Quistis
looked at Aurora for a second then broke out of her disbelief and finally said,
“Wow, Aurora, your so grown up now!”
Quistis
noticed that the expression of happiness flickered for a second to pure
annoyance and Quistis sort of new why, she knew she always hated it when she
was a teenager and people said things like that. “Nice to meet you to” she then
said.
Aurora’s
expression turned back to happiness but with some confusion when Quistis smiled
and said “I bet you’d make a great SeeD, you know!”
“What’s
a SeeD?” she replied.
Quistis
looked over at Rinoa and noticed that she had an angry sort of expression on
her face. She realized that maybe it wasn’t the best time to start on such
things. So she quickly said, “Oh, I’m sure your father will tell you someday.”
Quistis
looked at Squall and noticed that his expression of happiness turned to the
regular frown, that she knew, when Squall looked at Rinoa then to Aurora.
Quistis decided to quickly change the subject, as she saw, it might be a sensitive
subject between the couple. She decided to get straight down to business.
Quistis
began explaining how she wouldn’t have called them unless this was really
important and at that Squall and Rinoa turned to each other and nodded. Quistis
stood there wondering what was going on then noticed then glance back to
Quistis with their faces looking rather worried. Squall then said something
quietly to Rinoa and they turned to Aurora.
“Aurora?
We think that you should take a walk, go look around the Garden.” Rinoa said
quietly. “Why can’t I stay? I want to know what’s going on, I want to know
what’s so important.” Aurora said loudly. “Don’t you dare start with that
attidude, not now, its not a good time.” Muttered Rinoa. “Just go, now.”
Quistis
decided maybe she should say something, she had overheard all of this. “Umm,
Squall, Rinoa? I can call down a student to come and show Aurora around.”
Both
Squall and Rinoa looked to Quistis happily, as if she had said something
wonderful.
“Yes!
That would be great, Quistis, thankyou.” Squall said. Quistis looked to Aurora
who seemed fairly grumpy and said, “Is this alright with you, Aurora?”
Aurora
glanced over at Rinoa who seemed to have quite a satisfied look on her face.
Aurora looked as though she wanted to kick something rather hard but instead
agreed grumpily.
Quistis
took the microphone and pressed a button. She called a student by the name of
Dean Souback, who came up within minutes looking tired. Dean stepped out of
elevator and looked around. He had dark brown hair that was cut short and
spiked. He wore a jacket, which was also black that looked leatherish. Had on a
white T-shirt underneath with baggy beige pants. He walked over to Quistis and
asked her what she had wanted. After Quistis told him he looked over to Aurora
and something gleamed in his eyes for it seemed a fraction of a second then he
looked away and did a SeeD salute to Quistis and took off with Aurora onto the
elevator.
Squall
watched his daughter go onto the elevator and waited for them to be completely
gone before he started to ask Quistis what was going on. He walked over to
Quistis who was standing on the deck, her hair still in that same flip-flop bun
look, with loose hair hanging around her face blown back by the cool breeze.
She stood there for a moment longer in her black turtleneck sweater and pink
knee-length skirt and boots and waited for Squall to come.
Squall
walked onto the deck leaving Rinoa, Selphie, Irvine and Zell in the office. He
stood there on the deck for a minute and finally asked what was going on. He
had completely turned to Quistis and noticed that she sighed deeply then turned
to him too.
“Squall…
she’s back, and she wants what we were always afraid of.” Quistis finally said.
“What, Ultimecia is back… but we killed her, I saw her pass her powers and
everything!” Squall said surprised. Quistis looked at Squall again and said,
“No, Not Ultimecia… Adel is back. Sorceress Adel has come to take what she and
Ultimecia wanted, time and all magic!”
Squall
looked at Quistis, he was very surprised but in disbelief. He stared back out
into the Bika Snowfield then out into the horizon. After a long silence he
turned back to Quistis, his hair flopping loosely in the cold breeze. “No…
there is no way, Quistis… we killed her, I saw her die!” He said. “Rinoa was
safe after she died, remember! We killed her!” Quistis looked at him sadly and
replied. “Squall, we both know that it is a common fact that when a sorceress
dies they pass on their power, if they don’t then they have faked their death!”
Squall looked surprised then an expression of acceptance passed through his
eyes. “I suppose I could have happened that she never died, she could have
faked it. We never did see Rinoa except her powers.” Squall said quietly.
Squall
looked back out into the snowfield then turned back to Quistis and said, “I
know that she wants time compression, most evil sorceresses do, but its not
guaranteed that she’ll be able to get it! We’ve hidden Rinoa so well, we’ve
also hidden Aurora so well, even she doesn’t know the truth.” Quistis
immediately answered him.
“Squall,
you and I and all of us know very well that Aurora cannot be hidden from the
truth forever. She needs to know, you can’t keep her in Winhill for all of her
life, she’s going to leave and when she does she’ll find out the secret the
hard way.”
“I
think that Adel was waiting for Aurora to be old enough to have her powers, as
a sorceress, be strong enough to take.” Quistis said after another long pause.
“Ok,
alright… I don’t need you to say what she is. Rinoa and I have tried not to
think about it, we never thought that powers could be passed on through birth.”
Squall said quickly. “You know that night, after mine and Rinoa’s wedding, when
we arrived at Balamb Hotel?” Quistis
looked at him, with a very confused look on her face. “Yes, I remember that,
Squall… what does that have to do with this?”
Squall
looked back out into the horizon and noticed the sun beginning to set and
remembered that they were on the other side of the planet and didn’t realize
what time it was. “Everything, Quisty… everything. That night we watched the
sunset together, with Aurora, and we wished on a shooting star together that we
would protect her and hope that she could live… just live.” Squall said in a
saddish tone. “Anyway, shouldn’t we be telling everyone this? Let’s go.” Squall
began to walk away but Quistis held him back.
“You
know that its no good to forget about this. I know and You know that Adel is
going to try her hardest to get a-hold of both Rinoa and Aurora for their
powers, and Adel will prefer Aurora because her powers are stronger and haven’t
been used. She has a more important power the Rinoa does, the power of time.”
Quistis
looked at him again and said, “You do know what I mean, right Squall? How
Aurora has the power of time.” Squall looked confused again. Quistis decided to
explain to him how each sorceress through time has powers, but one power is
more powerful then all of them put together.
Edea’s
power was, peace, she made people feel peace and welcoming when they were
around her being why when Ultimecia possessed her everyone was afraid of her.
Her power changed to time and well, power. People fear power and that made them
afraid of Edea. Adel’s power is strength, a very strong evil sorceress and
people were afraid of how strong she would become. When Edea passed on her
powers to Rinoa accidentally, the power of Peace was passed on to her. Then
after the defeat of Ultimecia and she passed her powers onto Edea, because it
was added onto her original powers all of those got passed onto Rinoa, as if
she always had them. When Rinoa had Aurora, because she had so many different
powers some had to be passed on so they got passed into Aurora, the power of
time was passed on.
After
Quistis explained this to Squall she looked at him reassuringly and told him
that he wouldn’t lose anyone. Not ever.
Squall looked at her sadly and said, “How can you know that, Adel is a
powerful sorceress. She may take them away. That’s my greatest fear more then
anything. I can’t lose them, I just can’t!”
A
tear rolled down Squall’s cheek. Quistis stood there holding his arm for a
minute longer and said, “Squall… don’t worry, we’ll leave it for tonight, you
can tell Rinoa what you know and I’ll tell the others. Tomorrow we’ll talk
more; we’ll talk about what our next actions will be.” Squall looked back to her with more tears
rolling down his cheeks getting blown away by the wind and quietly said, “I
won’t lose them, never. We will kill Adel… it’s time to start, to start the
revolution.”
Quistis
let go of his arm and they walked back into the office. Squall wiped away his
tears so nobody knew what was going on and took Rinoa’s hand and they left.
Quistis remained in the office and told Selphie, Irvine and Zell what was going
on. That Aurora was a sorceress.
________________________________________________________________________
Rinoa
watched as Squall entered the office, she noticed how he had a sad expression
on his face and wondered why. The next thing she knew Squall had taken her by
the hand and was leading her to the elevator without saying a word. When they
reached the elevator Rinoa turned around and noticed Quistis talking in a
serious tone of voice to Selphie, Irvine and Zell and their faces looked as
though somebody had died.
Rinoa
turned to Squall and asked, “Squall, what’s wrong? What’s going on?” Squall
looked at her; he didn’t really answer her question but told her that he would
tell later, when they got to the guestroom in the dormitory. Rinoa was getting
worried, she was concerned about Squall, and Aurora. “Shouldn’t we wait until
Aurora to get back before we leave, Squall? She’ll be worried? We have to
wait!” Rinoa exclaimed.
Squall
stared at her and replied. “Quistis will tell her where we are, Rinoa. Aurora
is 15, she’ll be fine, don’t worry.” Rinoa turned back towards the elevator and
waited for it to arrive. The elevator door opened and Rinoa glanced back at
Quistis and met her eyes. Rinoa became extremely worried when she noticed the
look on all of their faces. She stepped onto the elevator and went down with
Squall.
Aurora
walked beside Dean as they walked through the beautiful Garden. They were
walking through the empty corridor in the Quad when Dean looked at her and
said, “So, Aurora… what do you think?” Aurora looked around some more “Oh it’s
beautiful, I’ve never seen anything like this place before! How long have you
been here?” Aurora replied in an awed tone of voice.
Aurora
and Dean walked up the stairs and out of the Quad. “Hmm, how long… I believe
around 10 year’s maybe? I’m not exactly sure.” Dean said. Aurora quickly turned
to him, beginning to be less grumpy about her parents sending her off, like
they usually do when they’re hiding something. “Oh my… ten years, that’s a long
time! How old are you anyway?” Aurora said. Aurora over that the amazing
fountain, then up to the ceiling as they headed towards the Cafeteria. “I’m 16,
how old are you?” Dean said pointedly. “Where are you from anyway? Are you here
to become a SeeD? Is that why you were up in the Headmistress’ office?” Aurora,
who was still looking up at the ceiling, stumbled and Dean caught her and
Aurora started to giggle.
“Opps…
Sorry, Dean! Umm, I’m 15 and from Winhill. What’s a SeeD?” Aurora said
recovering from her stumble. Dean looked surprised. “You mean, your not even
from a Garden!?! And you don’t know what SeeD is! Dean said in a surprised
voice. “Well, SeeD is a mercenary force, we help out people that pay us to
settle their matter’s, including country’s matter’s so a lot of the time we end
up in big battles!” Aurora, who was now interested in passing students looked
back over to Dean, “We? You mean that you’re a SeeD too!” said Aurora.
Dean
looked sort of taken aback, as if she didn’t believe him. “Of course, almost
everyone here above the age of 14 is a SeeD. Ever since I came here when I was
6 I wanted to be one. I’m still surprised that you don’t attend a Garden!”
Aurora took her wandering eyes off the passing students and looked at Dean.
“You know, not everyone attends a Garden. My mother, Rinoa Heartilly-Leonhart,
taught me along with my father Squall Leonhart who taught me with weapons!”
said Aurora beginning to get angry and grumpy again. “Whoa! Your parents are
Rinoa and Squall Leonhart! Your Aurora Leonhart!” Dean said excitedly.
Aurora
looked away at the passing students again and said, “What’s so special about
that? They’re just my parents…” Dean looked at her as if she were a crazy
person. “You mean you don’t know! You don’t know that they saved the world
alongside four of they’re friends! You don’t know that your father’s Lionheart
Gunblade pierced the most evil sorceress’ heart of all time!” exclaimed Dean. “
Wow, they really must be keeping things from you or something! Everyone knows!
Your mother helped immensely! She is known as one of the greatest sorceresses
of all time you know. It’s also rumored that you’re a sorceress, is it true?”
Aurora
now had her complete attention on him. “What the…. My mother is not a
sorceress! You know nothing! They would have told me. And I am not a sorceress,
I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Aurora said angrily. Aurora glared at
Dean who looked completely confused now. “Ok, so you may not be a sorceress, I
believe you… but your mother is, it’s been proven. They also did defeat that
evil Sorceress Ultimecia!” Dean said defensively.
Aurora
looked down trying to withhold her anger and finally swallowed it down. She
looked back at the fountain then to Dean and realized that they had finally
reached the Cafeteria. “Ok… so… maybe your right, my parents have been known to
keep things from me. But I do know that I am not a sorceress!” Aurora said
quietly. “I know, I believe you… but at least you have parents… when I was 6
they died, I’m not sure how. I was very mature for my age so they left my house
in Timber one day and they never even came back. My next door neighbor enrolled
me in the Garden, I was old enough so I didn’t have to go to an orphanage.”
Dean said softly.
Aurora
stared into his sad eyes then looked away; she didn’t want to feel any worse
then she already did. “Oh, I’m sorry… I didn’t realize…” said Aurora who was
cut off by Dean. “No, don’t worry… forget it. I’m sorry I was the one who told
you about this whole thing anyway.”
Aurora looked back into his eyes and told him she didn’t care and just
wanted to forget it for now.
They
walked into the Cafeteria and sat down at a table near the back. “Thank you for
showing me around a bit, Dean” Aurora said after she calmed down a bit. Dean
looked back at her after looking around to see whom else was in the Cafeteria.
“Oh…. No problem at all. It was my pleasure!” he said happily. “You know,
there’s this SeeD party tonight, like a once a year annual ball-dance party
type thing. I don’t have anyone to go with and I was just wondering if you
wanted to come with me, if you’re staying here tonight that is.” Aurora was
taken by surprise, this was the last thing that she expected. Aurora looked
back to Dean after glancing around, and said quietly, “I can’t dance!”. Dean
stared at her for a second then said, “Oh, no problem, you don’t have to dance
if you don’t want to… we can just hang around! I think it would be fun, maybe
when we’re there I can teach you how to dance!” Aurora began to get excited. “Oh,
alright then… I’m sure that I’ll be staying here tonight anyway so it should be
fun! Where do you want to meet?” she said. “Umm, well, we will meet at the
directory, you know that big computer thing down the stairs from the elevator!
We’ll meet there around 9’o’clock.” Dean said happily. “Oh, its 7’o’clock now
actually, I’ve got to go to the training center for an hour. Do you want me to
walk with you to the elevator again?” Aurora looked around again then replied,
“Well, no, that’s fine… I’ll stay here for a few more minutes; I just want to
look around. See you later though!” Dean looked at her a moment while getting
up. “Umm, alright then, see you!” said Dean beginning to run off.
Aurora
stared after him as he left the Cafeteria. She stood up and walked over to
window of the cafeteria. She looked down through the window at the rotating
rings and noticed that the Garden had once again begun moving, towards the
ocean. She looked back to the sky and saw as the last glimpse of the sun
disappeared then she walked out of the cafeteria.
She
walked rather slowly, just thinking and watching the excited people who passed
by her. After a while it occurred to her that she never really had friends. In
Winhill the people she met always left and she was never able to keep any real
friends. She also was never able to voice her thoughts or feelings to anyone
except to herself.
After
what seemed forever of walking she reached the stairway headed to the elevator.
She climbed the stairs and stopped outside the elevator. She thought for a
minute about what she would say to her parents. She wasn’t quite sure what,
yet, but she knew that she would have to confront them sooner or later, if she
wanted to know the truth. Was she a sorceress? Was the entire story that Dean
told her true?
She
stepped onto the elevator and pressed the button to the 3rd floor.
When she stepped off the elevator she stopped abruptly. Quistis, Selphie,
Irvine, and Zell all had solemn-sad expressions on their faces and they stopped
talking immediately after she entered the office and stared at her. Aurora
looked at them and noticed that her parents were no longer there. “Umm, hello…
where are my parents?” she said warily. They all kept staring at her and
finally Quistis told her that her parents were down in the dormitory and wanted
her to come down there right away.
Aurora
looked at them once more before turning on her heel, her hair whipping around
her and she left down the elevator wondering why they all looked like that.
When the elevator was just about to reach the 1st floor she thought
about how she didn’t know where the dormitory was. Dean hadn’t showed her that.
Just as the elevator stopped and Aurora was about to step out she bumped into a
girl with short curly blond hair, she wore a kneelength long sleeved dress that
was a light blue covered by a navy blue vest that went to the ground. She had
black high boots on that were just below her knees.
“Oh hello, I’m Dawn!” the girl said. “Are you
knew here?” Aurora looked at her for a second, unsure what to say. “Oh, umm…
hello… I’m Aurora. No I’m not new here, I’m just visiting.” Aurora finally
said. Dawn looked at her then stepped onto the elevator just as Aurora was
stepping off. “Oh, well, see you then!” said Dawn. “Oh, hey wait, can you tell
me where the dormitory is?” said Aurora quickly. Dawn looked at her a moment
then told her where to find it. Right before the elevator door closed Dawn
asked if Aurora was going to the SeeD ball and Aurora told her she was going
with Dean.
The
elevator door closed before Aurora could hear what Dawn said. Aurora shrugged
it off and headed in the direction of the dormitory thinking. She wondered if
Dawn were a SeeD and if she was going to the ball but figured she was. After
walking what seemed a fairly short time she reached the dormitory doors. She
headed to the room that Quistis told her, the guest dorm room.
After
reaching the door and entering she saw her mother and father both sitting on
the bed opposite the second room with a single bed, looking at her. Her father,
sitting beside her mother with his arm over her shoulder, had a deeply
concerned look which Aurora knew wasn’t a good sign. Her mother sat slumped
over with a tear rolling down her cheek then looked at Aurora, some more tears
rolled down her face and she looked away.
Aurora
walked over to the window and looked out and saw a shooting star. She knew she
a wish, a wish that her parents would tell her the truth. For them to realize
that she could handle it. After making her wish she sat down on a chair across
the room and asked what was going on.
_______________________________________________________________________