Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Hidden Pasts ❯ Past And Present ( Chapter 6 )

Chapter Six

Squall didn't know where he was. There was blackness all around him, and an odd feeling of belonging. There was a floating sensation that he felt, like was falling, but also that he wasn't. Then there was a sound, a high-pitched whine that cut through his very being.

Squall tried to move, but he found that his limbs wouldn't co-operate, he was helpless. He didn't know where he was at all.

Suddenly the whining stopped and he could move again.

Opening his eyes Squall looked round. He recognised this place, this was the Orphanage from his childhood. He was lying on his bed.

Quickly he got up off the bed and looked round.

Sensing someone behind him, he quickly turned round. He could not see the person's face though.

"Who are you?" he asked the stranger.

"No one you need worry about."

"You brought me here didn't you," Squall said.

After a moment of hesitation the stranger replied, "Yes."

"Why?" asked Squall.

"Because I wanted to show you something," the person replied, "please trust me."

"If you want me to trust you then give me your name."

The stranger stepped out from the shadows.

"My name is Sati and I am an old friend of Andria. I am not in league Leraikhe as you might think because I brought you here."

"Why do I keep on having these dreams," asked Squall stepping closer to her.

"You are being shown your past," she said, "Come Squall, I have something to show you."

"What?"

"The truth about Andria."

*****

"Where are we," Squall asked, looking round.

He was in a room somewhere. He recognised nothing.

A woman slept peacefully in a bed. Next to the bed was a crib. Inside were two babies.

"Leraikhe and Andria," said Sati, "all the good and evil in the world came together and produced these two. They have no father. Amazing isn't it."

"That's impossible," said Squall, "it just doesn't happen."

Sati smiled. She then walked over and sat on the bed.

Her walking couldn't really be called walking as she rather floated as if she was on air.

"Squall, meet Nigal."

Squall came hesitantly closer to the sleeping woman.

"It's the same woman from my dream," he whispered, "have you been sending them?"

"Some," she replied, " but the first one you had where Andria spoke to you was sent by Leraikhe. He wanted to draw her out and he used you to do it. He is a trickster, although you haven't met the real Leraikhe."

Squall looked confused so Sati decided that he should know the whole truth.

"The Leraikhe you have seen is possessed with Babalel, the keeper of graves. Come I will show you."

Squall then was in another room, but this room was a lot different from the last one.

Black candles burned around a large altar in the middle of the room. 5 people dressed in long robes, their faces hidden, were holding a child on the altar table. They were chanting a strange set of words.

Squall stepped closer. Blood was in a dish on a table next to the altar, along with a box.

The dish was picked up by one of them and some blood was smeared on the forehead of the screaming boy.

An evil smelling incense was then given to the boy and the box was picked up.

The priest at the boy's head opened the box and from it emerged a cloud of grey mist, which then entered the baby through the blood mark. The baby ceased crying and looked round.

"Frightening, isn't it Squall, that this child has been turned into a monster."

"Can they see us," asked Squall. "No. You are witnessing the past. Lets see what happens next in the story."

Squall then found him standing back in front of the orphanage, although it was daytime. He saw himself as a little boy sitting alone on the beach.

Squall then heard Matron call out from behind him to the little boy.

"Edea thought that it would be a good idea for you to meet Andria, she thought that it would take your mind off Ellone," Sati explained pointing to Andria hiding behind Nigal, "…she was always shy at first. I don't suppose you remember one night when you woke up and heard her crying. You really helped her."

"Why can't I remember this? I only saw this in my dreams recently." Squall couldn't remember Andria at all before he met her at Deling City.

"The GF Squall, but you did say that it was an acceptable risk. But that wasn't the only reason why you forgot."

Squall then saw himself asleep in his bed. Nigal came and woke up Andria. Andria then walked over to Squall's bed and planted a small kiss on his cheek and they both then left the orphanage hurriedly trying to get away.

"Why did they leave," Squall asked.

"Because Abaddon found them. When Leraikhe was turned, a prophecy was set in motion. A group of people would destroy Abaddon and his power. Andria is one of those people and you Squall are now a part of it. It was your destiny to stand alongside her. Abaddon controls all of Hell, which is on Earth. You and Andria will crush that power and save the people of your world. The stone of Viviah will open the gates, but he also needs the blood of the ones with no mortal father. Andria and Leraikhe. Without them the ritual cannot be completed."

"This is impossible," Squall cried out, "it doesn't make sense."

He was tired and fed up of these games, "I want to go back to Garden."

Sati sighed, "Be patient, I am not finished yet. There is more you must see."

Sati led Squall away from the orphanage and then they were standing in front of a house in the middle of a strange forest.

"Inside Squall," she whispered close to his ear.

She then walked towards the door and passed right through it.

Squall followed although he hesitated at the door doubtful that he could do the same, but he also passed through.

Nigal was holding Andria, both of them looked frightened. Not surprisingly, for Leraikhe stood beside a tall man, or rather he was a demon.

His eyes burned yellow and red, as deep as hell itself. His face mocking humanity with its gross resemblance. Teeth long and sharp, horns reminding Squall of Behemoth's.

"That is Abaddon Squall," Sati whispered again, "he is the chief of the demons of the seventh hierarchy. He is a loyal minion of the Ancient Ones, spirits of dead evil beings. Also he is Leraikhe's master"

Abaddon then spoke; his deep raspy voice growled out the words so terrifyingly that even the shadows hid afraid of his wrath.

"You are beaten Nigal. The prophecy will never come true."

Nigal then put Andria down, "You will never win."

That was all she said, but her defiance infuriated Abaddon.

"Your insolence will get you into trouble one day."

His huge hand then came flying past Nigal, but he did not hit her. Nigal put her hand up to her throat and Squall saw blood pour out.

Andria screamed. She reached for her mother, but Leraikhe stopped her. All she grabbed was the pendant.

Leraikhe smirked madly when Andria backed up with fear, the pendant still firmly clasped in her tiny fist.

She suddenly broke for the door. Leraikhe started after her, but Abaddon stopped him.

"She shall not get far, you mustn't worry. Even if she does, we do not need her yet. Be patient, she will come to us."

"After Andria ran away, Vincent's mother found her and took her in. She lived with Vincent for a few years before she was called by Father Enki."

Sati looked at Squall and then said, "The ritual cannot be formed until the prophecy says, and there isn't much time."

Squall was then standing in Garden, but it was during a party, a SeeD graduation party. Squall recognised a lone figure leaning against a pillar, it was he, when he had just become a SeeD.

Squall then saw Rinoa walk up to him and make him dance. Watching them dance reminded him of how he had felt.

As he watched himself dancing, he saw someone in the corner talking to Cid. It was Andria.

She was dressed in a long, velvet dress. When Rinoa stopped dancing with his other self and started to walk towards Cid, Squall saw Andria shrink away till she was lost in the crowd at the party.

"Andria was always there watching out for you, Squall. She was there when you enrolled at SeeD, when you were at the Dollet mission and when you took your first mission. I have now shown everything you need to know Squall."

"For what," he asked.

Sati smiled knowingly.

She turned and began to walk away, but then she remembered something and turned back to Squall, "Everything can be changed Squall. Remember that."

Sati turned round once again and walked away, disappearing at the same time.

Squall was alone, stuck somewhere and he didn't know how to get out.

There was a sudden flash and Squall was standing on the street in the Shopping Arcade. Everyone around him was either running away, in the case of the civilians or fighting the demons that were rampant. Andria was fighting a huge demon with spines along its back and up its arms.

To Squall it looked like the demon was winning her. It suddenly howled with rage and lunged at her. Its arm created a large gash in her side. Andria clutched at the fatal wound and fell. All of the demons then backed off. The fighting was over.

Everything went dark for Squall. When he opened his eyes again he was lying in the infirmary.