Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Hidden Pasts ❯ Unforgiving Sins ( Chapter 8 )

Chapter Eight

"Would you explain why she is now dead?"

Abaddon roared the words over the sound of his screeching minions, "It was not supposed to happen yet. Who is responsible for this?"

The crowd pushed the demon responsible forward. If no one owned up then they would all have been slain by his rage.

"Leraikhe, see to it that this ignorant rebel is disposed of."

Leraikhe stepped forward and put his hand on the demons chest. The demon screamed in agony as flames appeared from inside the demon itself and engulfed it.

When they had burnt it through, the flames disappeared along with the remains of the demon. "This is your lesson, obey my commands completely, or you will be punished severely."

*****

The whole place was in shock. Vincent was inconsolable, he had known her longest.

She had been laid in the Infirmary for people to pay their last respects before she was buried.

It was two in the morning when Squall decided to visit her.

*****

He couldn't sleep, in some way he felt responsible. He hadn't believed what he had seen and only when it was too late had he realised that it had been a premonition.

"At least they can't perform the spell now," he whispered sadly to her corpse.

He then picked up her hand and held it tightly, some part of him thinking that if he willed it enough, she would magically come back to life, perhaps a witch could do that.

His prayers were answered at that moment, but not in the way he expected.

"On the contrary, they can steal her body." Sati spoke out from behind him.

"What do you want," said Squall, angry that Sati had invaded his presence, "why didn't you warn me that it was going to happen."

"Because you should have believed it yourself. Why didn't you save her Squall?"

Sati's eyes lay accusing on him. Squall then snapped, he couldn't take it anymore, the guilt that he couldn't have done anything

"I couldn't save her," he shouted. He didn't care who he woke.

"I couldn't…"

Squall looked down at the body that once belonged to his friend that was what he had believed she was, even though he would never have told her.

"Do you care about her enough to save her?" she then said. Squall couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Yes," he whispered weakly. That was all Sati needed to hear.

"Then I shall give you what you desire. You will go back to a point before she is killed. You will have little time to act Squall, and I can only do this once. Only you will remember what has happened. I shall return soon."

She then disappeared as suddenly as she had come.

*****

Almost an hour later Squall sat in the middle of a circle of candles. There was a strange smell of herbs. It reminded Squall of the party for Ultimecia's defeat. The scent, which he had smelt on the balcony then. How far away all that seemed now, and how much had happened since.

Sati gave him a book and told him to read the paragraph, which she pointed out. Squall couldn't understand the words.

"What is it," he asked.

"A book, stupid," she answered.

Sati knew he meant what language the words were, but he hadn't phrased the question right.

Squall rolled his eyes and continued, "…no, I mean the words, I don't understand them."

"You don't need to," she answered, "They're written in Latin anyway. You just have read them out. Oh, and try to mean what you say."

Squall didn't understand what she meant, but he didn't really feel like talking to her anymore, all he got were riddles.

Sati poured some sand into a bowl and started reciting the ancient texts.

Squall looked on, totally confused. And he was starting to get cramp in his leg from sitting on the hard floor for too long. His father Laguna always had a problem with cramp. Squall hoped he wasn't turning out like him.

Sati nodded to him and Squall started his little speech, but he fumbled along.

He couldn't pronounce half the words at all. Relieved when he had finished, Sati passed him the bowl of sand. It was coloured strangely, a regular sandy colour, but also a tint of blue.

"Pour the sand," Sati whispered.

Following her orders, Squall poured the sand in front of him. When the sand hit the circle it created a flash of white and Squall was once again standing in the Deling City Shopping Arcade.

The hairy demon ran to him and jumped, but Squall impaled it on his gunblade, and used the creature's momentum to throw it to one side. Squall was glad to see Andria alive, but remembering Sati's words.

He ran towards them as fast as he could. Arriving there, he pushed Andria out of the way; he didn't want her fighting at all. He then proceeded to take on the demon himself.

Squall immediately saw why the demon had managed to kill her. If Andria had been no match for it, then how was he supposed to survive? Squall blocked its attacks with his gunblade, but it wasn't working very well.

The demon then slashed its arms across Squall's face. Squall hadn't blocked in time and blood dripped down his face from his cheek where the demon had caught him. A rage boiled up from inside Squall.

A power came to his hands, which he had not known possible. He clutched his gunblade tightly and with inhuman strength, he slashed across the demons chest. The blade went deep into it.

It fell to the ground, writhing before it finally ceased moving at all. Squall silently thanked Sati for the extra strength, and turned to face Andria. He shouldn't have been that surprised at her reaction.

"You, you bastard!" she sputtered.

Squall was afraid she would blow up from being so angry.

"Why the hell did you do that for? I had everything under control."

"Whatever…" he said.

That enraged her further.

"Grrrrrrr," she growled then stormed off.

Rinoa looked furiously at him because he had gone to save Andria and he hadn't helped her. Zell and Selphie were amused slightly, while Seifer and Irvine thought it was the funniest thing they'd seen in a while, that Squall had been shouted at by a woman when all he'd done was come to her rescue.

*****

"Right, tonight I want everyone to get some rest. Things are gonna change soon and there are gonna be a lot of tough battles coming up."

Andria needed a rest; she had some really nasty cuts from the demon. It was late now anyway, past midnight and everyone looked as though they also needed the rest. Seifer had said he couldn't wait to fight anything like that again.

Vincent woke her from her thoughts, "Maybe you should say thank you to Squall for helping you."

Andria looked doubtfully at him.

"Well, it would be the right thing to do," he urged to her.

Sighing, she nodded and went looking for him.

*****

She eventually found him on the balcony. He was staring at the stars.

"They're beautiful, aren't they," she said softly.

She immediately regretted speaking as it broke something special that was there. He merely turned and looked.

"What do you want," he asked formally.

"To apologise. Look Squall I'm sorry for shouting at you, I really shouldn't have. Can we start over, be friends again?"

"…whatever," he said.

Walking towards him, Andria stared sadly at her old friend.

"What happened to us Squall? When we were young, we were so close."

Leaning against the side she continued, "I remember when I told you about why I was at the orphanage, you said something so sweet, I can still remember it today. You said `I'll always be there to protect you, no matter what. ` It was the nicest thing I ever heard."

For a second Squall was shocked, he had saved her. Without remembering the promise that he had made, he had still protected her.

In that moment under the stars he saw the childlike innocence that he remembered seeing in her in his dreams. She was still innocent, even after everything that had happened to her, all her fighting. She had fought to save people. He was stained though, guilty. He had become a mercenary, paid to kill other people, the very people she was trying to save.

Looking down at his hands, Squall saw the blood on them.

Squall then looked at Andria, perhaps for an answer. She was looking at the stars. Why?

"Why are you looking at the stars," he asked her after a minute of watching her.

"I'm looking at the past," she said simply. "Why?"

"…It doesn't matter Squall."

She turned to face him and held his hands out in front of him.

"There is no blood in your hands Squall," she whispered softly to him, "you are only imagining it. You always only followed your orders."

Squall was silent for a moment, thinking about what she had said.

"Thank you," he then whispered.

Andria had to come in close to hear his words.

"What for," she asked, whispering just as quietly.

"For helping me see."

Squall then kissed her forehead and they hugged, finally knowing. Both held tightly afraid that if they didn't then they would suddenly wake up or something, finding it was only a dream.

Andria suddenly pulled back from Squall and looked deep into his eyes. Love was a funny thing, did he know right now how long she had wanted him.

She remembered the sleeping boy she had left so long ago. Squall must have read her mind for he then did something unforgivable; he kissed her long and deeply. It felt wrong, but at the same time, so right. Andria was so overwhelmed that she did nothing. All she had wanted for a long time was to be back in his arms, with him. Only here did she feel totally content.

Squall pulled away then and looked sadly at her. She seemed so beautiful, so fragile then. Their eyes met and both knew that they couldn't go back, what had happened was too much to forget.

Squall stroked her cheek tenderly and Andria hugged him once more.

"Stay tonight," was all she whispered, a simple question, but it could have disastrous consequences. Squall held her face cupped in his hands and looked for his answer in her beautiful brown eyes. They said everything.

Finding his answer, he nodded. Tears welled in her eyes. Her fantasy, her dream had come true.

Author's Note

Please don't hate me for having this happen. What happened with Squall and Andria was the most important thing for them to happen. If they hadn't then this would have been a lot harder to write and I also would have had to wrestle with the sequel pretty hard. Besides I hated the character Rinoa, much more than Squall. (I have my reasons.)

When Squall asks Andria why she is looking at the stars and she replies she is looking at the past, she means that she is looking to see if Squall really still cares about her and if he meant what he said.