The Streets of Fandom, Thursday Night

[angelo_wings]

Rinoa was nervous. Because something in the air had changed, today. It felt wrong, like something under her skin was itchy. She couldn't explain it, but she couldn't sit still, either.

So after she'd failed to curl up with a good book for the evening, after she'd failed to sleep, and after she'd discovered there was nothing on TV she felt like watching, she had decided to take a walk through town.

With her cardinal strapped on, naturally. There were monsters. And it was doing wonders for her nerves, taking some of them out.

(just for the knight, please. again with me getting my peeps out of the way so I can go to a wedding.)

Comments

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

OTHER people might have been disgusted by the hordes of giant mutant cockroaches. Squall just slashed at them until they died. And it was PERFECTLY REASONABLE to cast one of his precious Firagas down the alleyway he'd just come out of in order to burn the corpses.

Whatever.

He turned and saw Rinoa and frowned. "Where's your backup?"

[angelo_wings]

"Where's yours?" Rinoa asked playfully. "I'm a Sorceress, you know. The last time you took on one, you needed help."

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

Squall glared at her. He wasn't going to admit that she had a point. Or that he wanted to be near her. "Then we pair up. Giant bugs this way. What have you seen?"

[angelo_wings]

Rinoa fell into step beside him, happy he wasn't going to send her back to the dorms.

Sure, she sort of outranked him, but he was protective like that.

"Mostly bugs," she said. "A few shadows that disappear whenever you look straight at them. And some taller ones that almost look like people. I've been knocking them back but not ... going for a kill shot."

She couldn't tell if they were people or not, not without getting closer, and if she could scare them off, all the better.

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

"If they start to get more dangerous, you can't afford to be merciful," Squall told her matter-of-factly. "Whatever's going on, it's not good."

Like the ground trembling beneath them and starting to crack open. That wasn't good.

[angelo_wings]

At the first sign of shaking, Rinoa grabbed Squall's arm.

"Is that --"

The ground split under their feet, a small crack running along the road. Small, but growing.

"Run!"

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

Squall took Rinoa's hand and started running. Whatever this was, he had a bad feeling about it. "This way," he told her, as he bolted ahead.

[angelo_wings]

The crack was splintering out in a spiderweb, growing at right angles to itself. Branching.

She was out of breath. She couldn't keep up. He was a trained SeeD, and he could run faster. Her legs felt like they might give, but it wasn't enough. The crack was chasing them.

The ground split under Rinoa's toes, a sudden gap widening, and she went sprawling, hitting the ground and flying back. Something was pulling --

"SQUALL!"

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

Squall turned to see Rinoa falling away from him, and he launched himself at her, jumping towards her. First, he'd grab her, and then he'd figure out what to do next. That was the way it worked.

As he caught her hand again, his gaze swept past her to the inky blackness within the crack. He was floating toward her, and there was nothingness behind her, and he was caught in a moment of deja vu.

And then his stomach hit the pavement, hard, and he was scrabbling for purchase on ground that just didn't have enough handholds. "Don't let go," he hissed.

[angelo_wings]

The world had been tipped sideways and she was falling, down to the bottom of something she couldn't see. Nothing to hold on to but him, grabbing his hands frantically, only to realize that she wasn't helping herself any -- only pulling him in with her.

Panic hit her, hard, and an instant later --

An instant later, there were wings. Large, powerful ones, flapping against the void's pull.

She aimed herself up, away from whatever this vortex was, and kept her hands locked on Squall's. Maybe she could fly fast enough to outrun it.

Maybe this time she got to rescue him.

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

Well, that was... different.

Squall held on tightly and kept his eyes locked on Rinoa. Below them, behind them was a sucking void, but they were together and that was all that mattered. Rinoa would save them -- that was what happened next.

[angelo_wings]

Rinoa no longer knew which direction was up. Fandom itself seemed to be slipping away. She could only see the edge of the sidewalk, far ahead. She kept her eyes locked onto it.

One hand grabbed for Squall's jacket. Easier to hold on to each other if they had more than a hand-hold. She wasn't leaving without him. They were going to get out of this. Right?

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

Right. They were GOING to get out of this. They had to.

Squall slung an arm around Rinoa's waist and pulled himself closer. She could fly better if she didn't have to concentrate on not dropping him, right?

The darkness was all around them. It didn't matter if they survived or not -- Squall had done all he could, had tried, and he was with Rinoa. He focused on her necklace, floating in front of his eyes, with his Griever ring threaded onto it.

The last thing he knew was her soft, powerful wings wrapping around him protectively.

"Rinoa, I lo--"