After everything that had happened, after the deaths, after her lethal rule, after she had let the Heartless in, how she could still be the same Rinoa who had once stood before him on the dance floor, inviting him to dance, to live, Squall would never know.
But even as her eyes widened in shock, even as the blood bubbled from her lips, Squall could still see Rinoa in the dark sorceress she had become. Even with the anger and the hatred and the pain clouding her eyes, there was still love. Love for him.
She hissed and pushed against him but he pulled her closer lovingly, pulled Lionheart closer and knew as it pierced his own chest that it had pierced Rinoa’s ribs as though they were nothing more than paper.
Closer still.
She jerked, muttered an attempted incantation but when Squall shoved the blade in to its fullest, even that died and she leaned her head against his shoulder instead.
She was trying to whisper something… trying hard to whisper something to him. Squall could not make it out, but could feel his fingers slipping from Lionheart. He faltered, tried to hold them both still so that they could just…
It was the least they could do now. The least Squall could do. Now. For everyone else who was left.
Squall Leonhart was a traitor. To his friends, to his heart, to the very woman he had sworn he loved.
It was Seifer who reached him first, Hyperion swinging and a legion of curses pouring from thin lips. Squall was pulled from Lionheart, pulled from Rinoa’s dead body.
Fucking moron, Seifer hissed. Nobody cares what you’ve done so long as she’s dead!
Selphie was the next to arrive, agreeing with Seifer, her small hands shaking where they clenched his shoulders. Somewhere in the distance Squall could hear Zell dimly but knew that it was too late for Irvine… for Quistis, Laguna... For so many others.
He had let them in. Let her, let them. It had decimated everything he had fought for.
He closed his eyes. Seifer shook him, shouted something in his ear. Don’t be a martyr, Leonhart. We don’t need anymore Hyne-cursed martyrs!
But Squall wanted to remind him. I killed Irvine. I cleaved Quistis’ head from her shoulders with this very gunblade. Not a martyr, a murderer.
Selphie was whispering a curaga spell in his ear and there was a gentle sort of warmth, the soft lull that Squall was long familiar with that came with the healing. But on her shaky cry he knew it would not be enough.
The darkness enveloped him, blessed and unfeeling, cutting off Seifer, and Selphie and the whole world. He welcomed it.
And then Squall was no more and Leon opened his eyes in a place he could not quite recognise with naught to his name but a gunblade and a handful of foggy memories that he was not sure were even his own…
*
*
*
My latest pic. A what-if pic.
Guess who’s a long time Squall fan? :shot ded:
Final fantasy 8 was my all time favourite game. I got absolutely hooked on it- I loved 7, adored 9 something terrible, but neither got me quite as hooked as 8 did. ; For various reasons :coughsSquallSeiferRinoacoughs:
Recently I’ve also gotten a bit hooked on KH2. ; Had to happen sometime right? @o;
So. Leon. Yup. My reason for picking UP the game in the first place was Leon. Yeah I’m that shameless. I’m not sure if we’ve been told the –exact- why for Leon being there, but I think there was something vague, like his world was gone.
On having those red wings to the back of his jacket though, I think a lot of people believe that at some stage he had to kill a Rinoa-turned-evil-sorceress, and then the world ended and he ended up, as Leon. Or is that just me?
This is a pic of Squall, doing just that. And a drabble too. And yeah, definitely what-if. =O
The gunblade in his hands is the awesome Lionheart from FF8 and Squalls final weapon. It kicks so much ass and y’know… glows? XD;;; : is sad : Was tempted to use Punishment, but… it dun glow. ;
Had fun designing a sorceress outfit for Rinoa. And a Knight’s outfit for Squall but he’s not wearing it in this pic, that’s for another pic. =O
Another experiment in colouring but I like this pic. So. ; Yeah. And I have no idea how Squall managed to get the gunblade through Rinoa sitting like that. So er… don’t ask plz? @o;;; : hides :
There is a rumors and myths that rinoa is Ultimecia/ultimecia being rinoa from the future but square themselves said it's not true but look at the scene where Squall has a sort of flashback and the dance scene comes up and Rinoa's face turns to ultimecia's several times more than edea's or anyone elses, hence the theory Rinoa is ultimecia's past self.