Crossed fates.

Chapter Two: A Mother's Love.

The town was still asleep for the main part. Lights shone from windows dotted here and there although it was light enough to see. Squall wandered through the main square, then his gaze fell upon the pub his mother had owned. Now it was boarded up, even the artist who had lived there had left. He peered in through the half boarded up window and without a reason not to, climbs in through the gap. He managed to get in without snagging his jacket. The only difference in the surroundings were the dust sheets that covered everything now, tables, chairs and even the bar.

"What would you think of me now Raine? Would you admire the madman your son has become or despair in the fact that your flesh and blood has lost his mind?" As usual, there was no answer. He was as lonely and abandoned as the building around him. He walked up the stairs that he had walked up as both Laguna and himself, placing his feet where the wood had been worn away by many footsteps from many people.

Upstairs the furniture had not changed although in twenty years or so it had grown rather shabby. He sat down on the sofa and placed his gunblade beside him. "If you hadn't died , would I still be living here with you? I might not have known Rinoa or Seifer or any of the others..., but maybe Rinoa might still have been alive. I could have grown up with Ellone... Would you have liked Squall, the person?" He has so many questions that remain unanswered. "If only I could talk to you now so I could just find out what you were like for myself. I don't like having to rely on something that someone else thought of you, but I guess that's all there is left."

He lay back and stared at the rafters above him feeling a hot tear running down his cheek. A SeeD crying for a woman he had never even known, the thought was almost laughable. "I wish I could talk to..." He let his voice trail off. He thought he could sense someone else in the room, but upon looking up he found no one. He did not think to check in the space he could not see from where he lay, the space where the stair case entered the room, the space where Laguna and Kiros had hidden years before.

"I shall grant your wish Squall." A young woman with hair the colour of sunlight on a Ruby Dragon's scales spoke quietly from her hiding place. "Raine, come forth from the darkness and into the light of day. Your child needs you."

"Who ...Who's there?" He asked as the room filled with a golden light and a figure came together before him taking energy from everything that, living or not, stood in the village. "Raine, is that you?"

"What are you doing in my home?"

"I, I came here from Dollet to... actually, I don't know what I'm doing here."

"I know you. I may be long gone from this world but yet I know you." He almost said something. "Hush, let me figure this out for myself. You are the one I have heard, when you talk to me or think of me. I hear you like I hear Ellone. Your eyes... You are Squall, You are my son." He nodded. "Ellone is right, you have your father's nose and such beautiful eyes, but such sad eyes." "Raine, mom."

"You don't know how good it is to hear you say that Squall. I always knew I could hear someone talk to me and I could only hope that it was you. The man you have become..., you make me proud of you Squall."

"Why did you chose to love Laguna, Raine?"

"I didn't. At first he just made me angry but I just found myself falling for him. The best result possible happened, you were born and I couldn't have been prouder of you or happier. But then I got sick, all I wanted was to show you to Laguna and say as a joke, "look at last something good has come from you!" If only I'd had the chance to tell him that, we'd have been so happy, a family."

"I can't look upon him as a father, he ran out on you."

"Maybe , but I would like you to look upon him as an equal or even a friend. My time is growing short... Ellone speaks to me sometimes, telling me how well she and you are doing, and how much she misses me. She's been having visions lately. Before I go I have to tell you that there is someone out there who will save you and yet will also need you to be a saviour for her too." She's waiting for you, go on. And remember I will love you always son."

"I love you too Raine."

And she was gone. A voice, feminine and powerful filled the room. "And the second of my gifts for you Squall, is this." A young woman appeared. Her eyes shone with the colour and depth of a perfect emerald. She held a photograph in her hand. It floated from her grasp into his hand. "I believe it's the only photograph taken of you and Raine."

He gazed at it in wonder. "Are you the one I am supposed to speak to?" But when he looked up she was gone. A cry came from outside, closely followed by a roar. He jumps up and dashes downstairs, Lionheart drawn and ready. He threw his body at the boarded up door and burst through on to the street. Before him stood two Grendels holding a small girl. The woman who had given him the photo was facing them with a sword in her hands, a masamune. Although each creature was bleeding profusely, they would not let go of the child. "Do you need any help?"

"If you feel up to it kid!"

"I'm no kid!" He shouted indignantly as he leapt at them. He struck the second of the creatures and pulled the trigger of his gunblade to double the amount of damage done. It seemed that the ally had already cast double on herself as she cast aura on both of them, Squall and herself. "Thank you!" He called over the roaring of the monster. "RENZOKUKEN!" He ran forward and struck once, twice, all the way up to seven times. As the rage overwhelmed him he cried out "LION HEART." and lost count of the number of strikes he makes.

As the creature crumpled to the ground, it's brother unleashed a vicious tailblade attack on the red haired woman. Blood began to run from a cut on her collar bone. Pulling the long blade through the fist of her left hand she sliced open her palm. Squall realised that the blade was longer than her own body and she was wielding it like a master with fifty years experience, not a girl the same age as him or younger. She holdheld the bloody hand aloft and cries out, "WATCHERS LEGACY!" Garnet tendrils emerged from the wound and bound the Grendel like chains of iron around it's body. A light so bright it hurt Squall's eyes to look at it enveloped the monster. It screeched in terrible pain as a thousand years worth of agony and suffering descended on it at once. To release the monster she drove the blade into the Grendels neck, turned the handle and with all of her might, forced it downwards, cleaving the body completely in half.

When it's remains had disintegrated she turned to the girl and said, "it's safe now, you can open your eyes. Go on." She smiled reassuringly. "Go back home and be careful on these streets."

The little girl disappeared into a house and Squall turned to her. "I can't see how you're going to need my help."

"Oh but I will Squall. Not quite yet but soon. First I have to do something to help you. Don't say anything just let me finish. Some very powerful beings want you and some of your friends dead, but I'm going to need all of you to help me soon. If you die then all our hopes die. Mine and.... I'll come to that later. You cannot hope to beat these people here, and there is no where in this world where you can hide, but I do know a place. I have to send you there." She sighed. "It's a whole new world Squall, a different reality."

"What are you?"

"Well, I'm not quite sure what I am but I know what I am not. I am not a SeeD or even a traditionally trained warrior, or a sorceress, or even a human. I am of all things and yet of none of them. If I told you what I was in truth..., I've done it before and it's not pretty." Her voice changed to sound like his, slightly deep and filled with character. He had been told he had a singer's voice, strong and resonant, by Selphie in an attempt to get him to sign up for the next Garden Festival. Needless to say it hadn't worked. She spoke quietly, in the way he always did, making an impact without meaning to. "You are the most important person in the world at the moment, you have to be protected at all costs. If necessary...." Her face changed to become a photo perfect image of his own, a copy. "I can take you place, just for a little while. It may come to pass that your friends are in danger and I will protect them, all of them..." She went through a series of transformations, from Squall to Zell to Selphie to Quistis to Irvine, then back to herself.

"You are a sorceress."

"I assure you I am not. We have been called many things, among them is 'Watchers' think of me as that."

'She's going to make me like Seifer' he thought to himself.

"Don't worry Squall, I'm not. I could never make you like Seifer, no one could. Besides I've no need for a knight. When you live as long as I do you start to develop a few skills." She placed a hand on his shoulder and a slight electric charge passed between them. A wave of pain hits him, hard. He fights off the darkness at the corners of his vision long enough to see the colours of his world swirl and drain away, and long enough for him to find the handle of his gunblade once again, but to no avail. "Please Squall, don't fight me or my powers." She whispered to him as he fell onto her. She caught him neatly and lay him on the ground. "When you awaken you will be in a very different place. I'll visit you in your dreams as soon as I can. I'll tell you how things are going and when it is safe to return. In the world you find yourself in when you wake up I want you to find a man with glowing blue eyes."

He could fight it no longer, he blacked out.


Zell looked up as the two men walked up to him, they were dressed in matching dark blue suits. The taller of the two had long white-gray hair, down to his knees and he stared with aquamarine eyes over the tops of shades. "I'm looking for a man by the name of Squall."

"Squall Leonhart." His dark haired companion interjected.

"Yes Reeve, Squall Leonhart. And we know you know him Mr. Dincht."

"Sorry boys, you're out of luck. Squall's on holiday."

"What?" Irvine strolled up and asked "What's up Zell, Buddy o' mine?"

"These gentlemen want to speak to Squall."

"Sorry mate, he's gone on RNR. First lot in years, I'm surprised he even know the meaning of the word 'vacation'."

"Is it urgent?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes. Do you know where he is?"

"He wouldn't tell any of us." Zell replied. "You should come and see him next week."

"We will, you can be sure of it." The one named Reeve stated. And they left.

"Irvine, what do you think?" Zell asked as he stared at the retreating figures.

"Dunno, never seen them before. You?"

"I think Squall's in a whole lot of trouble."

Authors note:-

Well, chapter two is done. I've been working on it for a week, 6 days to work it out on paper and 1 day to type it up. I started as soon as I got in from work and it's almost midnight now so if my grammar isn't up to standard, I'm sorry. I want to roll out a chapter every fortnight at the most, depending on school work and overtime at work. I've taken inspiration from a few other stories, like meeting Raine (I hope you don't mind, oh greater writers than me). As I said before this is all based on some freakyfied (my own very strange word) dream I had a while ago. I'd describe it straight out but it'd be longer than the chapter. Who is the white-gray haired man? Duh.... I wonder??? Keep an eye out for more familiar faces.... Email me at nicola.wilcox@talk21.com to tell me what you think or just for the sake of it. Can I recommend that EVERYONE reads Kate Wang's 'the Orphan' it's on one or two sites and it's the best thing written in years. It takes a lot to make me cry, but this..., cried my eyes out Katie!!!!! Booyaka, as Selphie says. See ya laters!!!!!!!!!!!