March 7th
"Leon?" Aerith knocked on the hotel door "Are you ok? We haven't seen you in days,"
"Still no reply?" Cloud walked behind her
"No…I'm getting worried, what if he's done something stupid?"
Cloud nodded.
"Alright then…Leon we're coming in," in one swift movement he drew his sword and sliced the door in half.
"Great something else we need to rebuild" Yuffie remarked joining them in the hallway.
"I'll go in first," Cloud said taking the lead. Aerith and Yuffie waited in the hallway "He's not in here," they heard him yell. Entering the room they looked around to see it was empty just as he said.
"Where could he be?" Aerith asked sitting on the bed "He isn't anywhere around Radiant Garden,"
"Maybe he took a Gummy Ship and flew to Destiny Island…you know to see Selphie," Yuffie opened his drawers to see it filled with clothes "Maybe not,"
The trio sat in the room silently. Then Tifa appeared at the door,
"Whoa, what happened here?" she asked jumping over the broken door.
Just as they were about to answer a monotone ring echoed throughout the room. Cloud dug in his pocket and flipped open his mobile.
"Yes,"
"Cloud, it's me Cid, get over 'ere ASAP with tha girls. The surveillance cameras picked up something. You gotta see this…"
And then he hung up.
"Come on," Cloud said walking out of the room "We have to go to Merlin's"
X-X-X
"Took ya long enough," Cid was sitting on his computer
"What's going on?"
The four of them walked over to the computer.
"Look at this…" Typing in a few codes he produced a slightly fuzzy video. It was of the courtyard. They watched as a hooded figure walked over to the Memorial, she started to cry and then quickly ran into a portal behind her. Following her was Leon, he jumped through the portal and it closed behind him.
"Where did he go?" Yuffie asked in fright
"Hell if I know, but what we know is that where ever he went it was filled with Heartless and he hasn't come back,"
X-X-X
"You do this everyday?" Leon was helping Zell move a large cinder block
"No, sometimes it's not so laboured. Other days we clean, sometimes we paint. And often we just serve Maleficent. We're not known as Zorics though because we don't follow her. We more like slaves…but at the end of the day its better then sitting in a Cell all day doing nothing. This way we're getting out and having exercise,"
"Do you know how the Castle got destroyed?"
"A year or so ago the Key-Bearer stormed the castle. He fought with Maleficent and destroyed nearly everything. For a month or two it was believed Maleficent was destroyed but then she came back, we didn't even have a chance to escape,"
Leon nodded and lifted the block high upon another. He wiped his brow and tightened his glove.
"Here," Zell threw a bottle of water at him, and then swigged his own.
"Have you ever tried to escape?"
"Once or twice but each time we were foiled; then in some way punished. I dunno if it's my business to tell ya but Quistis is blind in her left eye," He pulled up his t-shirt showing a long scar from his belly-button to his right hip "That was from our second escape. You know Maleficent's staff can sure pack a lot,"
"What about the others?"
"Irvine's got scars all up his back where he protected Ellone. She hasn't got a single mark on her because of him. I wish I'd thought of that,"
"…and Rinoa?"
"She begged us to stop trying. Then we all sat down and agreed. She's doing so much to stop us from getting hurt and yet we're causing the pain ourselves. We decided that if we'd carry on, everything she's doing would be for nothing. Ever since, we've lived our lives here and got used to it as much as we could,"
"You know something…? You've changed,"
"How so?"
"You just have…but I think this time it's for the better,"
"You two, stop slacking!" A tall Zoric pointed toward them
Leon stood and continued to work with Zell. Then he heard a soft voice, turning his head he saw Rinoa talking to one of the followers.
She was leaning against the wall; Isis and Pebble close by. Her servant's cloaks were no longer hooded and he saw their faces for the first time. They weren't as dead looking as the others and could even be classified as pretty.
"Yo Man, little help,"
Leon looked back to Zell who was struggling with another block. Taking one end he supported his side and he was glad that when they'd placed it in its chosen location they were told to head back to their cell.
As soon as they entered Leon collapsed on his bed. Zell laughed,
"I'm guessing you're not used to hard labour,"
"Well, not like this, I do my fair share restoring Radiant Garden. But we have cranes and ships to lift the heavy stuff,"
"Woo, I'm beat!" Irvine entered allowing the Zoric to open the door "I had to carry all these wooden poles from the south gate to the east wall,"
"Couldn't you have just rolled them along the floor," Leon asked
Irvine slapped his forehead,
"I'm an idiot," he sat on his bed and removed his shoes "What were the girls doing?"
"Cleaning the main hallway windows. I just hope they had a ladder," Zell took of his jacket "Well I'm having a shower, I think you better have one after Irv, I can smell your feet from all the way over here,"
"Oh good, I thought that was me," Leon held his nose
The three men shared a laugh and he finally understood how they could have survived these years. He put it all down to the company. They would stay by each other and possibly keep each other from going insane. But then what about Rinoa? Who did she have to talk to? Who did she have to laugh with and to share her secrets with? And that's when he realised…because of this alleged incident that took place…because of her fears and worries…she was all alone.
X-X-X
It wasn't long before Ellone and Quistis returned from their duty. It was now that Leon noticed Quistis's eye was slightly miss-coloured and didn't focus. He felt slightly bad but didn't bring up the subject. She seemed to carry on as normal and the loss of her sight didn't affect her in the slightest. In the last two hours they had been given their evening meal and had sat down to a conversation. Leon however decided he was too tired to include himself deeply. Rinoa had also retired to her room. She didn't seem to carry herself as strongly as usual. Leon assumed it was because she was still recovering from the ceremony. It wasn't until she had walked past that Leon decided to start a whole new subject although he kept his voice to a whisper.
"Do any of you know if she can hear us?"
"Only if we speak normal tones," Ellone whispered "She wouldn't be able to hear us like this"
"How can you tell?"
Everyone looked at each other with a smile.
"Because the Faeries tell us everything,"
Leon looked back extremely confused,"
Quistis stood up and walked into the woman's bathroom. Bringing out a mug she looked to see if Rinoa was anywhere near the entrance. When she saw the coast was clear she threw the mug on the floor and let it smash to a million pieces. Leon raised an eyebrow.
"Oh-no, I-seemed-to-have-broken-my-favourite-mug!" Quistis said loudly and very poorly acted. She then went and sat on her bed.
"Now we wait," She whispered.
X-X-X
It had been hours since Quistis's little performance art and Leon had no idea what he was meant to be waiting for. Ellone had cleaned up the broken mug and now everyone was sitting in their beds. They had told Leon to lie down and face Rinoa's bedroom. Everyone was awake but pretending to be asleep. The lights had been dimmed as usual everyone was keeping an eye out for what they called "The Midnight Faerie".
Leon imagined a form of Heartless or a Zoric but when they'd been 'sleeping' for an hour or so they heard shuffling from Rinoa's bedroom. For once she wasn't wearing her cloak but the lights were too dimmed and they couldn't see her face. She was wearing a silk nighty and carrying an item in her hands. She looked over to the beds and when she saw they were all asleep she stepped forward a bit. She didn't stray from her steps but reached the bottom one. Then with perfect grace she balanced on one foot and held onto a bar with one hand. In her other hand she could now be seen carrying a ceramic mug. She reached through the bars and placed it on the desk. It was now when Leon saw how long her hair was. It fell forward and was level with her hip. In a flash she pulled her arm back and ran into her room. Leon saw Zell shuffle in the bed above him and then lean his head down from the bunk so he appeared upside down.
"That's who we call 'The Midnight Faerie'"