Title: Shadows

Author: AeriasAWriter

Series: Final Fantasy VIII

Rating: R

Pairings: will be Rinoa Squall, Seifer x Squall, OC x Rinoa

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters. (Beside Sara and Tyris) Only the plot which is an idea from my twisted little mind.

Summary: Squall should have died in that accident, but he lived. Seifer should have lost everything, but he kept his sanity. And Rinoa should have left them alone, but she 'loved' them. Now they must face the consequences of what has happened as time itself is ripped apart at the seams.

Prologue:

"Shallow puddles under feet."

A lone brunette looked around himself from where he stood as he searched for the source of the song that haunted him. That had haunted him for years. A half-remembered melody that he had heard once upon a time in the voids of his missing memories.

He ignored the strange appearance of the dying land that surrounded him, that reached for him with a need to consume him. The creeping darkness seemed to stalk him as he walked the strange path, overgrown with dead weeds and dying wildflowers. It was a bizarre twisting road that seemed to go on forever. He only momentarily wondered if there were any monsters there, lying and waiting.

But then. . .it didn't matter if there was anything out there.

It couldn't hurt him. He was already dead.

Or he soon would be.

For right now he was more than content to search for the voice's owner and origin. A quest he knew he had to complete before Death could fully take him.

It would be his final mission.

"I look down and sigh pleased."

He didn't want to fail again. This would be his last mission before he could go on to the other side. He'd already failed once.That's why he was like this now, dying, dead. He worried about the others of course, but he couldn't be of a help to them anymore. He was no longer in Life's harsh grasp, nor did he want to be there still. It was a path too well-worn for his taste.

He ignored the constantly slithering darkness that seemed to be making a game out of stalking him across the wasteland and began to climb the cliff that appeared out of nowhere. The haze of the landmisting and hiding anything and everything beyond forty yards in any direction.

After making it to the top of the smallish rise, that hadn't really been as high as he had thought it would have been, he paused. His moonstone gray eyes glanced across the hazy wasteland to make out the form of a small girl, maybe eight or nine. She was skipping along the crumbling banks of a parched river, the water long gone from the dry, cracking river bed. He watched with obvious interest as the small girl kicked up dust, climbing down into the dried river bed. He decided to follow her.

Is she the one singing? he wondered to himself.

"Dark as I see my own face."

He quickly scrambled down the river bank and into the steep river bed. All of his fluid grace and elegant poise was gone as he stumbled and struggled to stay on his feet. he ran up behind the girl just in time to see her bend at the waist and pick up a water-smoothened stone. She gently ran her hands over it, wiping away the thin layer of dust to let the original color shine through.

The young man walked around to stop in before her, confused by her nurturing action. His faint shadow fell over the girl and she lifted her face to look up at him.

The girl studied him and smiled. With a wave of her small hand, he got his first good look at her as the hazy shimmering air pulled back from between them. The hazy glowing of the wasteland was no longer interfering with his vision as the girl stepped closer. He gasped, falling to his knees before her.

Her moonstone gray eyes met his and held the shocked gaze. She brushed back stray strands of her shoulder lenght chocolate brown hair. Then for no reason at all she wrapped her small arms around his neck and gently planted a tiny kiss on his pale cheek. He stared at her in wonder and awe, he reached out to touch her cheek with a tentative brush of his fingertips over her warm flesh.

She motioned for him to get to his feet. He did so.

"Is the waters of this place."

She threw herself against him, embracing him again. The top of her head barely coming to rest on his chest and he stared at her, unsure of what to do. Her slim and delicate hands clutched his plain white shirt tightly as she tightened her hug. The young man noticed that the girl was beginning to shake harshly, tremors running through her smaller limbs.

Her shivers creased only when he pulled her closer, picking her up and holding her against himself. She grinned and merely buried her face into the crook of his pale neck. And she wrapped her thin legs determinedly around his slim waist. His bomber jacket now covered most of her smaller body, her slim limbs fitting snugly under the fit of the leather jacket.

His eyes widened at how comfortable it was to hold her, to shelter her. She snuggled closer and his gaze softened as he looked down at her.

The brunette boy for the first time in as long as he could remember, smiled. Not a thin smirk, or a snide sneer, but a broad genuine smile. His friends would have been shocked to the seven hells to see it spread across his face. It was so warm and soft, fatherly of a sort. And strangely enough, it revealed the fact that he had boyishly handsome dimples.

"Time, a rippling beauty."

"Oh, Squall, please wake up! Please!" The chocolate haired boy's head jerked up as he heard the light lilting of a female voice and the girl smiled against his neck.

She pulled back to kiss his cheek with barely warm lips. Her body becoming colder in his grasping hands, so cold that she was burning his hands through his leather gloves. He gasped but refused to let go of her. The two pairs of moonstone gray eyes met suddenly, one pair was filled with horror and the other with acceptance.

The boy jerked as he felt himself being pulled on by an invisble force. The girl smiled and pushed away to get down. Her smile broadened as she watched him struggle and shook her head. She off-handedly pushed him in the direction that the force was pulling him. He looked at her in surprise. Another voice echoed lightly through the air around them.

"Damn it, Squall. Wake up!"

This time it was the deeper tone of a man's voice. The silent brunette held out his hand to the girl as she began to sing again.

"Beyond all other duty."

He sank to his knees as the darkness crept toward him. The invisble forces that tugged at his body, pulled him away from the shadowy land and towards the gleaming brightness of the land's merciless searing hot sun. He tried to crawl from the heat and into the cool shadows that so desired him.

A foot entered his downward view forcing his gaze upward to the stern face of the little girl that so closely resembled him. She shook her head again and gave him a gantle but firm push toward the heated horizon. He looked up at her with a confused tilt of his head, opening his mouth to question her. His voice refused to work and cool darkness crept closer.

The little girl smiled ever so softly and held her hand out towards the darkness, erecting a barrier between it and them. The boy's eyes widened at it. Then, she kissed him. It was just one last time, a mere brush of her young lips against his. She pulled back to speak to him for the first time.

"I withhold your journey from you. It has not yet been earned. And with this, I complete the second part of my pact with Death. I bid you return, your true love awaits you. Go forth and prosper as you always were meant to. . . Good-bye, Squall."

He was suddenly jerked back into the blinding light, losing all his senses in the burning sensation of Life as it jerked through him.