Chapter Twelve
Angel Awakened

She learned that she could hurt him completely by accident. He had thrown her roughly into that gods-forsaken chair that had become all too familiar with, and her she had just snapped. Enough was enough. And she had had enough.

She was tired of being here … tired of every muscle in her body aching, tired of being degraded in ways that she never would have imagined possible before this ordeal. How many ways were there to beat and rape a person? Rinoa could now tell you at least twenty-five.

She was just tired. She wanted to go home. But more than anything, she wanted this bastard dead. All of a sudden, the rage in her broken body soared to an overwhelming degree, and she felt the familiar tingle in the palms of her hands. Closing her eyes, she concentrated as hard as she could, and heard the familiar chant in her head.

Fithos. Lusec. Wecos. Vinosec.

Once upon a time, it had been terrifying to her. Now, she embraced it. Because this wasn't Ultimecia in her brain, making her do things against her will. This was Rinoa Heartilly's mind, and Rinoa Heartilly's gods-given power. It was all she had right now. And she had her knight … he was looking for her, even now, and he'd keep her in the light. She would keep herself in the light, because she could do good for the whole world. She could save herself for once, and others who needed help.

Squall had said she was an angel … by gods, it was time to prove it.

He came toward her with another syringe full of some vile-looking green liquid and she stretched out her hand as best she could in the restraints. The tingling in her hands was no longer merely an idea in her head, but an actual, tangible thing. It looked like tiny white stars were shooting from her fingertips and she used her mind to fling the stars outward.

It knocked him back, against one of his own tables, and Rinoa felt her heart leap. It worked! It worked! He straightened almost immediately, and she did it again, putting a little more force into it this time, and he stumbled back again. Not strong enough, not yet … Closing her eyes, she sent out a tiny plea. If you can hear me, lend me your strength!

There was mad rage in his eyes when he straightened again and he lunged at her with an animalistic growl.

Suddenly, Rinoa felt an enormous surge of adrenaline and power course through her. She was able to break the restraints at her wrists, and she flung out her hand, and sent out a bright beam of white light that knocked him across the room. He landed hard, and appeared not to be moving. Her heart raced. Had she killed him? Still feeling the adrenaline pumping through her, and momentarily having no pain, she unbuckled the restraints bounding her ankles and moved tentatively across the room. He was out cold.

Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she retrieved the key to her room that he kept in the front pocket of his lab coat. She still didn't know how to get out of here, but at least now, she could lock herself in her room, and he'd not be able to get to her. She would be safe, for awhile at least. Until she could figure out what to do next. But she wasn't finished with him, not yet.

By the time she returned to her room, the adrenaline had gone away somewhat, and every muscle in her body was screaming in agony. She lie down on her cot gingerly, and let out a long, shuddering breath.

That had felt good. And not just good in the fact that it had been a relief to defend herself that way … it felt GOOD. Pure. Not like when Ultimecia had been inside of her before. That had been dark, twisted, corrupt. The power that Ultimecia sent through her had looked like black ribbons, threading throughout the world, marring her vision of the good. It had made her feel icy cold.

This had made her warm all the way to the depths of her soul. This had been golden and bright as the sun. Her vision had been clearer, her mind sharper. This was where Rinoa Heartilly's power lie. In the light.

Sighing with relief for the first time in weeks, Rinoa allowed herself to sleep peacefully. For once, she had nothing to fear.

The only person who should fear anything was Cyrus Blakeslee. He had gotten his wish -- the Sorceress was back. But she'd never be what he wanted her to be. Ultimecia was no more, and she would never come to be.

Instead of ending the world … Rinoa was going to protect it.

xXx

Irvine and Selphie looked at Squall worriedly. They'd been walking through the streets of Esthar, on the way to the Presidential Residence, when all of a sudden, he had just stopped walking, and had gone into battle stance.

"Squall!" Selphie yelped, alarmed. "Are you okay?"

He nodded and gave the air a vicious swipe with his Lion Heart.

"Has he gone crazy?" Irvine whispered.

Selphie shushed him. "Look!"

Lion Heart had begun to shimmer faintly. "Hopefully that worked," Squall said, more to himself than to anyone else. I hope that's what she needed.

"What's going on?" Irvine asked as Squall re-sheathed the Lion Heart.

"Just helping," Squall said ambiguously. "Come on, let's get to Laguna's."

They arrived at the Presidential Residence shortly thereafter, and a short, slightly overweight blonde woman stopped them at the door. "Do you have an appointment?" she said brusquely.

Squall quirked his eyebrow at her. She was a new aide. "No, I don't, but if you could just tell Laguna that Squall is here …"

"If you don't have an appointment, you'll have to make one. The President is very busy," the woman barked. Apparently, she was very new. She didn't even know Laguna's "Squall-gets-in-no-matter-what" rule. "You're going to have to leave," she said, motioning for them to turn around.

"How long have you worked here?" Squall demanded.

The woman was slightly taken aback. "A couple of days, not that that should matter to you."

"Well, look, I'm Squall. Do me a favor and go tell Laguna that Squall is here," he said irritably.

The woman glowered. "Fine, all right, I'll go tell the President that there's some punk out here and he can deal with you, is that what you want?"

Squall nodded, rolling his eyes. "Please."

The lady walked off, muttering under her breath. Squall heard something about "being arrested" and just shook his head in disgust.

Less than two minutes later, Laguna was sauntering down the hallway towards them, with the aide following him, apologizing about the "disturbance, but these kids wouldn't take no for an answer".

Laguna smiled when he saw Squall, and then turned to the woman. "Annika, didn't we go over this?" He was not unkind when he spoke to her, just firm. "Squall is to be allowed in, no matter what."

"He didn't say who he was!" Annika retorted, her face turning scarlet.

"Yes, he did!" Selphie cried, unable to help herself. She clapped her hands over her mouth when both Squall and Laguna looked at her, their eyebrows quirked at identical angles. If the situation hadn't been so dire, Selphie might have laughed. How anybody could have missed the resemblance was beyond her. "Sorry," she whispered, turning red.

"That's fine," Laguna said kindly. "Annika, you may go." After the aide had left, Laguna turned to his son and his companions. "What brings you to Esthar? You heard about Ellone, I suppose?" It was then that Squall noticed the dark circles under Laguna's eyes, the drawn expression. He'd been worried sick.

Squall nodded. "That's part of it. But …" Frowning, he looked around. Talking about this out in the hallway probably wasn't a very wise idea. "Can we go inside to discuss this?"

Laguna looked startled for a second, and then nodded. "Oh, yeah! Of course, of course. Sorry, I've been a little preoccupied lately," he said, motioning for them to follow him into his sitting room.

Squall wanted to say something about the "lately" comment, but decided that now was not the time. After they were seated, Squall turned to Laguna. "Ellone is not dead," he said.

Laguna's head shot up. "What?"

"I'm surprised you didn't know," Squall commented. "She's been connecting with me for a while now." He sighed. "But I suppose she's been a little bit busy, with us at Garden. Look. I wanted to let you know that, first and foremost, so that you could stop worrying. She's alive."

"What happened at Garden?" Laguna asked, and Squall, Irvine, and Selphie started to fill the Estharian President in on everything that had happened in the past three and a half weeks.

"Wait," Laguna held up his hand after something Irvine said caught his attention. "Did you say Dr. Cyrus Blakeslee?"

"Yes," Squall said. "What do you know about him?"

"He used to work for Dr. Odine," Laguna said. "But then, after I had Odine locked away for his crimes against humanity, Blakeslee took over his lab. He seems like a good guy. Very smart. More stable than Odine ever was, that's for sure. Are you sure he's behind all of this?" Laguna scratched the back of his head nervously. "I mean, he was here at dinner with us, the night that Ellone went missing. And he was the first person back here the next day, offering to help out in any way that he could."

"And you don't find that odd?" Squall demanded, angry now. "Why don't you ever question anything? You let people walk all over you, Laguna, and you're too damn trusting! And look where it's gotten us." Laguna's laid-back, trusting nature was all well and good, but not when it came to matters of global security. "You're the gods-damned President," Squall added, quieter now. "And we are going to Dr. Blakeslee's lab, right now. He's got Ellone and Edea. He's fucking got Rinoa in there. Doing Hyne knows what to her as we speak."

"And you know this because …" Laguna said slowly.

"Because Rinoa told me. He kidnapped her, on the night of my birthday," Squall began, dreading to have to tell this part. "And somehow managed to make us all forget about her." He turned to Selphie. "Show him the diary pages," he said, nodding in Laguna's direction.

Laguna took the pages from Selphie with shaking hands, and as he read them, he couldn't deny it any longer. It wasn't the most concrete of evidence, but it was more than enough. "So this all started, basically, because this girl was obsessed with … I.K. Who's I.K.?"

Irvine raised his hand sheepishly. "That would be me."

"So when Blakeslee learned that this girl had created … this memory thing … he became interested in her work. And it was all a plot to get Rinoa?" Laguna's brow furrowed. "I don't understand what Ellone and Edea have to do with this, then."

"It's simple really," Squall said, standing up and pacing the room as he let all of his many erratic thoughts spill out. "Ellone and Edea were taken so that Rinoa could be blamed for their murders. He may have started out just wanting to gather up different women who might make good candidates for the Sorceress, but he knew all along which one he wanted."

"Because she was the last one to have the powers …" Laguna finished, and Squall nodded. "And by erasing all of your memories, Blakeslee figured he was severing a the bond, and that without the bond, Rinoa would go to the dark side." He turned to Squall then. "But … the bond can't be severed. Surely he would've known that! It's in all the old textbooks …"

Squall arched his eyebrow. "Textbooks?" he asked suspiciously. Laguna didn't read textbooks.

Laguna sighed. "All right, all right, story books, but still. It's in every single one. There is nothing short of death that can sever a Sorceress/Knight bond."

"Um, question!" Selphie said, raising her hand as though she were in school. "If that's the case, then what about Ultimecia? She went bad. Didn't she have a Knight?"

"And her Knight died because of it. Her anger at him leaving her consumed him as well as her, and he, being merely mortal, wasn't strong enough to withstand. So, when he died, the bond was officially severed, and Ultimecia as we know her, was born," a voice from the back of the room said, and everyone turned around.

"Quistis!" Selphie yelled, jumping up and running to her.

"Ellone?" Squall asked the older girl, and she nodded.

"The night you left, I was coming to look for you, but you were gone. Once I figured it out, it was easy enough to deduce where you were heading." She smiled. "Please tell me, though, how I seem to have made it here at the same time as you, considering I left two days later?"

Irvine explained to her about FH and Drea, while Squall turned back to Laguna.

Laguna's face was more serious now than Squall thought he had ever seen him. All he said was, "When?"

"Right now," was Squall's reply.

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A/N: OMG It's almost over! I hope you guys like this chap ... I'm seriously considering getting the next one up here later on tonight, as well. So enjooooooooooooooy! XD