A/N: So, as you can probably tell, I am having quite a lot of fun working on this story. It is a combination of two fanfiction ideas I have had — the first part being of course Rinoa being a Sorceress from seventeen (give or take a few years) previous to the present time she wakes up in, and how Squall mysteriously is the answer to her awakening. The second part has not yet been revealed, and will probably unravel more so some point after returning to Balamb Garden — which will possibly be awhile. This fanfiction may even combine a total of three ideas, but I haven't decided yet if that would be wise or not. (It could make it too complex or cluttered, and I want it enjoyable above all.) So, yeah, I'm working on this so that it will hopefully, randomly, spark up some new idea for my other FFVIII fanfictions that I have a minor block on. Plus, its just plain fun to write.

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VIII belongs to SquareSoft/Enix, not me.

Broken Like An Angel

EilayAdnayVolieay

Chapter Three - My Name Is Rinoa

"Are we there yet?" Selphie asked, stopping in her tracks and looking around. They seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, and Squall was pretty sure Seifer had gotten them lost. How he managed that when we could actually see the city before...

"I SAID NO! Do you see Esthar? Does this look like the technologically advanced city of Esthar to you?" Seifer asked, shouting. Selphie cringed and hid behind Zell.

"...Seifer, yelling isn't going to get us there." Squall said tiredly, setting the girl down on the ground gently. When they had left the Sorceress Memorial, Seifer had pointed to the large city of Esthar from across the small section of the ocean between the two land masses, and said he knew the way.

That had been approximately two hours ago, and though they knew there would be a point without seeing the city while they traveled, it seemed as though they should be nearly there.

"Look!" Selphie said, pointing into the distance. Squall turned and saw a building with a large vehicle parked outside of it. Zell seemed to have noticed this to, and punched the air excitedly.

"Yeah! We can go there and ask for directions!" Zell exclaimed. Thank you, oh intelligent Zell, for pointing out the obvious. Squall thought annoyed.

"Or we can ask for a ride." Squall replied, before bending down to pick up the girl again. Seifer raised an eyebrow at this and grinned at him.

"You sure you don't know this chick, Squall? You seem pretty attached." Squall glared at him.

"If you want to carry her, you're more than welcome." He replied icily, putting the girl down and walking away. She wasn't his responsibility and he was tired of all the remarks he had to endure the entire trip up to this point. Normally, he would ignore what others said, but it had been a long, strange day, and he was tired of wandering around the Esthar continent.

Seifer walked past him without another word, but he wasn't carrying the girl. Squall slowed down and turned to make sure Seifer hadn't intended on leaving her — and saw Selphie helping Zell situate the girl on his back. Good. Now, they have no reason to talk to me...

"Squall! Were you really going to let Seifer carry her?" Selphie protested, as she ran up beside him. He rolled his eyes in response. "He's so mean!"

"She's unconscious; how would she know?" Squall muttered. Selphie either didn't hear him, or chose to ignore him, running back to make sure that Zell didn't do something "mean" and drop the girl. Whatever.

When they got to the building, they saw a large sign that said "Doctor Odine's Research Facility." Odine? As in...

"ODINE!? He's the one who makes all those cool inventions — even SeeD use some of them! This is the Doctor Odine's Lab? Ohh, no way!" Zell exclaimed. He picked up the pace even with the girl on his back, and they walked up to the door.

"...are we supposed to knock or something?" Seifer asked, looking around. "This ain't no regular building." His question was answered for them as a camera turned to lock onto them, and a voice came out over an intercom.

"Who iz there? This iz not a tourist attraction! Vat do you vant?"

"Is this Doctor Odine?" Squall asked, when no one else spoke.

"Yes it iz."

"We're just a little lost and were wondering if you could help us." Squall explained. There was a beeping sound before the door in front of them opened. Squall shrugged and stepped forward into the research facility. They were immediately stopped by a short man wearing the most bizarre clothes Squall had ever seen — even for Esthar.

"Will you go away if I help you?" The man asked — and, judging from his accent, this was quite clearly Odine.

"Yeah, yeah, sure, whatever old man." Seifer replied, waving his hand to dismiss him. Squall sighed as Odine began jumping up and down angrily.

"Who are you calling 'old man'? I'll have you know..."

"Please, Doctor Odine. We're trying to take a —" Squall looked back at the girl Zell was now carrying "— student to Esthar to be checked out at the hospital. We really need to get there as soon as possible." Odine seemed to notice the others for the first time, and walked towards Zell, examining the girl.

"Interesting..." He muttered. "She looks very much like... vat am I saying, it iz impossible." Squall crossed his arms. He didn't care if Doctor Odine was supposed to be some sort of scientific genius — the man was nuts.

"Doctor?" Odine seemed to be broken from his trance in that moment, and gestured for two guards from the other doorway to come over.

"Please escort these young students to ze hospital." He walked away, as if dismissing them, and the guards all but shooed the group out of the building. When Squall turned around, he saw Odine was watching them from a window of the research facility. He frowned, seeing that the mans gaze was still lingering on the girl Zell was now placing in the back of the car the guards were taking them in.

What's his fascination with her?

—

That was the night her nightmares began. She had experienced many vivid nightmares before, but this felt like something more, as if it were a vision she was having. The flowery scent of the air, the bitter cool wind blowing against her face. Was it really only a dream?

She looked around, not at all aware of where she was. She was walking up a set of stairs in a house she had never entered before in her life, and walking through the hallways as if she knew the place by heart. She quietly pushed open a door and saw a young girl sleeping on a bed in the room. She felt the corners of her mouth curl upwards in an eerie smile, as she advanced towards the sleeping child.

"This is the one." She whispered, her voice sleek and much deeper than her own. She knelt down next to the bed, stroking the child's face almost lovingly. Internally, she was struggling to gain control over her body. Dream or not, it was no different than her own harsh reality when the Sorceress tried to control her.

"Who are you?" Rinoa pulled her hand away quickly — whether it was her own action, or that of the person controlling her, she wasn't entirely sure. All she knew was that the child had opened her eyes and was staring in wonder at her.

"Ellone?" A voice from the hallway cried. "Who are you ta—" Rinoa muttered an incantation, placing the child into a deep slumber. When the man who had been calling out entered the room, Rinoa raised her hand and in an instant, the man was dead, his body falling to the ground. Rinoa felt a strange surge of satisfaction course through her, a revolting sense of desire for this act of murder.

"At last, I have found you." She whispered, turning back to the child.—

Rinoa's eyes flew open, and she quickly let out a sigh of relief. It had been a dream, a frightening and eerie dream — not reality. She had not killed, whether or not it was against her own free will. She had been sleeping. The sun shone in through the window, and Rinoa remembered quite suddenly that she was still in the small town of Winhill where the Sorceress inside of her had lead her. She couldn't stay here --- of that she was sure.

When she walked down the stairs to leave, she heard the sound of voices coming from the main front room of the inn. It appeared a bunch of locals had gathered to discuss her sudden, unwelcome appearance in their town.

"I can't believe you actually brought her here to spend the night!" One older sounding man cried out. Many other voices echoed the same line of thinking, until finally another male whose voice was almost melodic, intervened."Since when have we turned our backs on people who needed our help? A young girl, probably not even a legal adult yet, stumbles across our town. What are you people afraid of? That she's the Sorceress we've heard rumors about? That she might be a spy for this Sorceress? She's just a girl, nothing more! She spent the night, and did anything happen?" He paused, waiting for their response. When nothing was said, the man continued.

"If she chooses to leave, so be it, but we can't kick her out of our town when she has done nothing wrong."

Rinoa heard the sounds of chairs scraping against the wooden floor as the group that had gathered (possibly to ambush her when she woke) began to leak out of the inn. When she was sure that mostly everyone was gone, she walked down the stairs pretending to have heard nothing.

The Inn was now entirely empty, except for one lone woman standing behind a desk at the front.

"Excuse me?" Rinoa called, walking up to the front desk. The woman stared at her, seeming frightened at first, but then smiling warmly. "I wanted to thank you for allowing me to spend the night, and ask what the cost of the room is." She pulled out money, but the woman pushed it back at her.

"It's not too often we get visitors." The woman commented. "You keep your money — it's on the house."

"Oh, but that's just more reason for me to pay! If you don't get many visitors, how can you make any money?" Despite her best efforts, the woman still continually refused to accept Rinoa's money. Sighing in defeat, Rinoa decided it was time to get out of this town before she caused it any harm.

Outside of the Inn was completely dead — though she knew the town to be small, Rinoa wondered if perhaps the lack of people meant that she had intimidated them to stay away. She walked down along the dirt path back into the main center of the town, but stopped when she heard the sound of someone crying for help. Immediately Rinoa followed the sound of the voice, and saw two boys surrounding another child.

"You think you're special because of your dreams!" one boy shouted, sneering. The little girl began crying, and shouting that it wasn't true.

"Shut up!" The other boy screamed. "You showed me… you showed me sad things. LIES!" He added, slapping her. Rinoa ran forward and grabbed the two boys by their shirts, pulling them away.

"What do you think you're doing to that poor little girl?" She cried, moving them as far away as possible. The one boy spat at her, but she ignored it.

"She showed me… she showed me my dad. My dad just before he died!" The second boy shouted, suddenly beginning to cry. Rinoa put them down and knelt in front of them.

"Maybe it was an accident." Rinoa said calmly. "Or maybe she couldn't stand to see you so sad, that she wanted to show you your dad again."

"It's true! I can't control it, I didn't know… I didn't know it would be just before he died, I tried to find a happy memory to show you but I…" The little girl stopped, and the two boys stared guiltily at the ground.

"If you apologize to her, I bet she won't tell on you and you won't have to get in trouble." Rinoa told them. The two boys walked up to the girl, and apologized quietly before running away. Rinoa stared after them for awhile before turning to look at the little girl who was still sitting on the ground crying.

"What do they mean, you showed them things?" Rinoa asked, suddenly very intrigued by this child. She felt something within her awaken, and was immediately aware of the second presence in her body. The little girl grabbed her hand.

"Let me show you."

—

"Does anybody else find this whole place a little… weird?" Zell asked in a hushed voice, not wanting the driver to hear. Squall shrugged, not really caring much about it. He looked outside the window and saw the city getting closer and closer the longer they drove. Everything about this city was high tech and strange. The buildings were made out of a strange glass, and oddly designed. The funny clothes the locals wore were colourful and flashy, to say the least.

They had not in fact been permitted within the city of Esthar when they originally made it to this continent. The city was not closed off to outsiders, but their instructor had told them it was best to avoid going to a strange city and getting lost. Esthar was the largest city Squall had ever seen, and he had been to many of them in his past. It wasn't hard to see why Instructor Trepe had worried about them getting lost. Though she didn't seem to be concerned about that when she sent us here, he thought momentarily.

"WOW! Look at this place!" Selphie exclaimed, sticking her head out the window. They were now traveling on a narrow road high above the ground, and Squall felt a little nauseous at the thought of what would happen if someone who wasn't an experienced driver tried driving along it…

Several minutes passed before Squall noticed that the driver was not in fact driving anymore at all. The road beneath them was moving, carrying them to the inner core of the city. This city is weird.

It took a few more minutes before the car finally slowed to a stop outside of a purely white building. It was one of the largest buildings they had seen, and it loomed over this part of the city.

"The hospital." Their driver informed them. "This is where you get off." Like we didn't already know that. Squall thought sarcastically. He undid his seatbelt and eased out of the car, more than glad to stretch out his legs. When Zell came out without the girl, Squall sighed and went to grab her, only to see that Seifer was already carrying her into the hospital. Whatever.

"Does anyone remember Instructor Trepe telling us what to do after we drop this girl off at the hospital?" Selphie asked suddenly. Squall frowned, thinking back to when they had still been at the Sorceress memorial. He didn't recall anything their instructor had said to them specifically aside from bringing the girl to the hospital in Esthar.

"Let's just stay here and wait. Our class has to come here anyway for the night — there's no way we'll make it back to Fisherman's Horizon before night falls." Squall said finally. Selphie smiled and clapped her hands together.

"Great! I want to get to know your girl—" One look from Squall was all it took to stop her from saying the rest.

—

It had been about an hour since they had dropped the girl off at the hospital. The staff had been aggravated at them expecting the girl to just be admitted without any medical background, but they ended up taking her in when they found out they were a part of Garden.

So far, Zell had managed to annoy Seifer to the point of Seifer leaving to explore Esthar on his own — something he would surely get in trouble for later — and Selphie had squealed endlessly about the adorable babies down in the maternity wing.

Squall managed to tune them out by thinking about other things. Upcoming exams, the essay he had to write about the Sorceress War, anything but the strange girl they had just brought here… why was she at the memorial? She's not in our class, and we were the only ones there… not even the staff…

"Do you think Seifer will be okay on his own?" Selphie asked suddenly, breaking into Squall's thoughts. He wasn't one for smiling, but he felt the corners of his mouth jerk up slightly at the thought of Seifer being in some kind of trouble in Esthar.

"He'll be fine." Squall assured her tiredly. Zell stopped punching the air and put his hand on Selphie's shoulder.

"You're kidding, right? Don't tell me you're worried about the jerk?" Selphie shook her head, making a face.

"Definitely not! But we might get in trouble with Instructor Trepe for him going off on his own…" She trailed off. She looked at Squall hopefully and he sighed.

"Go after him if you want. I'm not your leader." He said finally. She stuck her tongue out at him.

"MEANIE! I don't want to go after him — he'd probably yell at me." She added. Squall rolled his eyes and leaned forward, staring at the ground. Why did he have to get stuck with people he didn't know, didn't CARE to know, and stuck sitting at a hospital when he could be with the rest of his class…

"I know that look." A female voice said suddenly. "Right now, Squall is probably mentally complaining about his situation, because he'd rather talk to himself than to any of his classmates." Squall looked up to see their Instructor smiling down at him, her arms folded across her chest.

"Whate—"

"—ver." She started to laugh, but seemed to compose herself after a few short moments. "Your assignment — to deliver our unconscious stranger to the hospital — is now complete. We have been invited to stay at a local hotel, at the expense of the very kind President, who sympathized with our situation." Pretty friendly for the President of a country that doesn't like visitors.

"A hotel?" Zell said, turning to look at their instructor. "SWEET!" At that moment, a doctor walked out of the room they were sitting outside of. Squall turned his head slightly to face the man, who was now looking at their instructor.

"The girl has awakened. She says her name is Rinoa." Rinoa...

A/N: Okay, I looked up the game script for this one and saw that the only way Ultimecia talked weird was exchanging "c"'s with "k"'s but I looked it up to see how Odine talked. Let me tell you, it's annoying to type how he talks — I always hated him -glares- haha. I think it was that whole... "Fisticuffs" thing that made me hate him. -shudders- I'm sorry but it always, always bugged me xD

And I wanted to apologize for the delay in this update, among other updates I have to make for other stories. I got really busy with school work, but I'm back now and trying to get back into the swing of things. Also, I recently got a new computer that has Microsoft Word instead of Wordperfect (-glares- I HATE IT.) so I'm still getting the hang of it. So far, its being a bitch. Hopefully I finally got this stupid chapter to upload D= In its PROPER format, that is.