Squall sat in the chair his left hand on the spot where Selphie had right hooked him. His cheek was tender and sore, and his eye was beginning to swell shut. Standing up and covering his eye, he made his way to the door. Sighing he knew he’d have to go to Dr. Kadawoki's office to get it treated. It had been ages since he used his last cura spell and he had no medicinal potions or salves on him.

Squinting with his now bruising eye, he walked angrily to the elevator, a few people already looking at him and starting to whisper.

"Oh my gosh." One female Quistis Trepe fan said as he passed her, "Squall your eye!" She said as she stopped him and looked at it closely. "Ouch. Did Seifer or Fujin do that to you? I swear.." The girl prattled on as she looked around and then grabbed his right arm and guided him towards the elevator. "Well, I guess I’d better take you to see the Doc." The girl said.

Squall looked at the back of her head blankly, as he let her drag him into the elevator and then out through the main lobby and turned right towards the doctors office.

The girls black hair was pulled into a ponytail, that bobbed as she stepped. Briefly the girl looked at Squall over her shoulder and smiled and Squall was blown away by how much she looked like Rinoa.

"Rinoa.." Squall said confusing the young girl for his girl friend. "I thought you went back to see your father?"

"What? Oh, no. I’m not Rinoa." The girl laughed, not understanding who Rinoa was, having been a new student for only a week. "My name’s Candace."

Squall didn’t hear anything as the blurred vision of beauty before him looked at him awkwardly saying something.

"Hey. Squall, are you okay?" Candace asked him as Squall tripped and stumbled against her.

"Rinoa. I’ve missed you." Squall mumbled rubbing at his sore eye. "Things just aren’t the same."

"Hey!" Candace said looking at the tall man with a confused expression on her face. "I said my name was... Oh, Chocobo!" She yelped as Squall fell face first onto the floor.

****

Rinoa Heartily. The raven haired beauty that got the silent lion, Squall Leonheart to open up. The girl who literally got the silent protagonist to fall in love. Rinoa Heartily, the spoiled high strung daughter of General Caraway, and a leader of a Timber Resistance Faction known as the Timber Owls was in fact very far away from Squall, Balamb Garden, and all of her friends.

She was alone.

In her room, several glasses lay broken around her feet. In fact everything in the usually prim and proper room was in disarray. In the middle of it all Rinoa Heartily stood clutching at her head and screaming like a wild banshee.

"She’s in my head, but no. They killed her. I know they did. Why is she in my head!" She said looking up and walking quickly towards her father and clawing at his jacket. "Things are fine, right? I’m normal now, see?"

It was a montage of emotions, one after another. "Why did the powers pass on to me. I’m not.. I’m normal!" The girl sobbed, her voice straining as another scream fought its way out of her throat. "Let me see them father. My friends, please?"

Rinoa looked at her father her eyes, wide with fright, while a sneer of an insane woman touched her lips. "I need to, no I want to.." She said reaching up to wrap her hands around her fathers neck. "To strangle them all. Kill them. Kill them for leaving me trapped in this, this useless body!"

Rinoa screamed again as she yanked her hands back and looked at them in fright and horror. "Daddy?" She whispered, her voice going soft and fearful. "What’s happening to me?"

General Caraway grimaced and looked at the display his eyes blinking away tears. He couldn’t even begin to grasp what was happening to his daughter. She had been fine, normal, still a bit uppity but normal. Then one day everything had changed. Things started to shatter when she got angry, and every once in a while she would smile darkly but then she’d shake her head and ask what had happened.

With each passing day Rinoa got worse, and worse. Until finally she was reduced to the frightened child, and insane killer he saw before him. It was like, she had been split in two, and put back together. Yet something was horribly wrong.

Very wrong.

With a groan the General turned and walked out of the room locking the door behind him. Inside Rinoa screamed and another glass shattered.

***

‘Wake up.’ The voice said inside Squalls head.

‘Don’t want to.’ Squall replied as he embraced the swelling darkness that surrounded his body.

‘You have to, my child. You may not understand it now, but so many need you.’

‘Matron?’ Squall asked of the darkness. ‘Why do so many need me? Why isn’t there anybody there to be strong for me when I need it?’

‘Oh, my poor child.’ The voice of Matron said. "I know that you feel like nobody is there for you. But what about her?’ Matron asked as an image of Rinoa flashed into Squalls mind.

‘Rinoa..’ Squall said. ‘She’s not here though.’

‘Wake up. Go to her. She needs you.’ Matrons voice filtered into his mind. ‘The girl, the one in blue is in grave danger. Something is coming.’

"Wait!" Squall shouted sitting up on the bed he found himself on in the Dr’s office. "Matron! Rinoa! Wait!" Squall said loudly, as if waking from a dream. Shaking his head he felt cool hands press him back down on the bed.

"Squall Leonheart! You better lie back down this moment, or I’ll have to strap you to this bed!" Dr. Kadawoki said sternly. "You need your rest." She added softly taking her hands off his shoulders as Squall sat back down.

"What happened?" Squall asked.

"I wish you’d tell me." The Dr replied sitting down on a stool and looking at him. "The look of your face, says you got into a fist fight with Seifer or Zell, and lost."

Squall groaned and closed his eyes. "Selphie slugged me." He said.

"Oh, my." Dr. Kadawoki said, "Whatever for?"

"I told her to grow up." Squall said grimacing and touching his face lightly to feel the puffiness around his swollen eye and cheek. "I pretty much deserved it."

"Well, it’s a pretty big bruise." Dr Kadawoki said as she leaned over Squall to look at the shiner on his face. "I’m rather surprised she could hit so hard."

"Trust me, she’s more lethal hand to hand, then she is with her Nunchucks." Squall said wincing and looking at the ceiling mentally counting the black tiny dots.

"Well, a simple Cura spell can make the swelling go down, but the actual bruise itself will have to heal naturally." Dr. Kadawoki said as she lightly touched the bruised and swollen area.

"Thanks." Squall said as he felt the cool soothing sensation of the cura spell flow into the wound.

"Don’t thank me just yet, Squall." Dr. Kadawoki said as she removed her hand and regarded him with a friendly smile. "You still need your rest. Collapsing like you did when that poor new girl Candace was trying to help you."

"I collapsed?!" Squall asked in shock.

"You did, yes." Dr. Kadawoki said, "Just outside my office. The poor girl was beside herself. Said you kept calling her Rinoa."

"I what?" Squall asked confusion evident in his voice, and eyes. "No. Rinoa really was here, wasn’t she?"

Dr. Kadawoki shook her head no and clucked her tong before speaking. "You’re over worked. I’m sorry to have to do this to you Squall, but as Balamb Gardens Dr I’m pulling you off active duty. Just relax, and take your time getting to know the new student under your care."

Squall sighed and admitted defeat and turned his head to look at the doctor. "Does this allow for shore leave?"

The Doctor thought to herself briefly as she regarded Squall. With a smile she nodded. "I don’t see why not. Tell you what, we can make arrangements for Hayner to stay here with me, while you go take a week off. How does that sound?"

"Talk it over with Cid first." Squall said sitting up and looking at Dr. Kadawoki. "Page me over the in Garden com system tomorrow afternoon to see what Cid thinks."

"Alright." Dr. Kadawoki said standing up and moving towards her desk. "Now, promise me that you won’t get into anymore fights, and take it easy!"

"...Whatever." Squall mumbled as he walked out the door, his mind already mulling over the odd dream he had. "Rinoa.." Squall whispered to himself as he walked slowly down the long hallway from the Dr’s office. "Are you really in danger, and what’s coming? What’s going to happen?"