Disclaimer:I don't own final fantasy 8. See i own a copy of it, but we're not even speaking anymore. it knows what it did!!!!!!!
Note:Well heres another chapter, a bit longer than the others. We see Rinoa show up in this chapter and the end of this chapter kind of kicks off the big thing of the story, so give it a read. Many thanks to r, and renegade seraph for reading the story and reviewing. i like when people review : ). also thanks toWayne who helped me out with the plot of this chapter and also for letting me know that my writing actually means something and of course chapter goes to Hannah my pkot (yes pkot) bunny helper extrodinaire!!!!keep on rocking! hope y'all like the story xx
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When Squall got back to the protest base he decided it would be best to call Headmaster Cid and let him know what had gone on at the meeting, because know that Squall though of it, it was quite a lot that had happened. General Caraway was the person causing this major upheaval. Rinoa's father, Squalls father in law.
Squall dialled the number for Garden and Xu picked up
"Xu, it's Squall"
"oh, hi Squall. Do you want to talk to Rinoa?" Xu asked politely
'Rinoa' Squall thought 'should I even tell Rinoa. Maybe it's best I tell her myself when I get back'
"Actually Xu, is Cid there?"
"of course commander". Squall heard a few bleeps and then the familiar voice of Cid
"Hello Squall. How is it going down there?"
Squall explained what had happened to Cid, and about his confrontation with Caraway
"yes well" Cid said concernedly on the end of the line "I suppose the fact of you and Rinoa would have made things a lot worse."
"Yes and Seifer of course. He always enjoys making things worse." Squall said shooting a glance at Seifer who was now talking to the pouty young blonde girl who was hanging on his every word as if he were some kind of god. "Moron" Squall muttered under his breath
"Well yes. I think I shall have to have a word with him about all this when he gets back to garden" Cid said seriously
After a few more minutes of conversation Squall hung up the phone and rubbed his eyes. He was incredibly tired.
"C'mon you guys" he said to his friends "Lets go to the hotel now. We'll come back in the morning"
Squall lay in his room, staring at the ceiling. He was tired but he could not sleep. It had been nearly two years since he had been in a room, or a bed by himself and he started to feel lonely. Glancing at the clock he saw it was 10.25. It had felt much later to him, but he guessed that 10.25 was probably a reasonable time still to call Rinoa. It had been a day and he already missed her like crazy, and with all the stress of the confrontation if there was any time he needed to speak to her it was now. He knew that somehow just hearing her voice would calm him down. But when he dialled the number for their room at Garden he got no answer. He rang the main number again and Xu answered.
"Hey Xu, Squall again. Ok can I speak to Rinoa"
"Actually Squall she's not here" Xu said
A tiny alarm went off in Squalls head "What?? Where is she?"
"I'm not sure. She went out a few minutes ago. But I'm sure she's fine. Why don't you call again in the morning"
Squall agreed, and then hung up the phone. He knew he'd never get to sleep now………
Squall was woken up the next morning by a loud knocking on his door "Dude, it's Irvine. We really should get going you know"
"yeeeh!" came Selphies' voice "Or that scary red haired woman might eat us!!"
Squall could hear Zell laughing and was quite unsure as to why practically the whole gang was congregating outside his door.
He dressed quickly, and half an hour later the whole gang were downstairs in the Hotel lobby waiting for -who else-Seifer. After about another 5 minutes he came strolling down the stairs "Morning all." he said in that Seifer-ish way that Zell found so annoying
"What time do you call this?" Zell said crossing his arms
"I don't know, a watch doesn't really go with my outfit" Seifer grinned.
Zell muttered something under his breath and then stormed out the door.
Within another half hour the gang were back at the protest base they had been at yesterday. As soon as the Red-haired woman opened the door she said "Oh, so you finally decided to show up did you"
"It's only 10 am!" Selphie Squealed
The woman just huffed and then wandered into the house followed by the gang.
"I do not like her" Irvine muttered quietly "She is the devil!"
Selphie squealed with laughter and the woman turned around and shot an evil glance at Selphie.
"You're the leader right?" she said to Squall.
'Oh god, what now' he thought
"Yep. that's me" he said
"May I have a word in private please". The woman lead him into a small room of the main area and looked at him crossing her arms.
"Well?" he asked
"I must say. I am not very impressed."
"I'm sorry?" Squall asked. Not only was this woman rude she was ungrateful
" I can't say I'm exactly impressed with the service you've provided. You bring a group of teenagers along with you, who can't even seem to get along with each other, one of whom is dressed like a cowboy, and one of whom has done nothing but cause trouble. So far you've solved nothing. You've used the one negotiation meeting we had to have an argument about your wife, who quite frankly I really don't care about and you have not achieved anything that could be called useful. We are no where further for you being here"
Squall opened his mouth to answer when there was a loud knocking on the door. After a few seconds the knocking came again, and realising no one else was going to open it the woman stormed out of the room to the door.
Squall just sat there in disbelief at what he had just heard. Had he actually just been told he wasn't doing his job properly?
He heard the woman open the door and say "Who are you?"
"Hi. I'm…" But Squall didn't need to hear the end of the sentence. He recognised the voice immediately, it was so familiar. He stepped out of the room and his suspicions were dead right
"Rinoa??" he asked in pure shock
"there you go." Rinoa said to the red haired woman with a smile "I'm Rinoa Leonheart"
"Leonheart." The woman turned and glared at Squall "Your wife I assume?"
"Rinoa what are you doing here?"
She stepped inside the house, and as soon as she did Squall grabbed her arm and lead her into the other room.
"You don't seem happy to see me" she said
"Why are you here? I told you stay at Garden" he asked kind of angrily. He knew that things would only get a hell of a lot more complicated
"well that was fine, until I found out that my father was the one behind this all"
"Who the hell told you?" Squall asked
"Cid. But Squall you should have told me."
"I didn't tell you because I knew you'd turn up here and that's only going to make things complicated. More complicated than they are. You should go home now"
"No" Rinoa said
"yes, I'm telling you go home."
"No. you can't make me Squall. This concerns me too."
Squall was about to say something when the red haired woman called over to him "May we speak again please?" she hissed.
Squall knew he was in for it again. But then again, even he was a little mad about Rinoa showing up so he guessed the woman would be too.
"Wait here" he said to Rinoa as he walked over to speak to the woman.
Rinoa stood wondering what the woman was saying to Squall when she saw Seifer wandering over. "Hey. What are you doing here?" he asked
"I heard about my father being involved in this all. I can't believe him…"
"Yeh" Seifer said "yeh, you should of heard the type of things he was saying to Squall as well"
"Like what?" Rinoa asked
Seifer let out a long low whistle "All kind of things. He was just completely up in his face." he could see Rinoa was getting madder and madder.
"what kind of things was he actually saying"
"ooh wouldn't like to say some of them" Seifer said with a little Seifer laugh "that he was an arrogant son of a bitch, that he ruined you r life all that you know"
"that's it" Rinoa breathed starting to leave the room.
"were are you going?"
"To see Caraway. How dare he say crap like that" then she stormed out of the room, straight past Zell who confusedly asked her where she was going, but she didn't answer him. Turning to were she had been he noticed Seifer standing there with a little grin on his face, typing something, a message, on his phone..
'is he up to something?' Zell wondered. He walked over to him "where's Rinoa going?"
Seifer gave a little shrug, snapped the phone closed and put it in his pocket "I think she went to see her father."
"WHAT?" Zell asked "Did you put her up to that?"
Seifer laughed "Calm it chicken-wuss. I only told her what happened and she just stormed off"
"You're an idiot" Zell muttered leaving the room, figuring he should tell Squall.
He walked into the room were Squall was arguing with the red haired woman
"S'cuse me. Squall, Rinoa's gone to see caraway."
"What?" Squall said "Why"
"Something Seifer said I think"
"Seifer. He's an idiot, this is not going to end well."
He walked over to were Seifer was "What the hell did you say to Rinoa. You know this is only going to make things worse!"
" I didn't say much. She just went mad. Maybe if your so concerned you should be going after her."
Realising that Seifer was right, Squall grabbed the keys to the car and ran for the door.
Rinoa stepped out of the taxi in front of her old house. She headed down the drive way and noticed the Guard on the door. He was the same guard that had been there for as long as Rinoa could remember he was a close friend of her fathers.
"Miss Heartilly. What are you doing here?" he asked
"let me in I want to see my father"
The guard stepped aside "Of course Miss Heartilly"
"it's Leonheart. And it's Mrs" she said before walking through the house
She headed straight for her fathers study ,were she knew he would be, and found him sitting behind his desk.
"Rinoa?" he asked shocked "what are you doing here?"
"Who the hell do you think you are?" she demanded
"Excuse me?"
"who the hell do you think you are."
"me? I'm not the one who disappears for two years then comes back yelling and screaming. You'd do well to calm yourself down"
"I will not calm down. What the hell do you think gave you the right to speak to Squall the way I know you did?"
"Ahhh yes. Squall, your husband, I believe. Why did you think you didn't have to tell me you were getting married"
'Because it was my choice. You're not a part of my life anymore."
"You call what you did over the past few years a life?" the general gave a little laugh
"And what the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"you run off with some group of people, get caught up in some stupid battle and you wind up a sorceress because of some stupid man and then you make the ridiculously stupid decision to marry thin man? I never raised you to be so stupid"
"raised me. Is that what you call what you did? I'd say it was more like try and own me. And none of what happened was Squalls fault. If it weren't for him I'd be dead. He's a hero"
"He's an idiot" Caraway muttered
"You don't know him, and you don't know me. But next time you see him you'll treat him with more respect because he's 1000 times the person you could even dream of being"
"you always were naïve that way"
"and what do you mean by that…I …" at that moment the door swung open and Squall came into the room.
"Rinoa what are you doing?" Squall asked
"I'm putting this guy in his place."
"you stupid little girl…I'm not sure whose more ridiculous you or him. I…" but before he could finish his sentence Rinoa had already lunged at him obviously determined in ripping his annoying face off. Fortunately for Caraway, Squall reached out and grabbed Rinoa around the waist, restraining her.
As much as he would have liked to see her get one over on Caraway, he knew that violence in this case would not really solve anything. She struggled against his grip angrily, and Squall found it actually quite hard to hold onto her as she was actually quite strong
"Let go of me." she said as she struggled, trying desperately to break his grip on her.
"you need to calm down. This isn't going to solve anything" Squall said trying to drag her back away from the General
"I will not calm down" she screamed "I'll kill him"
"Rinoa" Squall said tightening his hold around her waist and pulling her back "Just calm down. Don't be crazy, You're making things worse."
The General laughed "See even he thinks your insane"
"I'm not insane. You're just,…evil"
"Yes" Caraway said "I'm the evil one. Not you, the sorceress"
She started to struggle towards him again, but Squalls hold on her still couldn't be broken
"I really recommend that you stop" Squall said to him
"You're so naïve, and deluded" the General spat at his daughter "do you honestly believe that you've found happiness. Think you've found love? He doesn't love you. No one could ever love you"
At that point Squall couldn't restrain her and she broke his grip and slapped the General hard across his face. Before Squall even had time to process this, the General lifted his hand and smacked Rinoa in the face and she fell to the floor. Before Squall could process that, he had already reached out and punched Caraway in the face.
He picked Rinoa up of the floor and said "we're leaving".
But when he turned to the door he saw there was a line of Galbadian Soldiers there, each with their guns no pointed at Squall and Rinoa.
"what the hell" Squall muttered
The General laughed, despite the fact there was blood pouring from his nose.
"why would I let you leave. I've got you both exactly were I want you"
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Dun dun dun!!!!! what exactly does caraway mean by that??? well if u want to know that, and more twists, read the next chapter which is coming soon! xx