fandomtownies | The Streets of Fandom, Post-Detention Rescue, Saturday Evening

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The Streets of Fandom, Post-Detention Rescue, Saturday Evening

She had been cooped up too long. That room had been filled with death and decay and madness. She would never be caged again.

Wings held proud, she flew high, tasting the feel of the night air upon her skin. The stars were out. They were exquisite.

And now, she put her hands over her head and called down the maelstrom. A small localized tornado spun away, churning debris in its wake.

Someone was going to pay.

(OOC: yeah so Rinoa's snapped. She will tangle with anyone right now, loyalist, resistance, OR neutral, if they feel like throwing down. Or just look at her funny. So if you want to have a (non-lethal*) smackdown, let's do this. (*Rinoa has places to be after she gets her powers back on a leash zomg.)

And lastly: Squall's thread will be chronologically last.)

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Shira was out trying to find anywhere she could help. Which was how she saw the tornado, and Rinoa, and just stood there staring.

Whatever was going on there, it so wasn't good.

Rinoa sensed that she was being watched. With a hand, she banished the tornado -- it had only been a very small spout. She would have to do better.

She turned until she spotted the girl on the ground.

"What do you want?"

Pain? Rinoa could hand out pain. She had plenty lying around.

"Just wondering what's going on with you," Shira called to her, sensing it'd be a bad idea to antagonize her.

Not that talking to her in any form was necessarily good at the moment.

This seemed a perfect opportunity to land. And if she did so slowly, and in a rather showy manner, well. She had missed her wings, okay?

Once she got closer, Shira might notice that her eyes were glowing white.

"I was trapped," she said. "Now I am free. I was broken, and now, I break."

Sorceresses were apparently really melodramatic.

Okay, that eye thing was kind of strange, but Shira was doing her best not to stare.

"So the rescue attempt was a success, then." Because really, where else would Rinoa have been trapped?

She was using entirely too much magic. It wasn't like she was going to run out -- there was no running out. There was only Rinoa, and the infinite well of magic that was now the other part of herself.

But the more you used, the more it was and the less you were. The more she was the Sorceress and the less, Rinoa. And then it was hard to find her way back at all.

"They came in," she said. "He smashed out. They got him angry. She had been keeping him calm. And then I got to be me again."

... That wasn't entirely true. This wasn't quite her. But it was harder and harder to follow the logic.

"It was hell down there," she added, darkly.

So ... you know. Some of them were a wee bit crazy.

"I'm sure it was," Shira said. "It couldn't have been anything else. I'm very glad you're out and that you're safe now."

She wasn't very good at talking down the crazy, but at least maybe the crazy wouldn't try to take it out on her? She could hope.

"I could show you," Rinoa said, holding a hand up.

A ball of fire leapt from her hand, and smashed into a garbage can.

"If you want to see."

Did she? One wrong word and Rinoa could be induced to show her.

"I just want you to be safe again," Shira said as soothingly as she could manage. "I just want you to be happy again I just want you to be you again. I don't need to see how bad it was in there for you, because that's something you should never have to relive again even if only to show someone else how bad it was. That's a nightmare that's past. Isn't it time to start healing and moving on?"

Well, at least she'd get points for not acting like Rinoa was insane. In her own mind, anyway.

"I'm Shira, by the way. It's nice to meet you."

"It's not past," Rinoa said sharply. She was sounding more like herself, and less like an unappeasable goddess of destruction. That was something, right?

"S-sookie's dead. And Angelo. Angelo's dead. We can't ... they don't get to heal."

Resentment was stinging through her veins.

"No, but you can go on living your life now," Shira said. "You can live your life and live it in their honor and make sure that every moment you have, you remember them and never, ever forget. Because it's only when you forget that they're completely gone -- and as long as you remember, you still have something of them that can never be taken away."

Rinoa closed her eyes. "Sookie never -- she never saw the sun again," she said. "She was the best of any of us, sh-she would exhaust herself ... showing us nice things and she's the one who'll never leave."

"That's why it's important to keep going, to live your life to the fullest now," Shira said gently. "It shows gratitude and respect for Sookie and her sacrifice."

She wished she'd had the chance to know Sookie; she sounded like an amazing person.

Rinoa closed her eyes, focusing on the memories she had. But all she could see was Bobby holding Sookie's body. Everything was wrong.

"Y-you should go," she said, carefully. "I'm not ... safe when I'm like this."

She bit her lip before adding, "Th-thank you."

"For what?" Shira asked, even as she partially heeded Rinoa's words and took a few steps back She wanted to get out of there, but she didn't want to leave Rinoa alone, either. It was complicated in her head.

"For being nice," she said, offering a quick smile. "It's okay. Squall's coming."

No matter what the truth was between them, Squall was her Knight, and his Sorceress was out of control. He would show up soon, and ... either he would help, or he wouldn't, and that would be that.

"You're welcome, then," Shira said, returning the smile. "And hey, once everything settles, look me up sometime if you ever need another friend."

As pleased as he was to have Rinoa out and wreaking havoc among Umbridge's minions, Squall realized he should probably care about the collateral damage. Plus, if she got TOO used to the power, she'd go evil, and that would be all his fault. As her Knight, it was up to him to protect her... even (maybe especially) from herself.

He approached her now, gunblade out, and watched the debris swirl.

"Rinoa."

Ah. There he was.

Rinoa turned, her eyes glowing, and gave Squall a smile. It ... was not a reassuring smile.

"I knew you'd turn up," she said. "You are hereby dismissed as Knight. You are no longer needed. You should get the hell out of my sight before I do something you'll regret."

With that said, she grinned. "So, stay a while."

"I failed you," he told her, as he walked closer. "I did not stop you from being captured, and I failed to rescue you. If you want to punish me, punish me. I deserve it. But first, put your wings away and speak to me on equal terms, one person to another."

"You failed me as Knight," she insisted. "You lied to me. You let me be taken and you stopped looking."

If she put her wings away, she would yell about him never loving her. She would yell about the loss of her dog. And she would seem sad, and weak, and she might cry. Better to yell at him about failing Her, the Sorceress, than Rinoa.

Easier to lift a hand and hit him with Flare.

A Shell spell took the brunt of the attack, but Squall weathered what got through without so much as changing expression.

"I didn't lie to you," Squall countered. "I didn't stop looking for a way to get you out. I... This wasn't the first raid on detention. Did you not know that? It's just the first time we actually succeeded."

He set his gunblade down. "You don't need to do this. We don't need to do this. You're free, now."

"You've been free all along," Rinoa seethed. "You gave up. Everyone said so. You weren't looking. You decided to feel sorry for yourself. You're selfish and mean and you never cared at all."

She was shaking with rage. "Sookie's not going to be free ever again."

"I... did give up," he admitted. "It was all my fault you were taken. I failed you. I couldn't rescue you on my own, and Ender's plans kept getting people killed or captured." He understood why she was angry.. but what did she expect for him to have done? "I cared. I cared too much. I allowed myself to love you, and it made me weak."

"You never loved me," she said darkly. "I just believed what I wanted to believe. Look where it got me. Sookie's gone, Angelo's gone, and I will never allow myself to be caged again."

There was a second Flare. In case he'd liked the first one.

"Angelo's not gone!" Squall protested. "Karla lied to you! She was Imperioed! Angelo's been my only friend these past years. I wouldn't have made it without her."

"You. Lie."

How dare he. How dare he. He was an uncaring monster and he'd let her baby angel die. He deserved pain.

Boulders falling from the sky on him would have to do.

Squall had cast Protect before coming to meet her, and that was the only reason he survived the onslaught. The Meteors crashed down on him, bringing him to his knees. Bruised, bloody, and broken, he tried to stand.

There was a familiar bark, and Angelo ran up to toss a Potion to Squall. Where she came up with them, he'd never know. There weren't any left on the island -- he'd checked. And yet, she always had one when he needed it. She was a Good Dog.

Rinoa's heart stilled at the dog's approach.

"An-- ..." Her voice wouldn't come. "Angelo?"

No. No. This was a vicious lie, a cruel deception, this was -- she couldn't be okay. Her Angelo couldn't be okay. She was dead. DEAD. Squall had let her die.

She turned on Squall, her face filled with wrath. "Nice parlor trick," she snarled. "You have a fake dog, I have a fake demon."

It only took a moment to focus the energy for a Summoning. Diablos wanted to come play.

The sky turned black as thousands of bats converged above them, melting into a thick mass from which the demon would soon emerge. Squall's only thought was "At least it's Diablos". The GF liked to use attacks that would bring its enemy to the verge of death without actually killing them. He braced for the inevitable.

Suddenly, Angelo jumped in front of him and howled. The bats above parted, and the moon -- which really shouldn't be out yet -- shone down on their alleyway. Angelo leapt high into the air, and the moon's rays shining down through the halo of the dog's overcharged chi... No, you know what? There's no way to explain it so that it makes any sense. Angelo did a trick, which Rinoa had taught her after reading it in a magazine, and then Squall was temporarily invincible.

Diablos dripped from the thick black mass above them, and focused the rest of it into a miniature black hole that sucked in trash and leaves and debris from the alley and compressed them under enormous pressure, but Squall and Angelo were untouched by the attack.

The Sorceress stared. Invincible Moon? So then ... that meant she had to be ...

That was Angelo. It had to be Angelo. And Angelo had just stopped the attack on Squall.

Rinoa's eyes were filling up with tears, now, and even she couldn't say why she was crying.

"For him?" she said. "Y-you would protect him?"

After everything Squall had done to her?

"... Over me?"

No, Angelo had just wanted to save Squall's life, because he was the second most important person in the world to her.

She walked over to her Mommy and nuzzled against her, thumping her tail on the ground with a sorrowful whine.

Squall got unsteadily to his feet, and tossed to Rinoa the bag of dog biscuits he'd gotten from Daredevil two nights before.

Rinoa reached down, getting her hands into Angelo's thick fur. She almost missed the bag of dog biscuits that Squall threw.

When she caught them, Angelo began nosing the bag expectantly. Treats? Treats?

"H-he hurt you," Rinoa said, her voice shaking. "He h-h-hurt you and Sookie's gone. We all died down there."

She may have lived, but something inside of her was broken. Dead. Gone.

"You're not dead," Squall told her. "You're alive, and you're free. I'm sorry about Sookie, I really am. We've lost so many people. You're here, and you're alive, and Angelo is here. I didn't hurt her, I promise." He shrugged, not sure what else to say. "They hurt you, in there. You're never going to be the same. But it's over. You're out, now, and you're never going to have to go through that again."

Rinoa knelt, opening the bag of treats in order to -- okay, Angelo was just going to shove her face in there if Rinoa opened it. That was okay. They were for her. She could eat right out of the bag.

"Wh ..." She took a deep breath and tried again. "What am I s-s-supposed to do now?"

She cleared her throat. "I mean, you're ... and I'm ..."

He had called his love for her weakness. So it didn't matter if she was wrong, that he'd never loved her to start. He was going to be done with it now.

Everything was different, now. She wasn't sure who she was.

She could feel her wings folding themselves away, behind her, and didn't know how she felt about that.

"Now?" Squall asked. "We could help people round up the loyalists. We could go get some dinner. We could sit and pet Angelo." He stepped closer and held out a hand. "You don't have to do anything, especially not anything you don't want to. You're free, now.

She would never be free again. Not the same way.

Rinoa stood up, reluctantly, unwilling to take Squall's hand.

"I want to find somewhere I can sleep," she said. "Somewhere safe that they won't show up and catch us in the night. I can't wake up back there. I can't. And I -- I n-need to see the sky."

Please. That one was important. She couldn't be cooped up in a basement tonight, not even if it was the only safe place he knew.

"And when they ... they finally take down that horrid bitch," she said, "and we're really free? I want to go to Louisiana and I don't even know where that is. I w-want to go find Sookie's family and tell them. What she was like, for us in there. How she helped everybody, and made them little safe places in their heads, even when she was tired, and sad, and -- I ... I need to. B-before we go home."

"The rooftops are usually safe," Squall told her. "Come, sit with me, and I'll keep watch. I won't let anything happen to you, ever again.

This time, she did reach for his hand. But hesitantly.

"When Sookie made a nice place for me," she said, "it was our field. Where you promised."

"'I'll be waiting for you. If you come here, you'll find me,'" Squall told her. He'd forgotten many things, but he'd never forget that. "...But I wasn't there. I broke my promise."

It wasn't real; it was just an illusion that Stackhouse had build in her mind... But he still felt guilty. He should have somehow visited her in his dreams, or something like that.

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The Streets of Fandom, Post-Detention Rescue, Saturday Evening

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