary, Reis cradled her skinned hand; students looked on, horrified to find their favourite instructor in such condition.

'What on earth have you been doing, young Reis? How did you get these wounds?' Doctor Kadowaki asked her, examining the slightly-bleeding wounds while Reis whimpered in pain as he pressed on her wrist in an attempt to cut off the bleeding.

'Please…go softer…' she moaned, biting down on a wooden stick when he dabbed disinfectant onto the open flesh. Washing her hands in lukewarm water, he extracted a roll of bandages from a cabinet with his free hand. Wrapping them as carefully as possible (the wounds were still as bad as ever), the doctor kept his tongue between his teeth, hoping to not induce more pain onto the already-agonised woman.

'There…done,' he said, tying a knot onto the bandage wrapping on her hand, 'Try to keep it out of water. Whatever it was that caused this sort of damage, don't ever go near it again. You're lucky not to have the rest of your hand eaten away by the poison that I found on your hand—even in traces, it still ate away your living skin and flesh. What were you doing, anyway?'

'I was…umm…I was…' Reis stuttered, 'I was reading the Book of the Dead on how to get to the Land of the Dead,'

'Why did you read that book? It's common knowledge not to read it. Somehow you managed to stave off the deadly poison on the map page. People always avoid that one, as two dozen other students have died over the past thirty years trying to read that page. You're very lucky to be alive,'

It's all because of my dragon blood…I wouldn't have survived if it wasn't for that side of my bloodline…I must be thankful…

'Have a rest for the remainder of the day. Don't overstrain yourself. I will have someone deliver your meals and needs later this day to your room. Have a nice day,'

Reis walked back towards the dorms, her hands wrapped in thick, pink-tinged bandages. The blood was beginning to filter through again. The surrounding students whispered among themselves, some of the girls uttering soft gasps of pity as they saw Reis' hand.

Finally arriving at the dormitories after the walk of shame, Reis fell back onto the soft pillow of her bed. Sinking into a comfortable sleep, she began to drift off into the darkness…