I do not own Final Fantasy 8 and neither it's characters and/or monsters. Squaresoft does. I only own the characters that appears in this fanfic who dosen't appear in the original game.

By the way, english is my second language. So please bear with me and review fairly. (This means not only the grammar flaws. I know I am far from perfect but I try my best to write in a different language than my native one.) So please, try to give a fair ammount of the good critics as well of the bad ones. It would be more motivating for me to hear some critics about my initial storyline as it unfolds...

Thank you

-Prologue-

This chapter is dedicated to Monty Oum. Creator of the Dead Fantasy series. Go check his works out. It's worth it.

Author's note: I taken a hiatus for some time due to lack of inspiration but after seeing the previews for Dead Fantasy III, IV, and V, It gave a final form to an Idea I had been brewing for some time... Enjoy.

Chapter 5 : The Altar of the fallen angel.

5:23 AM

River stood by his bedroom's window. He stayed awake through the night serving as a vigil from his room window that offered him a panoramic view of the city. The sun rose in the horizon. The sky was lit in the blaze of a golden and orange fire.

''What a beautiful day...'' he said

River's bedroom was barely lit except for the golden rays that entered his room by his open window. By his bedside drawer, layed his katars, sharpened to perfection. On the top of a desk, on the opposite corner of the room, was, a dirty bowl, three candles positioned in a ritualistic way and a picture frame. The candles were placed in the form of a triangle. On top, there was the pink one. In front of it was the picture frame. The picture inside the frame was Malika's picture. She seemed like a very shy girl with blushing cheeks. She had light brown hair resting on her shoulders with intense green eyes. When she looked at River, he felt as if they could pierce his soul and read him like an open book. In the picture, she worn her college suit. It was a dark blue Galbadian uniform with a red tie tied on the front.

In the garden, they spent practically all of their spare time together. Both trained in the same battle style, ninjitsu sorcery. Through those courses, they met for the first time. Along time, love grew between them. Although the duty of SeeDs are to hunt down sorceresses, it was not forbidden within their ranks to use sorcery against them as well. The ninjistu division of the Galbadian army were specialized in the status change magic class to disable their opponents on hand to hand combat. However, when this sort of magic was inefficient, in this case only, they were allowed to use forbidden magic such as meteor, ultima and, in the worst case scenario, apocalypse, percent and catastrophe.

When the grendal hord attack occurred several years later, he desperately searched for Malika among the twisted metal pieces of the vehicule they were in moments ago that got torn, literally, to shreds, the fighting students, the seemingly infinite trees surrounding them and the grendels praying on their victims.

'' Where the hell is Malika?'' shouted Sphinx

'' I don't know dammit! Screw this. I gonna cast apocalypse!''

'' Don't! You'll kill us all!'' shouted Sphinx holding River's fist breaking his spell.

As they fought and helped those they could and daring to do the impossible to find her among such a frantic battlefield, they still had to assist the horrible spectacle unfolding before them. Malika was kneeling to the floor, severely wounded. She rose with terrible pain back on her feet and rose her spear in the air. She, then, glowed with a red aura. She was activating her limit break. She pressed the blade on the floor and dashed around the grendel, forming a pentacle. Once the spiritual symbol was completed, she stabbed the grendel. The damage results were tripled due to the curse she casted on the grendel. However, the beast still stood on his paws, dashed toward Malika and performed a tail slash who mortally wounded her. Her blood spilled on the floor around her as she was knocked back by the power of the grendel's tail. Sphinx took out his two-handed sword and finished the beast. His head fell to the ground and the body crumbled to the ground instantly. Both Sphinx and River couldn't provide assistance because both Malika and the grendel had haste on themselves and the action was unfolding way too fast for normal human reactions. River ran by Malika's side to cast a curaga spell but it was ineffective and so was and life spells or phoenix downs. She was killed on impact. River held her corpse in his arms. Malika was still loosing what was left of her blood on the ground.

''No, please Hyne! No!"

He held her in his arms for what seemed like seconds to him even though he spent the remaining time of the battle like this who lasted a little less than an hour. He drew her head against his shoulder and kissed her forehead. Then, something in River snapped.

'' I love you Malika. I'll take care of you. Don't worry my love. I am still here. I love you Malika. I'll take care of you. Don't worry my love. I am still here. I love you Malika...''

As River's tears flown down his cheeks mixing with Malika's blood. He repeated those words like a funeral chant. He never seemed to grow tired of it. He held Malika tighter and tighter against him with more and more force within him building. A dark energy was consuming what was left of his sanity at that moment. His chant however, remained like a whisper, practically silent.

'' Come river, it's time to leave. We'll bring her to the garden, we gonna bury her there.'' Sphinx said holding his grief for his little sister within him with inhuman emotional strength

'' No...'' River said

''What?''

'' I SAID NO, DAMMIT!'' River said turning violently toward Sphinx casting a fire spell on him who knocked him back on impact.

However, Sphinx absorbed fire elemental spells and thus, was not injured.

'' You bastard!'' Sphinx shouted as he charged toward River holding his sword, ready to slash him apart.

Something stopped Sphinx dead in his tracks. River didn't look at him anymore and he was chuckling. His laugh was very faint. His head was slightly shaking by his laugh which he couldn't control. Then, it grew into a laugh and grown more and more into a demented and maniacal laugh. River, from this point on, changed forever. He officially lost his battle with darkness.

'' Poor guy, he completely lost it.'' said a galbadian student among the forming crowd around River, Sphinx and Malika.

The blood around River and Malika started to form a circle around them. River was still laughing maniacally. His pupils were dilated to the point where his eyes were black on white. A rumble began to shake the earth. Once the circle was perfect. Red glowing rune marks appeared underneath River and Malika. It formed another pentacle around them. River stood up with Malika in his arms. Both of them glowed and the ground kept rumbling harder as time passed. Some students taken out their weapons, ready to attack on the commander's order against the possible new menace.

Suddenly, everything stopped. The pentacle disappeared, the shaking stopped and the glow vanished.

River fell onto the ground, dropping Malika's corpse. As the crowd slowly approached River, they noticed he was unconscious. He stayed in this state for severals months. Many rumors surfaced after this incident who claimed that River was either possessed by the spirit of her beloved who took refuge within him or she was transmitting her powers into him. No definitive conclusions were made after River recovered from his coma.

River approached the desk where the altar with the picture of his beloved rested. He sat by a chair in front of his altar

'' Good morning, love. Sorry, I coudn't come to your grave yesterday. My duty kept me here. I have not forgotten about you, though.''

A faint cracking noise was heard near the door. A dry, quick crackle who echoed within the silence of the two story home River lived in. He turned around to look for intruders but saw nothing. He tried to listen but could only heard the morning chant of the birds. The door was kept slighty open during that night and he could clearly view the stairs and the hallway but he didn't saw anyone. He smiled and turned back from the door toward the picture frame.

'' Perhaps, she's saying hi.'' River thought. He smiled.

However, he was wrong. Quistis stood behind the door. She was not spying on River but rather, listening to the conversation he seemed to hold with himself. Quistis didn't slept at all after having sex with Squall. She felt guilty and horrible yet, relieved. She felt liberated at long last from her own tormenting prison. However, the fear of the aftermath was her new pain. It seemed just as heavy on her soul that her own love and lust for Squall. She knew such behavior was not acceptable and uncalled for. Yet, her human needs requested to be satisfied, even if it meant giving into the darkest pits of betrayal as well. A faint noise was heard in River's room. She waken up from her thought and looked inside the room again. River had pulled a desk drawer and reached for something inside.

'' I would really wish to see you today, love. Here...''

River pulled out a knife. It was a small knife but a very sharp one. He left in on the desk near the bowl for a moment. He stood silent. He removed the leather glove from his left hand.

'' I believe you'd might need some energy to manifest yourself if need be, so...''

River took his knife in his right hand and placed his left elbow on the desk. With an eerie precision, he placed the tip of his knife at the tip of his index and pressed slighty. He grunted to the pain. Blood drops fell into the bowl. A wind began to breeze in the room pushing back the door she was hiding behind. The slight breeze extinguished the flames of the candles.

'' Is he using forbidden magic?'' Quistis asked herself. '' If so, is he offering a part of his earthly energy to her to keep her in this world?''

River's incision reached the end of his finger and permitted his blood to fall drip by drip into the bowl. Blood drips fell as a slow pace. River patiently waited until none came out. He didn't pressed on it to force more blood out. He thought Malika would take what was necessary. After the wound stopped bleeding, River, then, stood from his chair and came walking toward the door.

''Shit!'' Quistis thought

She went back to the stairs. She thought that in the case he saw her, she would say she came in for a check-up and to relieve him of his guard duty for the night. However, he didn't passed the door. He was nowhere to be seen in the hallway either. She decided to go all-out and pretend to arrive at his room for the morning check-up.

'' River, are you there?'' she said knocking on the door.

She entered the room and she saw River on his bed holding disinfecting swabs on his wounded finger.

'' Good morning, Ms. Trepe. It was a very quiet night. Nothing on the walkie talkie and nothing was seen from my vigil post. Everything is in order. '' River replied.

She wanted to question him about his finger, about his ritual and the offering. However, she knew that he would suspect she spied on him and his little ceremony. Worst, he might get offended if she asked. He seems to hold so desperately to her girlfriend's spirit and the beliefs and techniques they were both raised in who served them, today, as a spiritual and emotional refuge. Questioning him about his link with his girlfriend might bring back his slumbering grief for Malika and Quistis knew a lot about grief and the constant desire to be by their loved one's side.

'' Umm. River, what happened to your finger?''

'' Oh this? Ha. ha. I injured myself while sharpening my katars. Do not worry. I am not going to die.'' River said laughing.

Quistis looked at River's desk. The candles were gone, the knife had disappeared and the bowl was clean. No blood, no ritualistic evidence, no wax of the burnt candles remained. Nothing. Only the picture frame and River's glove. Although Quistis was used to the phenomenon of magic, never she had experienced something this strange.

'' The offering has been accepted. Now, what?'' Quistis thought

'' Is something wrong Ms. Trepe? You look frightened.''

'' No... It's okay.'' She replied as she kept her cool

A/N : Alright, I thought I could post this since some people anticipated my return. I would like to warn my readers though. From this point on, the stories will get a bit dark. Not that pseudo goth/emo stuff. I really mean dark stuff like spiritualism, sorcery and madness. I must, at least, keep it to my horror classification of this story, y'know. However, I had also being brewing the ideas of smaller off-series, one shot stories aside like ''interludes'' to the story when I feel like I need to think up what's next. It may very well be possible those one shots won't have any impacts on the ''Overnight'' series. It's just to make something different for once. And don't worry. Overnight is far away form being done and the fun has yet to start...

Stay tuned