Hidden Pasts Chapter 8
By Katie Herdman
“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.
Also
one other thing, don’t try and follow any spells that are in this fanfic,
they are made up. I could have had real ones, but I thought it wasn’t
a good idea in case anyone really tried them. Messing with magic is dangerous.
In case you do become interested in magic after reading this fic, remember
that whatever you give out, you get back times three. It’s basic Wicca
knowledge.
.