Everyone stood in silence watching the commander.

No one had ever seen him cry before and for those who knew him well it was hard to imagine.

Squall sat with his eyes closed, his head resting on that of Rinoa's. He didn't care who was watching, he didn't care about anything, and all he cared about, all he wanted was Rinoa. He wanted to hear her voice. He wanted to see her smile. He prayed so much that she'd wake up laughing pretending it was some kind of joke. But no matter how much he prayed, she didn't stir.

He heard people murmur and Dr. Kadowaki had arrived at last. She walked over to where Squall held Rinoa.

"Oh no," she gasped

She tried getting closer but Squall wanted let her touch her. In those few seconds he had reverted back into a child. Refusing to do the wise thing and only thinking of what he wanted.

"I'm sorry Squall," the doctor said

"I said I would protect her," he yelled angrily, he blamed himself "I said I would protect her!"

Kadowaki was unsure of what to say. She knew having all these people around wasn't helping his situation and without allowing her to move Rinoa she had to do something. She stood and walked over to the crowd of students.

"All of you will leave immediately! Those of you who are SeeD's block off anyone who's coming this way! As for the rest of you-"

She stopped as the room bathed in a heavenly light.

The beam had centred on Squall and Rinoa. Everyone had stopped in their tracks as the light illuminated around them. Squall looked up and gripped Rinoa tighter. Small firefly like orbs floated from the entrance. Everything that seemed good drifted from this strange glow.

From the opening a large orb, slightly bigger then materia slowly floated down. Its movement was entrancing and all anyone could do was watch. Slowly it landed onto Rinoa and absorbed into her skin.

Yuffie and the others looked on helplessly, when gradually a smile spread across Yuffie's face.

From the light a heavenly voice sang around the garden,

"Dilly Dally, Shilly Shally,"

The light lifted and everything was normal again.

There was nothing but silence. No one knew what had happened. Squall was looking around the room for an answer. His thoughts were disturbed when slowly but surely he felt the grip on his hand grow tighter.

"…Squall?"

He looked down to see Rinoa; her eyes open and body moving with the dance of breath.

"R…Rin?" He looked into her eyes.

She gave him a weak smile and lifted her hand to his face.

"Your cheeks are wet,"

"I thought I'd lost you," he hugged her unable to say anything else.

"You had…" She tried to sit up "But Aeris saved me,"

"Rinny-nee!" Yuffie ran over and hugged her friend "It was Aeris wasn't it!"

Rinoa nodded, she felt so weak but she was happy.

Squall moved his hand away from her stomach. There was not even a drip of blood or a scar. Nor was there any blood on his hands. He sat in a daze. Everyone around him was silent, gazing on.

"Right, I think we should take her to the infirmary now, don't you Commander Leonhart?" Dr. Kadowaki smiled at Rinoa

Rinoa stood but her legs gave way so Squall carried her. He held her like a groom holds his bride. As soon as he turned around and the school saw she was alive there was roar of cheers. Quistis, Selphie, Irvine and Zell ran over and hugged her as best they could in her position.

"Rin!" they yelled unable to think of anything else.

Squall started to walk towards the crowd to get to the infirmary. The students split in half to let them pass. Rinoa felt embarrassed and shy but she didn't care.

When they reached the infirmary Squall set her down on a bed and held her hand. He stared at her for a while before dropping his head. Again tears streaked down his face but this time it was for happiness.

Rinoa managed to find the strength to lean forward and hold him.

"Promised I wasn't going anywhere," She whispered

For once Squall couldn't speak. He had never cried like this before, sometimes he wondered if he was even capable of doing so.

Rinoa was almost as shocked as he was. She could never of imagined Squall crying, and most certainly not like this. She sat with him for what felt like forever letting him know she was there. Letting him know she'll always be there. Letting him know she was alive.

x x x

"The water's cold!" Yuffie cried

Vincent let the water fall from the pump.

"You need to wash the poison off otherwise you'll never be able to use your hand again,"

Yuffie stuck her hand under the water and cringed. It was so cold and her hand was already numb.

"You shouldn't have grabbed the spike,"

"What did you want me to do? Let him stab me and end up like Rinoa?"

Vincent remained quiet. He passed Yuffie a towel.

She flexed her hand and stretched it.

"Do you think she's ok now?" she asked

"Well, Dr. Kadowaki said she's in perfect health,"

"No, I meant do you think she's safe from those slayers?"

"I don't know, we can only hope,"

"I'm gonna go visit her in the infirmary, see you later," she pecked him on the cheek and bounced off

x x x

"I didn't like it,"

"I don't think anyone liked it Yuff; it's kind of expected when someone dies,"

"Yeah, but I didn't like it more then anyone else! You can be sure of that!"

Rinoa lay on the bed smiling at her friend.

"So, where's Squall?" Yuffie asked looking around

"Dr. Kadowaki sent him away so I could sleep, not that I'm getting any,"

Yuffie giggled.

"Hehe, sorry,"

"That's fine, I wasn't tired anyway," She looked around for any eavesdroppers "Look Yuffie I need your help, can you keep a secret?"

"You know I can,"

Rinoa paused,

"When I was…dead I found out a couple of things about my attacker. He's part of a group that find sorceresses and kill them to harvest their power,"

"That sounds creepy,"

Rinoa nodded.

"You see, something I learnt from Edea was that a sorceress can never die peacefully unless she has passed her powers onto someone else. So these people would follow the sorceresses around until they died or they were killed so they could take their powers and use them to torture others. But somewhere down the road they lost all the powers. I think it was something to do with the sorceress war but I'm not sure. So what these people want to do is kill me so I'd pass my powers onto one of the women and they'd use a something called the Safrin crystal to split the power and pass it to the other girls in the group. And then there would be a whole other group of sorceresses and all the men of the group would be their knights. But these people are evil so they'd cause the world to become utter chaos,"

"That's bad…but wait, who did you pass your powers onto?"

"No one, I didn't have a chance to and I think that's why it was easier for me to return, it was like unfinished business or something,"

"So you're a ghost?"

Rinoa laughed,

"No, it's kind of hard to explain. But what I do know is, is that these people made a mistake by killing me. Next time they'll kidnap me and then try to kill me whilst in my presence. In a way it would've been easier if I'd stayed dead,"

"Don't say that Rinny-Nee!" Yuffie stood from her place on the bed "We all love you and we didn't want to lose someone else! We don't care what we'll have to do, we wanna help!"

Rinoa smiled and gestured for hug.

"Have you told Squall all this?"

"No, because you see I have a plan. You and I could go to their hide out and pretend that when I died I gave all of my powers to you. So they should start to attack you. And then you, being the world's greatest ninja, will fight them off until I warm up my power and hit them with Hells Judgment which leaves them VERY weakened, and before you panic I know how to target so you won't get hit. Then after that I'll hit them with Apocalypse and if my powers are as strong as they should be then they should all be toast,"

"Do you really think that'll work?"

"Well if we make it extra believable, then yes,"

"Why can't I tell anyone though?"

"Because they'll just try to stop us saying how it's idiotic or too dangerous. After you left with the others I felt like I couldn't do anything on my own. I became weak and vulnerable, I remember telling them all I couldn't fight by myself and that I needed them. But ever since Ultimecia was destroyed I've become stronger and braver and with you here as well I feel like there's nothing I can't do. I just want to prove to them all that I'm not a little child like I used to be and that I don't need around the clock attention,"

"Well, that's good enough for me. So when shall we leave? Do you know where their hideout is?"

"Yeah I know where it is, I saw it a couple of nights ago and we'll go tomorrow night, that'll give me some time to prove to Squall how much I feel better and for him to stop worrying so much,"

Yuffie nodded.

Together they started to plan their journey and what they would say to make it all believable.

"There's never a dull moment with you Rinny-nee,"

"Back at ya; as we say…it's us against the World,"