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Detention, Depths of the Castle, Wednesday

The good news for everyone in detention was that there wasn't any sign of singing going on on the island today, so everyone could be spared from any further embarrassing admissions that they'd rather not have made.

The bad news was for everyone in detention was, well, they were all still in detention. But surely, it was getting easier to deal with over time?

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Rinoa noticed it when Raven entered, and her concentration wavered. She was in her garden.

She was in her garden, and there were flowers, and Emma had told her to go here when things were scary. Maybe she'd stay here no matter what.

In her mind she made a gladiolus. Pink. Pale, and then the petals were a warmer pink.

See? She could do this.

Raven tried to make a dark shadow fall over the garden as she approached, eager to play with Rinoa. "Rinoa," she said. "It is so very good to see you today. I heard you talked to Ms. Frost yesterday about finally seeing some sense."

Emma said the garden would help her. Rinoa concentrated hard to try to make the garden sunny again. It was her garden. Not Raven's.

"I don't have to talk to you," she said loftily.

Raven sent her a little jolt of pain to keep her attention on the real world. "Yes, you do," she said. "You cannot run away. Just like Sookie, I will pull you back. There is no where to run, not even in your own mind."

Pain flared up her spine, and she whimpered. Dammit. No. No. She was in a garden.

"I am not running away," she hissed. "You are not allowed to touch me here."

As if to reinforce that, a medium-sized dog was now barking at her feet. Angelo. Her Angelo guarded her mindscape.

Maybe she would give her fangs. Just to be sure.

"No," Raven said sharply. "You are not allowed to run away. I will burn your garden down."

She smirked. "And your little dog too."

Angelo growled, now, and Rinoa straightened her shoulders.

This wasn't real. She should leave her garden, to save Angelo. No. No, the garden was the only place that was safe.

She was so lost.

"When I get out of here," she said, firmly, "I will snap every bone in your body. And then I will set it aflame."

It would have sounded braver if her voice didn't shake.

Raven laughed at the threat. "Will you now?" she said. "I look forward to you attempting to do so. Perhaps I will merely do the same to you. Only I can heal you and do it again and again and again."

Rinoa shuddered. When would she learn not to taunt Raven? Why was she doing this?

"I would still tell you t-to go to Hell," she managed. "I am a Sorceress. Y-you can't destroy one so easily."

She didn't feel like a Sorceress. She felt like a scared girl, huddled around her own knees, wishing that Angelo was here.

"I like a challenge," Raven purred. "So many people do not give me one any longer. Besides, you do not sound like a mighty sorceress. You sound like a scared. Little. Girl. No garden, no dog."

She paused, then added, "No Squall."

Don't let her see don't let her see don't let her --

Raven only had power if she knew what would hurt you. But she knew anyway didn't she? You couldn't act like it didn't hurt, she could tell. She could feel. She --

Squall was still alive because Squall had to be alive. Squall had to live.

She needed to act indifferent, like she didn't even remember Squall. He was some guy. Not important. He --

"Don't you touch him," she seethed.

Dammit.

"But I already have," Raven said, falsely sweet as she drank in that anger. She was lying, but Rinoa didn't need to know that.

"He is so broken. A failure. Not even half the man he used to be. And that is all your fault."

She had expected, had braced herself against visions of him dead, broken, torn apart. And she could tell herself a hundred times that those weren't real.

Squall, broken? He'd never been a failure. He was strong, and defiant. He was a SeeD. He --

He had carried her lifeless body all the way to Esthar, when none thought she could ever re-awaken. And yet she was here. And had been for months. She was all that mattered to him, all he knew how to care for. And she had been taken away. Just like Sis.

Oh, dear Hyne. This ... this ...

"You're lying," she said, weakly. But she was going to be ill, because ... she was fairly certain Raven wasn't.

Hyne's wrath, Squall. She didn't need to worry about Squall coming here. He was in Hell already.

Raven shrugged, giggling. "Am I?" she said. "What sort of sorry state do you think he is in with you trapped here now? What kind of shape is anyone with someone they care for in here?"

Her grin grew wider. "Their despair tastes delicious."

"B-but he's strong," Rinoa said. "He'll ... he'll fight, he won't ..."

Wouldn't what? Tie himself into knots, give up, stop trying, stop caring? Losing Ellone had made him a shell of himself. She had convinced him to try again, and now she was lost, too.

When Squall was very little, he had gone out into the rain and stood there, for hours. Just in case Sis might come home.

Squall was despairing. Squall had given up. This had broken him -- she had broken him -- and now he wasn't even trying to find her. That was all she had been clinging to. Selfish. He couldn't save her; he would never even try to save himself. Squall would put his face into the water and drown.

The anguished noise that came out of Rinoa wasn't quite a sob, but tears were close.

Raven seized upon those threads of despair and guilt she felt coming off of Rinoa. "It is all your fault," she whispered, trying to drive the knives deeper. She honestly had no idea what, if anything, Squall might be up to, but that wouldn't stop her from trying to convince Rinoa otherwise.

"He is lost, lost and alone and defeated. And you are to blame for that. And who will come for you now if not him? Your only way to freedom is with me."

[Sorry for the delay in pinging back -- things got crazy yesterday as I'm sure you saw.]

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Detention, Depths of the Castle, Wednesday

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