A Heart Split in Two (Part 6)
By: Domino


    Rinoa wakes up after a strange dream. Her constant shuddering and whimpers get to Zell and he awakens too. “What an odd dream...... Squall was alive...... and he was telling me about him and Irvine.”
“Maybe it’s a sign....?”
“Possibly. How far to Deling City?”
“Another thirty minutes.”
“Damn......”

    Suddenly, the train stops and gives an announcement. “Passengers, the train is having some engine difficulties. We will be stopped until the problems are corrected. We apologize for the delay. Thank you.....” Zell replies “Well, looks like we’re gonna be a while. Let’s read some more out of the journal. It’s not like we have anything else to do”
“Good idea,” Rinoa says. “Where did we leave off?”
“This entry. The one after the Trabia Garden incident.......”

July 8th,

    Edea’s house....... Our next destination. We didn’t know what to expect. But why was Galbadia Garden there too? The other Garden turned and prepared to attack. As the new leader I gave out the orders and had all students on standby. Since the all-powerful Zell was taking a nap I led Irvine and Quistis to the Quads. This was where the Galbadians were heading. Zell was commanding the Balamb Garden troops. I guess my speech woke him up. For some reason he pulled me to the side and asked me for my ring. I had plans for this ring. I had wanted to give it to Irvine to show my love for him, but I was being bugged by Zell’s hounding.....

“Awww.... Come on!,” Zell shouts. “I wasn’t that bad! I asked you politely!” “Zell, this happened a while back,” Rinoa says. “It’s in the past.”
“Fine. But I wasn’t rude about it.....”
“Just keep reading.”

    He wanted to give it to Rinoa for some reason. Well, it would be in good hands at least. I left Zell to his duties and headed back to help out with the attacking soldiers. Later on Zell comes back telling me that Rinoa was in dangling off a cliff. Great. I was now being torn into so many directions. Rinoa had to be saved, but others were in danger too! Irvine then accused me of being heartless for not going to Rinoa. How could he? He knew how I felt, so why would he care? I guess since she was my friend I needed to save her. She was one of us....

    I made my choices. Selphie stayed in the front gate with the SeeD Xu and their troops while I had Zell keep an eye on Rinoa for now. But the attacks were thinning our soldiers. One more wave could’ve finished us off. Plus, Rinoa was still in danger of falling off the cliff! Irvine came up with ramming the other Garden, but when Zell came back to report, he said the Quads were barricaded. He couldn’t reach Rinoa. All seemed hopeless. Then Irvine really let me have it. He accused me of giving up on her!

    “Look, YOU go save Rinoa. Don’t give up until you’re CERTAIN nothing can be done!” Why was he acting this way? He came up to me and whispered, “(Squall, do it for her. She’s still your friend!)”
“(But what about us...?)”
“(Right now I don’t even want to look at you. I don’t care how you feel about me or anyone else. Just do it... Please.... for Rinoa...)”
That really opened my eyes. Irvine hated me for being so selfish. My heart was pounding from all the emotions... I knew what I had to do. I smiled and agreed to save Rinoa.

    Irvine led the others into Galbadia Garden. He was a student there, so he knew the place well. After an encouraging announcemet to the students, I got into a fight with a Galbadian soldier on a flight machine. I defeated him and took his vehicle to rescue my best friend. I looked into those brown eyes and saw her feelings for me. I still couldn’t tell her about my feelings. When we landed she showed me my ring. I’m gonna kill Zell.... She asked me the name of the lion on my ring was.

“Griever...... is its name. Lions are known for strength and pride.” She giggled. I guess she thought it was cute. She said we need to get going or else the the others might get the wrong idea about us. Then why did she seem so happy about that? She WANTED them to get the wrong idea. The others, well, except for Irvine, have been trying to get us together. It was so damn obvious. But only Selphie knew that I was in love with Irvine. Rinoa ran off before I could tell her anything else......

July 10th,

    Wow...... What just happened was really f*cked up. We entered Galbadia Garden. Irvine knew the Sorceress was near so I had everyone split up to find her. I took Zell into the party since Rinoa wanted to stay with me. Taking Irvine would only complicate things. All we found inside were a bunch of monsters and frightened students with key cards. We got to the top and found Edea with Seifer at her side. Seifer attacked us, but we defeated him easily. But when we defeated him the sorceress disappeared. We found her in the auditorium. After a grueling battle we stopped her. But Rinoa went over to a fallen Seifer and revived him?! She then passed out. Edea came back to us. “Squall... Quistis... Selphie... Irvine... Zell... You’re grown so strong....” She was back to normal, but Rinoa was unconscious and cold. Was she dead...? Where was Ellone?! What the hell is going on?!?!?”

    Zell wants to stop reading, but Rinoa encourages him to read one more passage.

July 11th,

    Was it over.....? What happened...? Rinoa..... Oh, man...... She was in the infirmary, but she was still unconscious. When I went back to the office, I had Nida steer us back to Edea’s house. She was there along with her husband, Cid. She told us about the sorceress from the future, Ultimecia. This was the witch who posessed Edea. Ultimecia wanted to achieve time compression through Adel. This was getting to be confusing. All I wanted was to go off and just live my life with my one true love. I didn’t want to deal with this any more. I heard enough. I wanted Rinoa back. The way I’ve been treating her, hiding my relationship with Irvine from her.... I wanted to say I was sorry. Edea couldn’t help Rinoa, but Ellone might. Ellone had the ability to send others though the past. We had to find her.

    When I visited Rinoa again I went into another dream sequence with Laguna. He was in a flick along with his friend Kiros. Moron. But I saw Laguna searching for Ellone at the orphanage. Ellone spoke to me then. I told her to send me back to when Rinoa went into her coma. She broke contact with me. Damn.... We went to see Edea again and she told us Ellone was on the White SeeD ship. White SeeDs...? I need to find Ellone... For Rinoa....

    “See? He still loved you,” Zell remarks. “Yes, but he loved me as a friend. I need to find more answers about this,” Rinoa responds. “I hope we get going soon.”
“I hope so too. Oh, Squall......” The friends close the journal for now and wait for the train to start up.