Ellone

Ellone Loire is an important non-player character in Final Fantasy VIII. Hunted her entire life for her unusal ability to send human consciousness back in time, Ellone has nevertheless managed to maintain a childlike innocence about the world, even as a young adult. She is the adopted daughter of Raine and Laguna Loire.

Childhood
Ellone was born in the small village of Winhill on the Galbadian continent. She lived with her parents in a modest home in the town square, next door to the town pub. However, when Ellone was only a few years old, a Sorceress War war broke out between Galbadia and Esthar, and Estharian troops raided Winhill. Esthar's leader, Sorceress Adel, was searching for an heir, and the soldiers demanded the village hand over all of its young girls for consideration. Ellone's parents refused to hand over their daughter, and were killed. Ellone somehow managed to escape the Estharian's clutches, however, and once the soldiers had departed, she was taken in by her next-door-neighbor, Raine.

In the time that followed, Ellone and Raine enjoyed a happy and peaceful life in Winhill, and Ellone seemed to accept Raine as a mother figure. Their makeshift family was completed, however, when Laguna Loire, a Galbadian solider, washed up on a beach near Winhill after being critically wounded in battle. Raine immediately took him in and slowly nursed him back to health. Eternally grateful for rescuing him from certain death, Laguna remained with Raine for several years, repaying his imagined debt to her by helping her raise Ellone and patroling Winhill daily in an effort to keep its residents safe and its streets monster-free. Ellone grew very attached to Laguna, calling him "Uncle" and following him everywhere. Laguna was similarly taken with the intelligent little girl, and enjoyed playing and joking with her. Although Raine and Laguna were only friends at first, Ellone encouraged them to develop their relationship, and they eventually fell in love and married, much to Ellone's delight.

Their small family was torn apart, however, when Sorceress Adel's minions returned to kidnap Ellone. This time they succeeded in capturing the small girl, taking her away to Esthar to become Sorceress Adel's successor. Enraged, Laguna, along with his friends Kiros and Ward, left Winhill for Esthar to rescue Ellone. Raine, concerned about Ellone's saftely, failed to inform Laguna that she was pregnant with his child before he departed.

Sorceress Adel
Once they arrvied in Esthar, Laguna, Kiros, and Ward joined forces with a resistance group in attempt to liberate Ellone from Sorceress Adel. The group realized that as long as Adel was alive, she would pursue Ellone indefinately; Laguna decided that the only way to save Ellone was to get rid of Adel entirely. Because of Sorceress Adel's magical might, a physical assault was out of the question. Therefore, the Estharian resistance came up with an alternative solution: if Adel could not be killed, perhaps she could be contained.

To this end, Laguna enlisted the help of Estharian scientist Dr. Odine, who built a special cryo-containment device which would effectively bind the Sorceress' powers and place her in suspended animation. The resistance placed the device inside a building they hastily erected just outside of the capitol of Esthar which would later become known as the Sorceress Memorial. They lured Adel to the site using a holographic projection of Ellone, and when the Sorceress entered the building, she was captured. Laguna and Ellone were reunited, and Adel's frozen body was shot into outer space.

With the threat of Adel removed, Laguna hoped he and Ellone could immediately return to Winhill. The Estharians, however, begged him to stay and help them rebuild. Unaware of Raine's condition, he reluctantly agreed, and sent Ellone home to Winhill ahead of him, promising to follow when his work was finished. Ellone returned to Winhill just in time to witness Raine's baby being born. Raine was devestated that Laguna had not come as well, but Ellone's presence comforted her as she fought to give birth. Shortly, Raine managed to deliever a healthy baby boy, whom she named Squall. The complications which she suffered during the labor, however, proved to be too much to overcome, and Raine died shortly after.

The Orphanage and White SeeD
Following Raine's death, the people of Winhill sent both Squall and Ellone to Edea Kramer's orphanage, which had been set up to care for children orphaned by the Sorceress War. At the orphanage, Ellone was older than the other children, and she helped care for them like an older sister. Consequently, Ellone soon earned the nickname "Sis." Although Squall had no recollection of his mother or his hometown of Winhill, he was instinctually drawn to Ellone, and became more attached to her than the other children.

The idyllic peace of the orphanage was shattered, however, when the dying Sorceress Ultimecia and the adult Squall appeared due to a time warp. Mortally wounded, Ultimecia attempted to transfer her Sorceress Power to Ellone, but Edea intervened and took on the Power herself. Squall, having struck the blow that ended Ultimecia's life, told Edea that through the Powers she had just inherited, Ultimecia was certain to possess her in the future to try and get her hands on Ellone. Edea realized that she had to take immediate steps to ensure Ellone's safety; enlisting the older children in her orphanage, Edea formed a group called the White SeeD. They were given a ship, and entrusted with Ellone's protection from Sorceresses or anyone else who wished her harm. Wisked away on the White SeeD Ship under utmost secrecy, Ellone did not have a chance to say goodbye to Squall.

Ellone remained with the White SeeD for many years, where she grew terribly lonely. Although greatful to those who had taken care of her, Ellone spent much of her time wondering how things might have turned out had Raine had lived and Laguna had returned to Winhill. One day, an idea occured to her: what if she used her power to prevent her own kidnapping? That would stop Laguna from leaving, which may have allowed him to save Raine. ..

Family Reunion
Bouyed by hope, Ellone left the White SeeD to find Squall, now a 17-year-old cadet at Balamb Garden. Unfortunately, much of his memory had been lost due to the use of Guardian Forces in his SeeD training, and he had, for the most part, forgotten her. Regardless, Ellone used her power to send his consciousness back in time to inhabit Laguna's past. Although unsuccessful at changing Laguna's actions, Squall's experience triggered many of his buried memories, and his revelations allowed the step-siblings to properly reunite.

Despite her failure, Ellone's attempt to change the past taught her an important lesson - people may not be able to change the past, but they can make the most of the present. Determined to regain what family she can, Ellone allows herself to be returned to the White SeeD only to escape at earliest oppertunity, fleeing to Esthar on board an Estharian ship in search of Laguna.

She is later sent to the Lunar Base in outer space, where Squall meets her to talk about saving Rinoa Heartilly, who has fallen into a strange comatose sleep. Rinoa wakes up, being controlled by Ultimecia, and manages to break the seal on Adel's Tomb. When Squall and Ellone have to escape the base in an escape pod, Squall begs her to go back in Rinoa's past to see what happened to her, and Ellone complies, once again sending Squall into the past.

Later, in the Lunatic Pandora, a plan is concocted by Laguna and Dr. Odine to finish off Ultimecia once and for all. Ellone must send Ultimecia (who is once again possessing Rinoa) into the Adel of the distant past, so that the evil Sorceress can achieve her goal of casting Time Compression. Once the spell is cast, Ellone must pull Rinoa back to the present and send Ultimecia back to the future, halting Time Compression (if only temporarily) and allowing Squall and Rinoa to reach Ultimecia and defeat her for good. The plan is successful, and Ultimecia falls through the uncompressing time to land in Edea's orphanage...and start the whole cycle over again.

The Nature of Ellone's Power
Ellone's power is never adequately described in the game. She is declared to have the ability to send another person's consciousness back in time; the description of her talent is left at that. She is not a Sorceress (although she IS apparently a Sorceress candidate, or else Adel and Ultimecia would not have been able to even attempt to pass their powers to her), so her ability cannot be magic. What, then, is it?

Because there is no way that Ellone removing Ultimecia from the past could stop Time Compression if she actually sent Ultimecia to the real and true past that has already occurred, it would seem that when Ellone sends another person's consciousness back to the "past," she is actually sending that person into a time frame that she creates herself. This would also explain why Ellone can only send a person back in time for so long, and also why time still passes in the "present" for the bodies of the people Ellone sends back to the "past."

Another way of looking at it is that Ellone has the ability to literally take time in her hands like a length of fabric, and bring any two points in time together as is her wont. By doing this, she can cause the present to overlap with the past and enable one person to overlap another, causing one person to literally "live" in another person's body for a brief period of time.