Fading back she stood to regain a bit of energy. She glanced over to Squall and saw something strange. He was staring at her with malice in his eyes. Everything faded from around them as Squall charged at her with his gunblade.

Screaming, the blond SeeD dodged his charge and a terrible shriek was heard as she dived onto the warm ground. The former instructor lifted herself to look for what had happened. Squall, also, was gone. Irvine lay without his hat on the ground, sprawled out in a pool of crimson blood. She gasped and stepped back. 'Where have I seen this before?'

She turned her wide eyes to a glimmering object behind him. Squall's gunblade. It was stabbed into the ground standing hilt up, part of the blade glimmering with blood.

"Squall!?" she called out. No response reached her ears, only the echoing of her cry.

Everything went black.

Squall wondered the halls of the giant mansion with dull amusement. Yawning, he stepped into the second floor hall. The dark halls were silent apart from his footsteps until-

"Who is that?" Selphie stood there in the middle of he hall. She stepped over and looked at him, "Squall?" her face looked worried. "Have you seen Quistis? I can't find her anywhere!"

"Who is that?" another shadowed figure entered the hallway, "This is office Zell-"

"Zell!?" Selphie ran over and pounced, giving him a hug. The shadowy figure of Zell struggled to get loose of her grip and finally succeeded. "I can't find Quistis!"

Zell jumped, "Well, I haven't seen her, I can go look-"

Squall threw a glare at them both, though it didn't have much effect in the darkness of the corridor, "You two are too loud, could you lower your voices before we get caught?"

"It's a little to late for that, SeeD." the words were sharp and cold.

The three SeeDs turned to the hallway entrance, the dark silhouette of a girl with her hand on her hip, shaking her head stood in the doorway. That was all they could see from the little light provided my the cloudy night sky. Though, they knew immediately who this intruder was.

Selphie edged to Zell's ear and whispered, "Go look for Quistis." She drew back slowly as the blond SeeD replied with a nod and slithered from the room.

Drawing a deep breath Squall stood, unable to move.

A flash of red crossed Rinoa's eyes as she stepped into the little light the window provided. She was smiling and shaking her head in.. pity? "Poor little Seeds, did you come to play?" She took a step towards Squall.

Squall's eyes narrowed, "What did they do to you, Rinoa?"

She glanced at his side, to see a glittery blade appear in his gloved hand. The Griever running across it's smooth side. She smiled, "How could I have missed that?"

Squall took the bandana off and threw it on the floor. Timidly, Selphie drew out her nunchaku and stepped forward a few paces, slowly.

"So, I suppose Caraway called? I could see him doing that." She glanced at there weapons, "You should have stayed away, SeeD. Your weapons are no use against me, I am much powerful than I was last time."

Squall glanced at Selphie, who narrowed her eyes at Rinoa, "Why are you doing this, Elynia?" As he heard her say this he couldn't help but pause, puzzled.

The raven-haired sorceress's eyes flickered again, "Yes, I heard Yume inform you." She smiled grimly. "Though, when he find his way up here, he will be one with the sands of the desert." She gave a small laugh.

The dark-haired SeeD's eyes widened suddenly as he looked at Rinoa, "You're a... sorceress." He stood still.

"You figured it out yourself? Heh, so did Rinoa just before she lost any control she had over her body. I am the new Rinoa, the sorceress Rinoa."

"What happened to the real Rinoa, though?" Squall narrowed his eyes.

"She lies deep in the recesses of my mind. Lately I've taken to listening to her. She's how I found out about you all being here. Yes, your friend told the sorceress where you were." A taunting smile danced on her lips.

"Why are you doing this?" Selphie tried to hold her nunchaku properly in her gloved hands.

"Because I will rule this world properly--The way it should have been, foolish SeeD." She cast Blizzara on the unprepared girl, sending her weaponry flying from her loose grip.

Loud footsteps echoed as Yumenegau ran into the passage, "So now you're taunting the SeeDs Elynia? Why not fight your own league?"

"Ah.." she sighed, "My faithful knight who stuck with me halfway, and was killed as his consequence."

Yumenegau came charging at her with his blade as she simply flicked him off with an Ultima spell.

Squall stood even more shocked as Yumenegau struck time after time at the sorceress, occasionally getting a good hit once in a while, other times failing miserably, blasted with firas and blizzaras. The SeeD glanced at Selphie who mouthed that everything was ok, Yumenegau wasn't someone to worry about. Though, the SeeD just stood watching, silently as Selphie cast a fira on the sorceress.

Knocking Yumenegau against a back wall, Rinoa attacked Squall with an Ultima, obviously she hadn't miscounted his presence. Squall was pushed down quickly by Quistis who had just entered the hallway, shortly followed by Zell. The spell blew a giant gap through the wall permitting the midnight chill of outdoors to blast into the passage.

Quistis, who had ditched the maid uniform had grabbed side of the wall and was pulling herself back up. "Not very nice, is she?"

Squall cast a fira on the sorceress and the attacked with his gunblade, getting a tolerable hit. Though, she quickly back fired with more of her magic, and sent him up against a wall opposite Yumenegau who was lifting himself.

As the SeeD hit the wall he was blasted by another ultima. As he was hit harder, he felt something in his right shoulder shatter, sending a shock of pain through his body, and he resisted the urge to shriek. It was obviously broken, he couldn't move his right arm without feeling the same pain again. He felt someone pulling him up and looked up to see Yumenegau who was helping him to his feet, 'What caused him to change?' The man nodded and Squall nodded back, a silent thank you.

Quistis had summoned the Shiva. With a roar of energy a field of ice engulfed Rinoa, making the mansion shake furiously. Though Rinoa was only slightly weakened by the blow.

'Why Rinoa?' The question ran through his mind as he would see Quistis attack, or any of the others. 'We have to stop this.'

Silently, behind his party, Squall summoned the thunder bird, Quezacotl. Fading, the giant bird created it's thunderstorm, it's force blowing the roof off of the passageway. Tearing through a whole other story, it opened the roof to the cloudy sky. The thunderstorm blasted Rinoa with tremendous power and weakened her beyond standing.

Squall stood shocked, that had done it? He reached for his gunblade to feal the force of pain coarse through him again and stood back up. Rinoa fell, unmoving. Squall figured it logical. Rinoa had been weak from the last fight they all had encountered with Edea and Seifer. She hadn't used a potion or much anything sense the battle, she was still weak. When she was possessed, the sorceress hadn't given her more HP, it only took hers. While she was only weak, she was beyond standing.

As Rinoa lay, unmoving a strange creature arose from her, translucent enough to be seen. A creature, surrounded by a black light. Her head was of a human woman's, her eye's were of a cat. Her thin lips curled in a wicked smile as malice danced in her catlike eyes. She wore a dress in a dark blue that revealed her gray colored arms and neck. The gray was hinted with scales, dimly lighted with green. She looked like a human and the cross of a reptile of some sort.

There was a small sound as Selphie fell to her knees clutching her throat. Wisps of red light filed in from the outside. Squall stumbled, feeling dizzy for a moment he quickly found a wall to lean against for support. Selphie fell over, cold.

The creature threw her head back and cackled in an UN-human-like manner. She looked down at the body that lay at her feet. With the force of twenty ultimas she kicked Rinoa against the wall nearest to the giant hole. She fell limp, and this time even Squall failed to see her breathe at all.

Squall clenched his teeth and grabbed his gunblade, pain worse than ever. He charged towards the creature with a gunblade assault strong enough to take out a guardian force. He continued the blows, his arm throbbing in pain as a large headache formed in his head. His vision blurred, seeing two of the creature and everything else, he dropping his gunblade. Everything around him started to spin.

Quistis's eyes widened, "Squall!" she shrieked. He felt himself lifted into the air and thrown against the wall beside the gap. The wall broke behind him, splinters stabbing into his back and legs, clothes slightly slightly torn.

As the wall gave way, Rinoa gasped for breaths as she too was knocked through the hole in the wall. Squall grabbed onto the ledge, a giant piece of metal from the wall's interior cut into his hand. The blood began to run slowly down his arm and Squall grimaced in pain. His other arm hurt even worse and he felt his ribs were crushed, luckily and painfully he had caught Rinoa's hand before she too fell to an early grave in Caraway's yard, but he knew he couldn't hold on much longer. He looked down at Rinoa, "Just stay close to me."

An actual, literal cliff-hanger, folks.