A loud whirring noise could be heard from the apartment. Almost instinctively Rinoa ran onto the balcony. She saw a huge airship landing right outside Garden. Some students were yelling and preparing their weapons. Rinoa squinted her eyes slightly; she recognised that type of airship anywhere. No one else could build something so extravagant. She ran back inside the living room and slipped on her shoes. She could hear people running out in the hall and knew straight away Squall was already alerted. She knew she had to get there quick otherwise trouble could stir. Re-adjusting her shoes she called Angelo and ran to the elevator. It was already downstairs so she had to wait impatiently for it to come up again. Once inside she decided it wasn't quick enough. She tapped her foot infuriated. When the doors opened she ran to the front gate as quickly as she could. By the time she got outside nearly every cadet and SeeD was standing as if they were about to head into battle. Rinoa sighed and started to push herself towards where she knew Squall would be.
Reaching the front she saw him, Quistis, Selphie, Zell and Irvine looking sternly at the airship. The doors started to open and a platform was lowered. She heard everybody clip their weapons and move into a battle stance.
"Stop…Squall!" she tried to yell over the noise but he didn't hear.
She pushed past a couple more people and flew towards him. She grabbed hold of his arm. He turned hastily.
"Rinoa, quick…get inside," he said
"No…you don't under-"
"Do it! Quickly, who knows who these guys are?!"
"Squall…Listen-"
"Wow, great welcoming party!" Rinoa turned to the airship to see the bubbly ninja girl looking out towards the crowd. Squall's grip tightened on his gunblade. Rinoa suddenly over flew with emotion at seeing her old friend. She pushed Squall away and ran towards Yuffie and gave her a huge hug. Tears gathered in her eyes.
"I haven't seen you in ages!" She squeezed a bit tighter
Yuffie was almost in the same state,
"I've missed you so much!"
"Rinoa!" Rin looked behind Yuffie and saw a tall brunette headed girl
"Tifa!" She released her embrace on Yuffie and hugged her other friend "I didn't know you were coming too!"
"Well, you told me to bring the best of the best so I brought these guys," Yuffie answered
"And here I thought you'd just bring a group of ninjas,"
"Who needs ninja's when you've got us?" A deep male voice replied
"Barrett!" Rinoa hugged him like the others "Ouch, not so tight, you've been working out I see!"
"Rinoa, who are these guys?" Zell asked
Rinoa suddenly felt embarrassed as she realise nearly all of Balamb Garden had been watching.
"Oh!" She looked back and forth from her two groups of friends "Well, ya see these are old friends of mine and so I called them up to see if they could help on our…situation,"
"You've should've told us," Quistis said in a parental tone
"I know, I was going too but I didn't think they'd arrive so soon, I only called them this morning,"
"Well, with the Shiera we can get anywhere as quick as possible,"
"Cid," Rinoa let out small chuckle
"What ya think of this baby?"
"Gee lassie, I'd get off the subject unless you wanna be here all night," A small black and white cat said coming out of the ship
"Hey Cait Sith! And lemme guess Red's in there too,"
"Actually, I'm right here," She saw a large red cat trod down the platform.
"You know they don't allow pets in Garden," she joked
Cait Sith and Red XIII snorted.
"Who are you calling a pet?" Red replied
Rin smiled cheekily.
Soon a tall blonde caught her eye.
"Hi Cloud!" but this time her old friend just walked past not a sound or a motion to show he'd heard her.
Rinoa retracted slightly.
"Don't worry about him, he's just not himself," Tifa reassured her "Not since well…"
"Not since what?"
Everyone shook their heads.
"Let's not worry about that now," Yuffie said chirpily, she turned back to the ship "Vincent! Will you hurry up?!"
"Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about Vincent! Hiya!" she waved excitedly
"Hi, Rin"
Rinoa smiled at all her friends.
"I missed you guys' loads!" She turned to the Garden to see everyone had departed except for her five best friends who stood watching curiously. Squall caught her attention more then any others as he looked angrier then any other emotion. She turned back to the others, "There's a grand ballroom on the 2nd floor, and there are lots of tables. Go in there and I'll meet you in a couple of minutes,"
They nodded and started heading there way. Rinoa reassured Cid that the Shiera would be in safe hands. Once they'd gone she walked to the others. She looked to her shoes unsure of what to say.
"They seem nice," Selphie said to break the silence
"Yeah, did anyone else see the size of that girls boobs!" Irvine joked, which was immediately responded with a whack from Selphie.
Rinoa laughed.
"Um…can you guys go and check they found the ballroom ok without any trouble. I need to talk to Squall,"
They nodded and left.
Squall stood silently, every other minute he'd gaze up to the Shiera. Rinoa bit her lip.
"You should've told me," he said at last "I thought…I thought they were the ones after you,"
"I know, I'm sorry but as I said I didn't think they'd be here so soon and we've barely seen each other all day,"
Squall nodded,
"I'll be keeping my eye on them,"
"There's no need to do that, they're my friends,"
"I know, but that blonde one, with the spiky hair, he seems familiar. I don't trust him,"
"Who…Cloud? Nah he's fine…he's a bit like the old you," she laughed
"Hm…still…I know I've seen him before,"
Rinoa shrugged.
"I'd better get back to them, who knows what Yuffie's getting herself into," she leaned forward and pecked him on the cheek.
"Again…I'm sorry," and then she ran into Garden, leaving Squall alone at the entrance.
x x x
"Here you go!" Xu said handing her the ID badges "you'll have to feel them in yourself because I don't know who they are, but you'll have to get Squall to sign them. The rooms are being made up as we speak," she handed her a group of key cards "Anything else?"
"Nope that's it, but err…just keep an eye on Squall please, I think he's mad at me for not telling him they were coming,"
Xu nodded and started to walk to the elevator.
"No problem, 2nd floor?"
Rinoa nodded.
x x x
"There you are! We thought you'd abandoned us!" Yuffie said
Rinoa shook her head happily.
"First things first I need to fill these out," she sat on the table and pulled out the first ID badge.
"Yuffie Kisaragi, Age 18, Guest," she started a pile
"Tifa Lockheart, 23, Guest
Barrett Wallace, 37, Guest
Cid Highwind, 35, Guest
Red XIII, 50, Guest
Cait Sith, 26, Guest
Cloud Strife, 23, Guest
Vincent Valentine-"
"Valentine?!" Zell started to snigger
Vincent looked to Zell and raised an eyebrow,
"Do you have a problem with that?" his deep voiced trembled the air
Zell shook his head and remained quiet. Rinoa laughed
"Anyway, Vincent Valentine, 29, Guest,"
She noticed there was one ID badge left but only 8 people. She fiddled with it slightly confused. Whose missing she thought. Then it hit her.
"Oh, Aeris!" she looked around "Where's Aeris?"
Suddenly a tension built amongst the friends. A dark cloud circled ahead.
"She was killed," Cloud said bluntly "She was killed by Sephiroth,"
Rinoa opened her mouth widely. She covered it trying to hold back any tears.
"Holy Hyne," she took a deep breath "I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"
"It's ok Rinny-nee, you didn't know, although we should've told you sooner,"
Rinoa lowered her head slightly. One of her friends had been killed and she didn't even know, she found herself whispering four small words,
"Dilly Dally, Shilly Shally,"
The others, (minus Cloud and Vincent) looked up and all together they smiled slightly,
"Dilly Dally, Shilly Shally,"
Rin gave them a small smile. She turned around and noticed only Zell was left of her Garden friends.
"Zell take these up to Squall and ask him to sign them, and give these to Xu and tell her I miscounted and we won't need that extra room,"
He nodded and left hastily avoiding any eye contact with Vincent.
"So, Rin, what brings us across the oceans to Balamb Garden?" Tifa asked
"Well, maybe I should start from the beginning. You see, after you guys left again Timber hit a bump in the road and we needed help from SeeD and then, well a lot of other things came up…"
She told them all about her adventure the previous year. How she'd met Squall, Zell, Selphie, Quistis, Irvine and together they'd manage to defeat the evil sorceress and save the world from Time Compression. And although she didn't want to she knew had to tell them her biggest secret of all…
"And well one thing I didn't mention was that after Edea got rid of her powers they had to be passed on to another and because of my heritage they were passed onto me,"
"So you're the-" Red started
"Yes, I'm the new sorceress. But you can't tell anyone! After all I'm living in Garden the place built to train sorceress slayers! If they were to find out I'm sure I'd be toast!"
"It's ok your secrets safe with us!" Yuffie promised
Rinoa breathed a sigh of relief; if Yuffie said it then it meant something to her.
Zell came rushing back into the ballroom.
"He says…he won't sign them…for people he hasn't…met" he said between breaths
"What?! That man is so stubborn, why can't he just do what his told like a good little SeeD?"
"Because your 'rebelness' has rubbed off on me," Squall stood behind Zell with a raised eyebrow.
"Ergh, Everyone this is Squall, he's the commander here at Garden,"
"Hi there!" Yuffie chirped, everyone then said hello except Cloud who eyed Squall carefully
"Nice to meet you, but before I sign these passes I need to know how your going to help our situation,"
"We don't even know what the situation is," Barrett said gruffly
"I hadn't got there yet, I had to cover the background," Rinoa turned to her friends "You see…"
She started to explain about the messages and that's why the Garden was a bit cautious when they arrive.
"Scary," Tifa said thoughtfully
"Oooo, if I come across those guys they'll know about it! I go all ninjistu on them and they'll run around going 'ah, my spleen!'" Yuffie started to wave her arms about
"Yuffie calm down, your not going anywhere without me," Vincent said resting his hands on her shoulders "We'll definitely help; we'll do whatever it takes,"
"Yeah, maybe like patrol or something, or round the clock body guards!" Cid suggested
"Nah, what she needs is a furry companion apart from that darn dog, ain't that right lass," Cait Sith brought forward his ideas
"Look we can all sit down and talk about it tomorrow, its late and your dorms should be ready. The cafeterias on the 1st floor, you can get something to eat there," She turned to Squall who still didn't seem impressed "Can you sign their badges now please?"
"Whatever," He brought out a pen and signed them all "Here, Don't lose them coz you're not getting more,"
"Thank you Squally," Yuffie said pinning her badge to her shirt
Rinoa lowered her head to hide her giggles. Squall turned and followed Zell out the door.
"He's a bit of a stick in the mud isn't he," Cid said
"He's like Cloud's twin!" Yuffie giggled "Or maybe Vincent's!"
Rinoa saw Vincent bury his head in his cape to hide a smile. She noticed the way he'd react to all of Yuffie's comments and vice-versa. It reminded her slightly of how her and Squall started off, she came to the conclusion that Yuffie and Vincent were more than just friends. She laughed to herself at how lucky and alike she was with her best friend.
She handed out the dorm keys
"The dorms are on the first floor too, if you get lost there are directories located all around," she reached Yuffie and her voice dropped to a whisper "and unlucky for you, you can't share dorms with your boyfriend,"
Yuffie looked slightly confused but soon a smile spread across her face she moved her mouth to Rinoa's ear,
"You still know me like the back of your hand,"
They giggled to each other and Rinoa was reminded of when they were kids. She'd missed her so much but she was afraid of the conflict there could be between Squall and Cloud. Squall was hiding something, even if he didn't know it, but what ever it was she was going to find out.