Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy, SquareEnix does.
Possession
He remembered who she was now. He could recall what Cid said about Edea being possessed by the sorceress Ultimecia, and he had accepted it. But now, now it seemed so surreal.
Ultimecia…
Squall could not even comprehend the thought of Rinoa being possessed by such a being.
He hated how fearful and cautious the others had become, not just of Rinoa but of Squall himself. He hated how Cid had cautioned him, told him if Rinoa awoke possessed they would have to restrain her.
He had never pulled his gunblade on Cid before; never had the concept even entered his mind. Even in his most frustrating and angered moments, Squall had always kept himself together, kept a cold business-like persona. But the notion of imprisoning Rinoa…No. He wouldn't, couldn't even comprehend such a thing.
So they imprisoned him, for treason against the headmaster.
"Squall, I understand that your upset man, but you really need to settle down." Zell told him, before they locked him in his room. "I mean attacking the headmaster? Geez Squall…" He said shaking his head.
Squall hated him for that. Hated him for taking Cid's side, hated them all for abandoning him.
He sat on the edge of his bed in the Garden, a position familiar to him in the past few days. His elbows rested on his knees, chin perched on his interlaced fingers as his icy gaze glared at the door.
The room was dark, the window to his left had been boarded up, and the rarely used overhead light had burned out after four hours. At first he hadn't been bothered by the darkness, but the sun still filtered through the boards covering the window and the hallway lights shone brightly enough from the crack beneath his door. His anger alone had been enough to make him forget about what happened in the infirmary.
But his anger and resolve soon ebbed with the dwindling sunlight, and his fear returned as night fell. He didn't feel the taint as clearly as he had before, but he felt it coming. A stain that spread with the darkness, infected the shadows, turned them into something malicious and fearful.
He sat by the door, clinging to that last remaining crack of light like a dying man to his religion. His knees were drawn up to his chest and felt humiliated, like a child again, terrified of the imaginary monsters that lurked in the dark. But as he watched the darkness become impossibly darker, and watched the tendrils writhe and twist as they formed shapes, he knew that this monster wasn't a figment of his imagination.
The light kept it at bay, the creature paced at threshold of its radius. Squall could not describe the creature, only vaguely as it changed its shape so often that when a description came it had shifted again. All he really knew for certain was that it was after him and he feared it. Feared what it was, feared what it could do, and feared that he couldn't stop it.
Its pace became monotonous, as did watching it, and despite his struggles, the days and sleepless nights at Rinoa's side had weakened him, and he fell asleep. It was fearfully at first, but as his own darkness washed over him, one that only promised the warm embrace of unconsciousness he was grateful.
Grateful that if even for a few moments, he was free from his strife.
--
He was at her side again, sitting in a chair at the edge of her bed in the infirmary. He watched her, studying her sleeping face intensely as he turned over uncomforting thoughts again and again in his head.
"Ultimecia." He said out loud, without meaning too. It still failed to make sense to him. Why would Ultimecia possess Rinoa? She wasn't even a sorceress…
He had tried again and again to make the connection, only to be frustrated by the lack of answers he had to work with. His gaze fell to the floor as he sighed in frustration. Even if she was she really didn't have any powers…unless…
"Unless she's just a vessel…" Squall said, grimacing at his own words. How could he think such a thing?
"You're not as incompetent as I thought." An eerily familiar voice sneered, and the dark chuckle that resounded in the room made Squall's blood freeze.
Squall felt the taint engulf the room even before he saw Rinoa sit up; a dark haze covered her body and as her gaze rose to meet Squall's it was with the predatory amber eyes of Ultimecia.
Immediately he felt paralyzed, hopelessly entranced by the thing inside of Rinoa.
"I have already decided who I will keep from this time." She chuckled, her voice, sharp and commanding, carried a distinct accent that he couldn't place; and it terrified him that such a voice could come from Rinoa. "And it will not be this whore."
The darkness faded from Rinoa and for a moment it was just her, her innocent puzzled expression stared at Squall with her beautiful big brown eyes, and he reached for her.
"Rino-." Her name never had a chance to leave his lips before something formed between them, something smooth and clear, and as his hand connected with it he was startled to find that it was glass.
"Squall! Wha-." She managed, before the glass cracked where his hand had struck it. It spider webbed madly across its smooth surface and Squall gapped at the distorted image he saw of Rinoa through it. Without thinking, he reached for her again, and the glass shattered. Her face turned a deep shade of blue and before Squall could reach her, her pupils dilated.
--
He awoke with a start, frantically realizing that it was pitch black and he was hunched against the wall on the floor. His gaze swept across the room, searching for the creature, even as his hand reached to his side for a gunblade that wasn't there.
He didn't relax when he saw no sign of the creature, but he sat back against the wall with an exasperated sigh. He needed to find a way to remove Ultimecia from Rinoa, before the sorceress killed her.
With sigh of frustration he leaned his head back against wall and shut his eyes. He would try to talk to the headmaster again tomorrow, apologize, and make up some excuse. Then maybe he could see Rinoa again, maybe he could find some way to get her out of there. He could cross the bridge from Fisherman's Horizon and go to Esthar and…
And what? His consciousness mocked him, that cruel voice of reason that never once allowed him to believe that everything would be okay.
Something shifted above him, a movement he couldn't see but was unconsciously aware of, and he opened his eyes.
The creature was there, clawing its way down the wall towards him, with the snarling snapping face of a lion. Squall stared into the amber pools of its eyes, that gleamed with a sinister, predatory glare and his scream resounded throughout the Garden.
--
((Here's chapter 2, I made it longer since I had some reviews! See how this works? Lol! Please review! I would love to hear what everyone thinks since this seems to be a new concept!!
Reviewers:
Hugh Haiter- Thank you! I'm glad you're interested to see what happens next!
Renegade Seraph- Thank you! :3 I always try to write something that a million people before me didn't. I'm glad you like the horror element of it; I find it's a very overlooked genre when it comes to Final Fantasy. Awesome name btw!
-Dream-Silver-Haze-: Thank you! I'm excited and nervous about how people will react to it. It's a very different concept and I'm focusing quite a bit on Squalls isolation habit. I just hope I'm not running with scissors, lol!))