#Why isn't Rinoa in Kingdom Hearts yet?! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

vibranch · 5 years

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Kingdom Hearts Fan Fic - Time Enclosed Within

Pairing: Leon x Rinoa Heartilly / Squall Leonhart x Rinoa Heartilly Rating: T Word count: 17,097 Chapters: 3/5 Entirety on AO3

Summary: A lone castle in the outskirts of Radiant Garden sits abandoned and neglected. Once the home to a powerful Sorceress, it is now the perfect spot to salvage materials to speed up the Committee’s rebuilding efforts. After all, it’s been ten years since the Heartless ravaged this world. Each member has faced the Darkness and come out on top. And with a Sorceress of their own, what demons from the past could possibly haunt them now.

Dear Sora,

It’s been a little while. I hope everything worked out with finding Riku and the King. No doubt you’ve been keeping yourself busy. Well, the same can definitely be said for us. A lot’s been happening over here at Radiant Garden. We’ve been reunited with a lot of people we’d thought we had lost forever, and everybody from the Restoration Committee has been trekking out further from the castle town you’re familiar with. It’s mostly been to salvage materials that we can use to help us rebuild. One of the places we came across was Ultimecia’s Hollowed Bastion.

The name sounds a little familiar, huh? I should probably take a moment to explain.

Hollow Bastion wasn’t just the name of this world because we couldn’t remember its original name. There was a reason for why we called it that. In fact, Radiant Garden has a long history of Hallowed Bastions. But in order to explain that I should first tell you about the Sorceresses who lived in them.

Sorry… I guess I’m doing a bad job of explaining this. You’ve probably got more questions now. You’re probably thinking I just misspelled Hollow in that last paragraph. But there is a very key difference between Hallowed and Hollowed Bastions.

And there I go again, making it unnecessarily complicated. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to keep throwing these strange terms at you.

You know what? I’ll tell you the important terms as they come up. Instead, I’ll start with my time in Ultimecia’s Bastion. Her once Hallowed Bastion. Her, then and forever, Hollowed Bastion.

Shortly after you sorted out things with Tron and the MCP, me and a few others began a trek towards a Castle once controlled by the Sorceress Ultimecia. Sorceresses were very important figures back before Radiant Garden fell to the Heartless. They were women of great magical power. Often, they would make history. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. But very rarely, would a Sorceress not leave a mark on the world.

As members of the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee it’s our responsibility to rebuild the world as much as possible. And Ultimecia’s Bastion was likely to have some materials within that we could use to help with the restoration.

Most Sorceresses had some kind of Bastion to call home after their powers became well-known. It was a place that they could rest away from others who might fear their powers. But Sorceresses didn’t stay in there alone. Most Sorceresses had a Knight.

You see, phenomenal powers alone aren’t enough. Sorceresses have a tendency to be misunderstood, and in those times, many have relied upon another to help protect them. A Knight. New sorceresses especially rely upon their Knight. No one is born a Sorceress. Previous Sorceresses pass down their powers to others. They allow the power to grow within the Heart of the one they pass it down to.

However, learning to properly use that power takes time, and using too much too quickly can leave the Sorceress exhausted and unable to defend herself. That’s where the Sorceress’s Knight comes in. Not only do they protect their Sorceress, the bond formed between them makes their very presence amplify their Sorceress’s power.

That brings me to Ultimecia’s Bastion. Typically, a Sorceress’s Bastion would be a castle or tower. Basically, a place with imposing architecture to keep people away. And Ultimecia’s Bastion was no different. It was disused even before the Heartless attacked. Its tattered and worn down appearance even made people who had business with Sorceresses want to stay away. Many wondered if Ultimecia was even still alive in there or not. Back when I was still a new recruit, there were many arguments within Radiant Garden’s chain of command as to whether or not Ultimecia’s Bastion was a Hallowed Bastion or a Hollow Bastion.

If a sorceress used her powers for the betterment of the people around her, then her Bastion was considered a place of miracles. But there were women who used the power of the Sorceress as an excuse to flex control over others. These ‘Hollow Bastions’, as they were called, were home to some of the most dangerous individuals Radiant Garden had ever seen. Some Sorceresses would, tragically, go bad after a while, commonly from losing their Knight one way or another, and their Hallowed Bastion was considered to have hollowed.

Regardless of whether or not Ultimecia’s Bastion should be considered Hallowed or Hollow, I lead a party of four towards it. It included Yuffie, Cid, Rinoa, and myself. I figured a small party should be fine. After all it had been ten years since the Heartless swarmed and force the people to flee Radiant Garden. If Ultimecia was a threat, she would almost certainly be long dead by the time we arrived at her Bastion. And besides, we were mostly just checking to see what was still salvageable. We weren’t sure what kind of state the Heartless would have left the place in by the time we got there.

Cid was fired up and ready to go inside as soon as we got there. “Alright already! Let’s get in there and go home.” Or maybe he just had something else he’d rather do back home.

Rinoa was also pretty excited to get inside. “C’mon, Squall! Let’s go inside already!” she said, tugging my arm towards the door.

Don’t think you can start calling me Squall, by the way. Rinoa is a special case. It’s still Leon to you, got it?

You never got the chance to meet Rinoa. She’s not actually from Radiant Garden. I met her back at Traverse Town, back before you showed up. Back then we… We spent a lot of time together, and I think that’s enough that needs to be said.

“So, do you think the front door is just going to be unlocked?” Yuffie asked.

“No, but that’s why we brought Rinoa.” I answered. Yuffie was young when we had to flee Radiant Garden. So, she didn’t know that Bastions were typically magically sealed.

“Really? That’s the only reason you brought me?” Rinoa teased. She likes doing that. She says the face I make when she teases is me is hilarious, and truth be told, I can’t say I hate when she does it.

“Really.” I replied flatly. My best attempt at a poker face didn’t seem to convince her. She was right, of course, and before long I broke the façade and smiled back.

I thought I’d lost her for far too long to bother pretending to be above it all. I was just glad to see she was safe most days. The only reason I knew she was even alive was because of a letter she sent me not too long after you’d last left Radiant Garden. But, even if she hadn’t returned, we’d have thought of some way to get inside. After all Ultimecia’s Bastion should have been safe. There should have been no one inside.

“So, who was Ultimecia?” Yuffie asked as Rinoa got to work defusing the magic on the front door.

“She was a witch. She exceled at time magic but had a habit of abusing her powers on others.” I responded, recounting the few times I’d run into her.

“The preferred term is Sorceress, Squall.” Rinoa said. It wasn’t the first time she’d told me that. She didn’t like it when I called a Sorceress a witch.

“Hey, I agree with Leon.” Cid said. “As far as Sorceresses go, Ultimecia was the worst.” It wasn’t often that Cid would jump to my defense. Usually he’d be the first to line up and start finding a way under my skin. “One time back when Leon was still in training, she riled up one of his fellow cadets. He tried to demonstrate why she shouldn’t mess with him. So he charged and took a swing near her. He wasn’t trying to hurt her or anything. Hell, he purposefully missed by a wide margin! But she used some sort of spell and you’d never guess who appeared behind him!”

“Who?” Yuffie asked, fully absorbed in his story.

“It was himself!” Cid jumped to emphasis his point. “Or a copy of himself, rather. She replayed the event, so a copy of himself ended up cleaving himself from behind! It was pretty freaky to witness. Just one moment ago there was only one of him, the next there was another. With his ownblood on the blade!”

“Woah, that’s creepy.” Yuffie whispered, as if Cid had told her a ghost story by a campfire.

“I still don’t like you using that word.” Rinoa pouted. I couldn’t blame her. Witch was a loaded word in Radiant Garden and Traverse Town. More than a couple of fights have broken out because one person accused someone else of being a witch.

“…Fair enough. I’ll try not to say it again. Sorry.” I added the apology at the end, an attempt to make sure Rinoa knew I didn’t think of her as a witch.

Eventually Rinoa got the door open. Proudly, she pushed the door open, revealing the inside of the building to human eyes for the first time in nearly a decade.

There was something wrong with this place almost immediately. The place was spotless. It wouldn’t even need dusting let alone a restoration committee.

“What in the-?” Cid ran inside, examining the place for some kind of trick.

“This isn’t right.” I announced quietly to the group. I couldn’t understand what was going on.

“You guys said she was good with time magic, right?” Yuffie asked. “So maybe she made it so the inside of the Bastion doesn’t age?” It was a fair idea. But a spell like that would usually end a little while after the Sorceress had died.

“I don’t like this. But I also don’t like the idea of leaving after only just getting in here.” I told the group.

“How ‘bout we split into groups of two?” Cid suggested. “We can explore the place faster that way.”

The idea had merit, but it left me uneasy. But we came all this way, we might as well see what was inside. “Very well, but we meet back here in fifteen minutes. Yuffie, go with Cid and explore the East side of the Bastion. Rinoa and I will explore the west side. If anything out of the ordinary happens, even if you think there might be some ordinary explanation for it, you run back here and wait for us to get back.”

I guess I must have been lecturing again. Because Yuffie shot up to her feet, excited as ever, and practically exploded with energy. “Yeah, yeah. We get it Leon! C’mon Cid, Let’s go exploring!”

Cid laughed as she pulled him along “Hah! You sure you ain’t scared of running into the big bad Sorceress?”

“Nah, I ain’t afraid of some long dead spook!”

I had to force myself not to smile as they bounded down the East side hall together. I get envious of them sometimes. I don’t know how they can be so open all the time. How they can just laugh at themselves whenever the catch themselves acting dumb and not let it eat away at them.

“You ready, Squall?” Rinoa asked, pulling me away from my thoughts.

“Yeah, how about you?” I said, turning to face her.

She just flashed me a smile, “of course! Together we have nothing to fear.”

We walked down the hall together, checking each side room in the hall that we came across. Aside from the fact that all the rooms appeared to have been cleaned recently in an otherwise abandoned castle, everything appeared to be normal.

Then as we opened the door at the end of the hall. I saw something strange within. Inside this room was everyone, Cid, Yuffie, even Rinoa. I turned back towards the Rinoa behind me and gave her a confused look, hoping she’d confirm what I saw.

“What’s the matter, Squall?” She looked at me worriedly. Was I in the way? I pointed into the room. She followed my direction and looked in. I expected her to react with surprise, the same way I was. “Looks like another empty room to me. Is there something I’m missing?”

I looked back inside the room, it certainly wasn’t empty. Cid, Yuffie, and the other Rinoa were still inside. “Yuffie and Cid are in there. Can’t you see? What about the other person?” I was nervous about mentioning that the other person inside was Rinoa, I wasn’t sure how she’d respond to that.

“It’s an empty room, Squall.” Rinoa answered, she looked at me with such concern I almost wished I hadn’t said anything. “Do you recognize the other person?”

“No, it’s clearly not empty. Look, there they are!” I said, trying to avoid the question. I should have told her it was her in the room. I guess I was worried she wouldn’t believe me.

“Maybe we should go back…” It was the right thing to suggest, those were my orders after all. But something inside me told me I had to do something

“Hey! Yuffie, Cid! Look at me!” I shouted into the room. They didn’t even react, like they couldn’t hear me. “Damn it, don’t ignore me!” I shouted again. I had enough of this insanity, I was going to get to the bottom of this now.

I marched into the room. I had to know who these people really were, they couldn’t have been what they looked like. This hall didn’t curve far enough for it to have connected with the East wing yet, so it had to be some kind of trick. And marching right in there to get a closer look was might solve what was going on. Rinoa shouted my name as I walked into the room.

Cid was the first to notice me. Just as I crossed the door frame, he instantly jumped in shock. “Leon?! Where the hell have you been?! I looked around. Yuffie looked just as shocked as Cid. But the Rinoa in this room looked like she was on the verge of tears.

“What’s going on? Who are you people and why do you look like that?” I gripped my Gunblade just in case things got violent. Instead they looked even more surprised.

“What do you mean, who are we!?” The Yuffie look alike yelled at me, offended.

“Leon, we’ve been looking for you.” Cid looked me over as he said it. It was a pretty convincing display of concern. “Say, are you okay?” I almost believed it was really him, but the real Cid wasn’t so touchy feely.

I decided that now would be a good time to see how my Rinoa was reacting to all of this. I twisted around, hoping that she might be able to help figure out what was going on. But when I turned around, the door I had come from was closed.

I ripped the door open, hoping to find her behind it, but instead of the side of the hall I’d come from. It was the beginning of the hall Rinoa and I had started from. My blood ran cold. Looking back at the room I was currently in, it looked exactly like the entrance from when we first entered. I was worried I’d lost her. I made a quick promise to myself that I wouldn’t let that happen. Not again. I cupped my hands and shouted for Rinoa.

No response.

I prepared to do it again. But the Rinoa of this room wrapped her around me. I tried to shake her off, but she clung onto me.

“I’m right here, Squall. I thought I’d lost you!” I had no idea what she was talking about, so I tried to explain to them that illusions like them wouldn’t work on me. After all, that’s what they must have been, right? Some sort of trap left behind by Ultimecia before the Heatless got her.

“You’re not the real Rinoa! Let go of me!” She clung on to me as if I were a life preserver that she’d fallen overboard with. “She was right behind me when I came in here!”

“C’mon Leon, what happened to you?!” Yuffie asked.

“Nothing happened to me.” I responded.

“The hell you talkin’ about, Leon? You’ve been missing for two days.” Cid said, sounding offended enough to almost make me believe him. “These two have been worried sick about you.”

“Don’t you remember?” The Rinoa from this room asked, “You started talking about seeing people in a room at the end of the hall. Then when you walked in you disappeared.” She looked up at me, her eyes were glassy as she squeezed me again, as if to check I was really there. “I thought I lost you! And now you act like I’m a stranger!” The mix of anger and sadness in her voice certainly sounded genuine…

No! I couldn’t let her trick me! Somewhere in this Bastion was my Rinoa! “How do you know about that?! I yelled. “Have you been watching us?! You are not tricking me! I would know if I’ve been here overnight, much less two days!” I had to get this Rinoa off me. I tried to shake her off again, this time much more forcefully than before. She yelped as she fell to the ground. “I don’t know what’s going on here. But I’m not falling for your lies. I need to find the real Rinoa. So just tell who you all are before I get out of here! Are you some kind of illusion? Manifestations of Darkness trying to trick me?”

“We’re not an illusion! But you’re a jerk like always, Leon!” The Yuffie look alike yelled at me. “Why’d we even bother coming to find you if this was how you were going to treat us!”

I was so fed up with these ‘people’. If they were even that. I ran through the door I’d come from, leaving the three fakes behind. I had to find the others. The real others. Yuffie, Cid, and most importantly, Rinoa.

They shouted and chased after me. The one that looked and pretended to be Rinoa was the closest one behind me. But she was also the first to give up. She fell to her knees from what I assumed was exhaustion, or maybe whatever magic conjured her wouldn’t let her go too far from the room I’d found them in. After that, the other two quickly gave up on the chase as well.

I scoffed that those fakes had ever tried to trick me. Each of them, the real ones, could have run miles before needing a break. Well, maybe Cid would need a break. But regardless, I kept going until the slight curve in the hallway eventually obscured them from my sight.

Now that they were out of my sight, I allowed myself to slow down. I was surprised at just how heavily I was breathing. I walked slowly, catching my breath as I tried to make sense of everything that had just happened.

There was something strange about this Bastion, Sora. The unnatural cleanliness of it was one thing, but now this? Ultimecia might have left some spells and traps behind when the Heartless consumed this world, but surely most of them would have been sprung by now. Regardless of the cause of the strangeness to this place. I had to the Rinoa I left behind, the real Rinoa.

A thought occurred to me. What if those people who looked like Rinoa, Yuffie, and Cid weren’t the trap? I was so preoccupied with getting back to the Rinoa I left behind that I hadn’t considered that something else could have happened. Ultimecia specialized in time magic after all. Maybe somehow, I was thrown through time…

I leaned against the wall as I considered what to do next. Should I turn back and find the others I’d just run from? Maybe… But first, I had to return to the door at the end of the hall. If those others really were illusions or fakes or anything, then Rinoa might still be waiting by there. I began walking again when I heard a voice.

“How interesting… Two of them call you Leon. But one calls you Squall.”

The temperature in the room seemed to drop as the words formed in the air. I searched the room, trying to find who was speaking. It sounded like a woman, but I couldn’t see anyone. “Who’s there?” I called back.

“Which is it, boy? Leon or Squall? Who are you?”

The voice’s tone sounded amused, but there was something dangerous about it too. It had an almost enchantingly threatening feel to it. “It’ Leon. Now it’s your turn. Who are you?”

A response didn’t come. Instead a door on the other side of the hall creaked open. I told myself I should leave. That I should run back to the others, apologize and get out of here. Something was going on here and I was convinced that being by them, real or not, was safer than staying separated. But curiosity got the better of me. I moved towards the open door and peeked inside.

Unlike the rest of the Bastion, this room was built primarily from brick, and, somehow, this room alone was exposed to the open air of a night sky. Millions of stars shone in the inky blackness overhead. It took me second before I realized where I was.

Somehow, I was back in Traverse Town. I looked back at the door I’d emerged from. The old Accessory Shop that Cid occasionally ran stood with a single door ajar. The room inside was not the usual one however. Somehow squeezed inside the Accessory Shop was the hallway I had been running through earlier.

I stared in confusion at the door, but also relieved to see that unlike last time I walked through a door here, this one wasn’t a one-way trip. I only turned around as I heared the sound of a high heel click against the pavement behind me.

Just down the steps of the Accessory Shop, standing in the middle of the square, was Rinoa. She stood alone watching the stars and wearing the same pale dress she’d once worn years ago

“Rinoa.” I spoke. But she didn’t seem to hear me. “What are you doing here?” Again, no response. I called out to her a few more times, all to the same effect, when a familiar voice drew both my and her attention behind me.

“The stars are beautiful tonight, aren’t they?” I couldn’t believe it. It was another me. Although he looked a deal younger than I was, most notably the scar on my face was missing from his.

“Did you see?” Rinoa asked, pointing at the sky. “There was a shooting star just a little while ago.”

“Is that a good sign?” The younger me asked as the two of them stood there smiling at each other.

Rinoa playfully hummed. “I like to think it is. You’re not usually the one staying behind while others go flying off to other worlds. But every time a Gummi Ship flies off, I always see a shooting star go by. And just before you land another shooting star will go by, like clockwork. I like to imagine that each one I see is you. Flying around amongst the worlds, helping save others from the Heartless.” Rinoa looked back up at the sky, searching for more moving stars. “Who knows, maybe that shooting star that just went by was another Gummi Ship piloted by someone else. Or maybe it was the worlds wishing us a safe journey.”

The younger me chuckled. I remembered thinking at that moment, that she was such a romantic. Expecting everything happening in the night sky to have some greater meaning to it. “Maybe you’re right.” The younger me then stepped forward and took her hand and began leading her in a silent dance.

The silence was short lived as, just before Rinoa could ask what he was doing, the younger me let loose a carefully rehearsed aero spell behind her. Moving the needle of an old phonograph he’d placed the day before, causing it to begin playing an old song from Rinoa’s home world.

I watched them whisper sweet words to each other. I couldn’t hear them, but I remembered them well-enough. If I could, I would’ve watched the two of us move to the song forever. It was nice to be able to relive this moment from the past. But the woman’s voice from before interrupted my watching of the past.

“How cute. A Sorceress and her Knight, sharing a dance under the stars.”

It was the same voice from before. Like before there was no one around who spoke the words. I turned back to see the two of us still holding each other and moving in a lazy circle to the song. Apparently, they hadn’t noticed the interruption. Well, I guess I would have remembered if there was an interruption from a disembodied voice at this moment.

“Tell me, Knight. What happens next? For such a happy moment, it is trapped under the shadow of the darkest part in your timeline. What makes this moment so dark to you?”

There was something… frightening about this voice. I couldn’t speak. It spoke with such malice. It didn’t speak with genuine interest or curiosity about what happened next. No, it relished each word, as if it took glee knowing that each word was a knife being thrust into my heart and each next word was just a twist of the blade. It knew that there was a reason why I didn’t think about this very often.

For a moment the voice spoke sweetly. “Speak, my dear child. Tell me what happened.” I still couldn’t bring myself to speak to it. Eventually it lost its patience. The voice broke into a commanding tone. “Do as I say! Or I will reveal it for myself.”

Finally, I found my voice. “I lost her.”

The voice returned to the mockingly sweet tone from before. “What happened?”

“She insisted on coming with me to another world. She’d become a Sorceress and wanted to come with me to make sure I’d be okay.”

“Would you like to see your final moments with her again?”

“Please no…”

“I suppose I could grant you that one request…”

I let out a sigh of relief knowing that I wouldn’t have to face that day again.

“Leon, I want to go with you.” Rinoa said to him. I gripped my chest as soon as I heard the words.

“Rinoa, it’s not safe on that world. The Heartless have been tearing it apart looking for the keyhole. We can’t save it. We can only get people off it before it’s too late.”

Rinoa pulled away from the dance. “C’mon Leon! You know I can take care of myself. I’ve been defending Traverse Town from the Heartless with Yuffie and Aerith when you guys are away.”

“And I need you to keep doing that and making sure they’re safe. As much as Yuffie thinks she’s some great ninja, she’s still little, and Aerith isn’t a fighter. She’s a great healer, but if they get separated, they could get hurt. You’re a sorceress, you have more than enough power to keep everyone safe.”

Rinoa rolled her eyes. “They’re just small fry,” She complained. “None of the Heartless are interested in taking the Heart of Traverse Town. Most days they don’t even show up.”

“Rinoa…” I tried to think of something to say that could convince her, but she cut me off before I could say anything.

“And besides, my powers are stronger when I’m near my Knight.” The mischievous grin spread across her face. It still had the same effect on me now as it did back then. Us two Leons matched her with a smile of our own.

“Why are you being so insistent this time?” He asked.

“You’re not the only one talking about how dangerous this world is. Everybody that’s going is nervous about this mission. Especially Brom, its his world that’s on the brink That’s why I want to come, to keep you safe. From now on, wherever we go, we’ll go together.”

“Is that a promise or a threat? Please don’t follow me into the bathroom just because we have to ‘go together’”

Rinoa’s attempt at seriousness broke as she giggled at my response. “Shut up, Leon! You know what I meant.” Rinoa took a moment to compose herself. She looked back at me with the seriousness she’d momentarily lost. “I lost my world, you know. I’m not going to lose you too.”

I watched myself sigh and rest his head in his hand. “Alright, alright. But I’m going to make a request too.”

She peered into the old me’s eyes, trying to guess what he was about to ask. “Alright what is it? Just know, that if I don’t like it I’m not going to do it, Leon.”

The other me looked directly into Rinoa’s eyes. “Call me Squall.”

“Huh?”

“My real name. It’s-”

“I know.” Rinoa interrupted.

“Huh?” I stifled a laugh as I watched the other me pull a confused face. I could finally see why Rinoa always liked to pull my leg. It was kind of a funny face.

“It’s not exactly your best kept secret.” Rinoa said with a wink. “Yuffie is always calling you that and Aerith explained where ‘Leon’ came from shortly after we started to spend time together.”

“Those two…” He groaned. “Listen, after we lost Radiant Garden it didn’t feel right that Squall Leonheart got to survive while so many others were lost. I was training to be a soldier, but I couldn’t save anyone. For a long time, I thought I should’ve done more, gotten someone else onboard, I should’ve just done something of use. So, I refused to be Squall. In my opinion, Squall died that night. But Rinoa, I want you to call me Squall. I want to hear the name come from you.” For moment she was quiet, I remembered worrying I’d said something wrong. I looked away for a moment, but when I turned back and saw her face, I knew I was alright.

I thought my line was sappy, but the face Rinoa was pulling was putting that to shame. “Oh Leon, would you like a little wine to go with all that cheese?”

“I can’t believe I’m going to say this, Rinoa. But it’s Squall. Also, I’m pretty sure that line usually goes the other way around.”

This caught Rinoa’s attention. “Oh really? Does Squall Leonhart get told that a lot?”

“N-No. Listen this isn’t what I’m trying to talk about, okay?”

“I don’t know…” Rinoa smiled. “I think I’d like to meet this Squall. Were you a whiny kid?”

“I feel like I’m losing control of this conversation.”

Rinoa giggled again. “I bet you hate that feeling. Don’t you, Mr. Leader?” I watched myself press a palm against his face.

“And yet, it seems like everyone I know is constantly trying to make me feel that way.”

“That’s not true. You just make it so easy to push your buttons.”

“Alright, fine. I’ll talk to the other about brining you along. Just try to be careful okay?” The younger me finally relented.

“Yay!” Rinoa cheered. “Don’t worry, Squall. I’ll be careful.” We both looked so carefree at this moment. But I could feel my stomach tying into knots.

“Come on, we’ll go talk to the others about bringing you to Sleepy Hollow.” The knots in my stomach tightened as I heard my younger self say those words. I couldn’t take it anymore. I knew how this story would end. I screamed into the sky, hoping the voice following me would hear.

“That’s enough!” Silence followed, so I tried calling for it again. “Please let me out of here!”

“The exit is right behind you, Knight… If you want to leave this memory then all you must do, is leave.”

I ran through the doors of the Accessory Shop. I ran away from the scene behind me, I couldn’t bear to watch any further knowing what would happen next.

I stood bent over and panting outside of the room containing Traverse Town. I felt sick, like at any moment I throw up from what I’d witnessed. I hadn’t thought of that night in years. I tried not to think about it. Because of what happened the next day. What happened to her on that other world was my fault.

“I have to find the others…” I said between deep breaths. “Once I find the others we can get out of here.”

“You tried so hard to get in my Bastion and when I let you in further all you want to do is leave?”

“Your Bastion? Who are you!?”

“Quiet boy! If this is my Bastion and the Bastion belongs to Ultimecia, then you already know who I am!”

“Ultimecia? But you should be dead by now! The Heartless should have swarmed this place along with you nearly a decade ago!”

“Oh, they tried. They tried to enter uninvited, much like you… And you will share the same fate as those creatures did! You and everyone else who has entered here. I tried to be generous. I took their leader and allowed them to leave. But they returned, and now they must also pay. I will make them a part of my Bastion once I grow bored with them.”

“Let me explain!” I yelled into the air.

“I already know! You dare enter my home and try to steal from me, boy?”

The words dripped with malice. I looked all over the room hoping I’d find where they came from.

“This is my Bastion! Do not think for a moment that I will tolerate trespassers in here!”

I shouted at the walls. “Where are you!” The woman’s voice seemed to come from everywhere. As if I were trapped in the middle of a dark cave and the echo of her voice was closing in on me.

“Behind you, Knight.” The words whispered from where I couldn’t see. My heart stilled as I slowly turned around. For the first time in years, I saw Ultimecia. She stood there almost casually. “Of course, isn’t a Knight supposed to protect his Sorceress? You’re just a boy with a complex.”

“You Witch!” I screamed at her. I drew my Gunblade and ran at her, ready for a fight.

She didn’t say a word. She simply smirked at me, and with a snap of her fingers she vanished. A moment later I began to hear a voice. It was low and quiet at first but as it repeated it started to grow. It took me awhile to recognize it. But no doubt about it, it was Rinoa’s voice!

I still don’t like you using that word

It began again just as soon as it finished.

I still don’t like you using that word

It wouldn’t end! I covered my ears, I tried screaming. Nothing would drown it out. It couldn’t be drowned out because the sound wasn’t in the air. It was in my ears. Ultimecia had replayed on loop the moment I heard the words, it was my own eardrums constantly repeating that mantra to me. The moment they should have stopped, they looped in time and beat those words into my mind again

I still don’t like you using that word

It wouldn’t end. I apologized to the air. I begged for Rinoa’s forgiveness. I looked for Ultimecia to demand she make it stop, but she wasn’t there. She was gone, vanished into thin air.

I still don’t

like you

using that word

Through the noise I heard something behind me. It had to be Ultimecia! I couldn’t think straight. In that moment it could be nothing but that. Turning around I didn’t even register what was behind me as I swung. I heard my Gunblade cut through flesh between the brief pauses of the words. The words began to quiet down in my head. Feeling a bit calmer I finally opened my eyes, expecting to see the witch and my blade stuck in her.

But it wasn’t her. It was a male figure wearing black leather, with a pair of red angel wings embroidered on it. The words began to thunder in my head again.

like you

still don’t

using that word

Finally, it occurred to me what I was looking at. It was my back. It began to fade away just the realization occurred to me. A moment later, I felt my own Gunblade swing into my back, cut through the leather jacket I’d been looking at.

I stood there, not sure how to react. The words wouldn’t stop! I just wanted them to stop! After standing there for a while, I’m not sure how long, but just as I felt the sword in my body begin to fade from time. I heard the words once more. Low and distorted, a cruel parody of Rinoa’s voice with none of her personality or charm.

I STILL DON’T LIKE YOU USING THAT WORD

I fell to the ground after that. The words finally going silent. There was a sense of relief when they ended. A moment later I could hear footsteps approach me as I laid on the ground. My energy bled from me, stopping me from getting up to see who it was. But the voice was recognizably Ultimecia’s.

“An idea has occurred to me, boy. Perhaps I can still get more entertainment from you and your friends.” I didn’t say anything. The wound in my back was large and deep. “Don’t worry, boy. Your friends will find you. But will they recognize you?” Ultimecia laughed as she asked the question. “I will even let you see them again, but only if you can solve a little riddle for me.”

I could feel something changing. It’s difficult to describe. It was as if I was being slowly pulled away from my own body. I feared I was dying. I hoped that, if anything, I was somehow losing my Heart. At least I might have the chance to recomplete myself the same way you did, Sora. Fuse my Heart back with my body.

I started to lose consciousness as I bleed out and the Rinoa’s borrowed words began hammering in my head in my head again. I was growing numb to everything. The feeling on my skin, my worries, I even started to stop caring about the disappointed words in my head. In the distance, somehow piercing through the words Ultimecia forced me to listen to again and again, I heard an ear-piercing scream coming from Rinoa.

#Kingdom Hearts #final fantasy VIII #Fan Fiction #squall x rinoa #world building #Kingdom Hearts extended universe when?#Why isn't Rinoa in Kingdom Hearts yet?!#Squinoa #My Writing

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