June 13

Squall awoke to a sharp pain in his left arm. For a moment, he was too dazed to remember where he was or what had caused it; he was simply lying on his side, feeling tremendously sore, with a massive headache and rough grass itching at his neck.

"Uhh..." he said, shifting uncomfortably, before everything came rushing back. "...Rinoa!" He sat bolt upright, which sent such a pain through his arm that he nearly fainted again.

"Yeah, don't move around too much," said Seifer. "I just set that arm. Here." He handed Squall an X-potion.

Squall ignored him for a moment. "Rinoa...she..."

"Take the damn potion," snapped Seifer. "Then you tell me what the hell is going on."

Squall took the potion. He felt the bone heal, but the dulled tingling sensation that usually accompanied magical healing made him even dizzier. Seifer watched him impatiently.

"...She just woke up," Squall said. "I didn't understand. She was acting..." He shook his head. "She attacked me. She was trying to leave. To...go somewhere."

Seifer looked incredulous. "Rinoa threw you through a tree? Why the hell would she do that?"

"I don't know," said Squall. "It was like when she was being controlled by Ultimecia." Seifer's face clouded. "Except...no, that's not it exactly." Shaking his head, Squall got to his feet. "I've gotta find her. Which way did she go?" He started looking around, trying to see the direction Rinoa had started off in while he was conscious.

"You think I'd be hanging around with you if I had any idea where she went?" demanded Seifer. "I was hoping you'd have something useful to say when you woke up!"

"Well, maybe you should've been keeping a better watch!" snapped Squall. "If you hadn't let Rinoa get captured in the first place —"

"Hey!" Seifer was glaring. "You sure you wanna go back there, Squall?"

"I want to find Rinoa." Squall thought he had identified the direction, and started off, but Seifer caught his left arm. It still hurt.

"So do I," he said. "But I'm not gonna disappear on Fujin and Raijin, either. The four of us have got a better chance of finding her if we work together anyway."

"Since when did you care about patience and teamwork?" Squall demanded. "I won't just wait around!"

"Well, I'm not running into this half-assed!" Seifer retorted.

Squall glared at him. "...You're scared."

Seifer's eyes narrowed. "...What?"

"You're worried you'll lose it again, like you did with Ultimecia! And you're willing to abandon Rinoa rather than face up to it. You're a coward."

Seifer punched Squall in the head, hard enough to knock him off his feet. Squall bounced back up almost immediately and tackled him; the two crashed to the ground, Squall landing a few hard blows on Seifer before Seifer managed to get the leverage to throw him off.

"I know what I'm talking about, Squall!" shouted Seifer. "Yeah, okay, I've been down this road, so I know where it goes! You're not gonna help anyone running off by yourself!"

Squall stared at him. His mind registered what Seifer had said, but was focused elsewhere. He remembered how Rinoa had willingly let herself be placed into the Sorceress Memorial in Esthar, even protested once he had freed her. She had never been comfortable with her Sorceress powers, and had sought to isolate herself from others because of them. That had to be what was happening now.

"I'm going to find Rinoa," he said. "And I don't need your approval. I don't need you."

He turned his back on Seifer, and stalked away. Seifer glared at his back as he did, then flopped to the ground, shaking his head.

- - - — — - - -

Rinoa had been through the forests surrounding Timber dozens – probably hundreds – of times, to the point where she could navigate almost by instinct, barely noticing the trees. The remains of Timber's historic woodlands had become just a theater for the Forest Owls' operations against their Galbadian occupier.

But everything looked different now. The trees and the grass seemed to be glowing with an energy Rinoa had never seen before and couldn't name; but the name didn't seem important, as she simply knew its meaning. It told me how healthy the trees were, which branches were alive or dead, their age — everything she could need to know about them, it seemed. And the sense was not limited to that within her range of vision; everything, all around her, appeared just as clearly.

And she could see more clearly than she ever could before how badly the Galbadians had ravaged these woods. She could see the splotches of decayed earth where the fires of war had consumed all life, and the stumps that might still be growing but for Galbadian leveling, their deadness standing out amidst the new life that had overgrown them; in a way, the new growth was tainted itself. It looked wrong to her, and she knew precisely the source of the wrongness.

Indeed, her mind felt clearer than it ever had before. In addition to her ability to sense her environment more thoroughly than she had believed to be possible, her thoughts were sharper as well. With a thought, she could banish any doubt or reservation and focus wholly on what she had to do. The sense was one entirely new to her; one of unbending, total control. It was liberating.

She knew that the Galbadian soldiers were nearby well before they knew that she was. The group was moving on a standard patrol, of the sort she had encountered more than once while with the Forest Owls. Usually, such a patrol had prompted them to run or hide without delay; this time, she didn't hesitate or change her pace at all.

When the Galbadians did spot her, they assumed she hadn't seen them yet, and fanned out to surround her. There were a dozen of them, and they took their time, sweeping through the forest looking for any signs of an ambush. Finding none, they formed into a contracting circle, closing in on her from every direction.

They were actually quite good. But under the circumstances, the efforts were so misguided that Rinoa couldn't help but smile at the effort.

She finally stopped walking when they burst out from the trees, pointing weapons at her from every direction. "Freeze!" said the officer, who was pointing his machine gun straight at Rinoa's head.

Rinoa arched an eyebrow at him. "...No," she said. "You."

She threw up her arms, and the soldier let out an aborted scream as his blood froze solid within his veins. Rinoa had killed the two soldiers flanking him as well before the others had a chance to react; one Fire spell after another erupted around her, but Rinoa had more than enough time to shield herself before methodically working through the terrified soldiers. One even tried to charge her, but never even got close.

In fifteen seconds, it was over, and the frozen soldiers lay in what was still a rough circle around where Rinoa stood. She started off again in the direction she had been headed before, stepping over the officer's corpse without breaking stride.