Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VIII, the characters, or Locations. I do own the story.
Journey's Lost
Background
It was four years after the defeat of Ultimecia that things finally returned to normal in the world of Final Fantasy VIII. Laguna stayed on as president of Esther until a peace treaty was established between Esther, Dollet, Timber, and Galbadia. Afterwards, Laguna handed in his resignation, relinquishing his presidential title and together with Kiros and Ward departed to places unknown.
Seifer also disappeared and went into hiding – no longer under the control of the sorceress – he learned that an official military order was issued for his immediate capture for his crimes against Galbadia and Esther government. Last that Squall heard, Seifer was secretly hiding somewhere in Fisherman's Horizon, exploiting Rajin's fishing skills, though otherwise making a decent living for themselves.
Garden continued as always, training young would-be SeeD Cadets as a separate military organization. Granted most of the hiring of SeeDs was generally reduced to performing civic duties, but training was as always vigorous until that time when the world needed them once more.
Chapter One
The food court in Balamb garden was packed when Squall Lionheart entered the food court. Although he was hoping for nothing more than a quiet lunch hour, a bunch of young SeeD Cadets immediately swarmed him.
"Mr. Lionheart can you show us that fighting technique again?" A young student asked.
"Mr. Lionheart!" Several others uttered.
Squall shook his head despairingly. "Please. If you have any questions save them for the extra training sessions I set up for tonight." He said before making his way towards the front counter.
The lunch lady smiled in greeting when he finally approached the counter and proceeded to hand over a tray of hotdogs, fries, and water. Squall smiled non-cryptically. Ever since Squall found her son and told him to return home, she had always saved the last of the hotdogs for Squall in return for his part of reunited her with her son. Ironically, after all this time, he still did not know her name. At first, he simply did not care enough, but now he was too embarrassed to admit he did not know her name, even after all this time.
Slightly flushed, he passed over a few bills, and added a few extra for her tips.
"Oh, Squall, you don't need to give me a tip." She exclaimed happily, immediately trying to hand back the extra bills.
"Hey!" Zell protested angrily in the aisle next to him. "I thought you told me you were out of hotdogs!" He muttered to the lunch lady serving him.
Squall shook his head and managed a short smile. "Take it." He insisted and without waiting for her to refuse, he walked away with his tray in hand, as Zell continued to complain behind him.
The food court was packed this time of day and as he stood surveying the tables for his friends, he felt rather foolish standing in the middle of the food court with a lost expression on his face. Normally, he would just walk to the nearest empty table and sit down to eat alone, but ever since he had meet Rinoa, everything had changed.
"Squall over here!" Quistis yelled, waving him from over on the other side of the food court. He made his way over noticing at once that Selphie and Irvine were already huddled together as they went over details for the Garden Festival.
Irvine was now a legitimate SeeD at Balamb Garden. The moment Irvine discovered that Balamb was much less strict than Galbadia he immediately made a request for a transfer. The fact that Selphie was also here was another huge motivator.
"I want to do something really special this year." Selphie declared excitably as she went over her list. Irvine was on the executive committee for the Garden Festival alongside Quistis and Rinoa. Squall and Zell, however, were the only ones of the group who have still not taken an interest yet despite the repeated attempts by the others.
"I was thinking fireworks this year…" Selphie continued with large brown eyes twinkling. "You know as the opening to the band."
"That's a great idea!" Quistis replied enthusiastically.
Squall chewed on his hotdog disinterested. Where was Rinoa anyway? He wondered thoughtfully. Between her SeeD exams and Squall's classes they barely been able to see each other anymore. He missed her greatly.
Quistis noticed his distilled silence. "You know, as an expert Squall analyzer…" Quistis muttered, smiling rather smugly. "I would guess that you are wondering why Rinoa isn't here."
Squall eyes rose in interest before he could stop himself.
Quistis smiled in satisfaction. "She is in the middle of taking her SeeD exam.
She said that she will meet up with you later."
Squall nodded faintly and continued chewing on his food. He hated how she continued to analyze him as though she knew exactly what he was thinking. Perhaps even more annoying was the fact of how she was always surprisingly accurate. Was he that predictable? Suddenly Squall recognized the significance of her words.
"Wait a minute that's today?" Squall asked quickly.
"Oh darn that's right I wasn't suppose to tell you." Quistis flustered embarrassed.
"Tell me what?" Squall demanded.
However, before she could answer, Zell sat down at their table, dropping his tray onto their table with a loud clatter. Selphie jumped back in surprise.
"Hey!" She complained, grabbing her clipboard from underneath his tray just in time. "Watch what you are doing! I worked hard on these lists."
"Sorry." Zell mumbled, slightly flushed. Evidently, Zell was still peeved of being unable to convince the lunch ladies to give him his hotdogs.
Squall hesitated then handed Zell his last untouched hotdog. Zell brightened immediately.
"Wahoo! My day is complete!" He exclaimed happily, and before Squall changed his mind, he quickly scarfed down his hotdog, grinning pleasurably with each bite.
Squall shrugged his shoulders as he fought to keep a bemused smile from forming on his lips. Most of the people he knew would find Zell's behavior rather childish, but Squall understood Zell much better than that. The life of a SeeD was never simple. Most of the kids here were brought while they were still young and during the first five years, training was harsh and vigorous. Most civilians, if they truly understood the kind of training they had to endured, would probably condemn Garden as unethical, but in an unethical world, if they expected to survive, training demanded nothing less from their students. So, just like Irvine who took his pleasure in reading his naughty magazines, Zell took his pleasure in eating his hotdogs. In the world where SeeD must self-sacrifice everything to the service of others, a few happy indulgences were all they had.
Suddenly, static sounded on the speakers and Cid's voice rang clear across the food court. "Squall Lionheart – will you please come to my office?"
Damn.
"Sounds important." Quistis replied non-cryptically. "It has been awhile since the headmaster requested your presence."
Squall shrugged. "I doubt it. He probably just wants to find out how my classes are going. It is probably not that big of a deal."
"Perhaps." She agreed, though skeptically.
Taking the last few bites of his hotdog, Squall cleaned his tray from the table and began making his way to Cid's office. Along the way, Quistis' words began to replay in his mind. Usually, whenever Cid summoned him the meetings turned out rather disappointing. The first time Cid had summoned him he had made Squall Balamb's representative when they had crashed into Fisherman's Horizon. Shortly after, he became leader of Balamb Garden in the attack against Sorceress Edea. Now if that was not bad, now he was Garden's new training specialist and as a result he currently spent the majority of his time training seasoned SeeD Cadets.
It was not as if he hated his job, but he was a SeeD, a combat specialist. It was much easier to take orders and fight battles than it was explaining to a bunch of excited SeeD cadets how to fight.
Standing in front Cid's office door Squall hesitated and knocked quietly. The door swung open and a kindly looking old man with brown straggly hair and glasses stood there, stepping aside from him to come inside. He noticed immediately that Kiros and Ward seated on the brown leather couch.
"Squall we have a rather disturbing issue that needs to be dealt with immediately." Cid announced at once and for the first time Squall realized he was worried.
Squall saluted respectfully. "Does this have anything to do with Laguna?" He asked, noticing that while Kiros and Ward were here Laguna was strangely absent.
"Yes." Cid confirmed hesitantly. "But the situation is much more complex than that."
Squall waited, knowing that he would explain the situation all in good time.
"What do you know of the Tomb of the Unknown King?" Cid continued, cleaning his glasses thoughtfully with the end of his shirt.
Squall considered. "Not much." He admitted and then realized that was not exactly true. Sudden memories came flooding back to him of the time he went there with Quistis and Zell to retrieve an ID bracelet for General Caraway. Zell typically managed to get them lost and after wandering inside for several hours, they accidentally stumbled into the two brothers.
Kiros narrowed his eyes as he looked down at number of documents laid upon the table. "According to your reports you mentioned seeing an apparition after you defeated the two brothers."
"Yes." Squall agreed, shifting uneasily. "At the same time we thought that we could have been mistaken. It was dark."
Kiros nodded, satisfied with his answer. "Squall we have some bad news to tell you."
Squall lifted his chin. "Yeah, I kind of figured that. What happened? Did Laguna try stuffing the apparition back in its tomb?" He replied jokingly.
Kiros shook his head, smiling sadly. "No, Ellone is missing and so is Seifer."
Squall narrowed his eyes angrily. "What do you mean Ellone is missing?" He demanded glazing back to Kiros and Cid. "How can she be missing?"
Kiros hesitated. "It means exactly what I said it means. Somehow we believe that the Tomb of the Unknown King is connected to her disappearance."
Squall shook his head. "How is that possible?"
Kiros sighed. "We do not know exactly it is possible, but what we do know is that Ellone was standing next to the tomb when she disappeared as well as Seifer who standing next to her."
Squall regarded Kiros solemnly before continuing. "I think you better explain the whole story from the beginning."
Kiros nodded and once Squall sat down began the tale of what had happened.
Subsequently, once Laguna relinquished his position as president of Esther, he decided to go back to fulfilling his dream as world-class traveler.
"The only problem was finding new locations that Timber Mechanics would be excited enough to publish. The Centra Ruins was first on his list, followed by the Deep Sea Research Felicity. However, after our harrowing escape from the Research Facility, the next place on Laguna's list was the Tomb of the Unknown King." Kiros explained thoughtfully.
"We knew that Seifer was hiding in Fisherman Horizon and thought that he would prove useful incase we ran into some monsters. Moreover, Ellone insisting on joining us and for various reasons Laguna decided Seifer would prove useful in keeping her safe while we worked on documenting the ruins."
"So," Kiros continued, "after some preparations we made we headed towards the Tomb of the Unknown King. During the first few days, everything turned out well. We managed to avoid the traps and we made it to the tomb safely."
"Ellone began to sense an eerie presence and began shaking visibly. Laguna figured she was simply spooked and asked Seifer to escort her outside. However, the moment Seifer reached her that was when it happened. Ellone and Seifer suddenly disappeared."
"We have one theory." Cid said interrupting suddenly. "We believe that after the defeat of Ultimecia a residue to cross over to other timelines still exist in some parts of the world. Dr. Odine suggested as much shortly after you returned from Ultimecia's world. However, at the time, Odine assured us that the possibility of stumbling into these time portals and crossing over are slim at best. However, considering the supernatural nature of the tomb as well as Ellone's unique abilities we believe that somehow Ellone accidentally triggered a time portal. Since we have no idea where she might have gone or what we might find once we get there we believe it is crucial to send SeeDs along to find Ellone and Seifer and bring them back to our time."
"Where is Laguna now?" Squall inquired absentmindedly.
Kiros shifted uncomfortably. "Laguna went to Esther to find Dr. Odine. We will need his expertise if we hope to succeed in bringing you back. There is a possibility that this portal is nothing more than a fluke in the space-time continuum. As such, there is also a possibility that there is no coming back, especially since Ellone did not. Dr. Odine is the only one that can determine whether this possible or not."
Squall lifted his eyes. "Do you think that maybe another sorceress can be involved?"
Cid nodded thoughtfully. "The possibility did cross our minds. Frankly we have no idea."
Squall nodded. "I understand." He replied, standing. "I will see what I can do."
"Good." Cid smiled. "But you won't be going alone. If the rest are willing, you will be going with Quistis, Zell, Irvine, and Selphie. Nida will in the meantime take over your classes until your return. I will leave you to sort out the details. If the others agree to take on this mission, please send them to my office for confirmation. In addition, inform Irvine and Quistis that I want them to take over your training session that you booked for tonight. You just focus on what you need to do to get ready."
"All right." Squall replied, saluting again before heading to the door. Half way there he suddenly stopped. "What about Rinoa?"
Cid glanced up from his paperwork, surprised. "She is not ready yet. She will have to remain here in Garden until your return."
"Even if there isn't a possibility we can't come back." Squall demanded questionably.
"Yes. I am sorry Squall, but that is the way it has to be."
Squall smile was bitter. "I am sorry Sir. But I cannot do that." He said as Cid returned his attention to his desk.
"Excuse me?" Cid demanded.
"Sir, if I may. You are asking me to undertake a mission that may very well mean the end of my existence in this time. Moreover, you are asking me to leave behind one of the few people in the world who I care about more than anything. You above all others know that a sorceress needs her knight in order to remain in control of her powers. To leave Rinoa here alone would be opening this time to numerous problems should her powers ever get the best of her. I will not leave her here alone with that possibility. I have sworn to protect her from any possible danger. So, as you can see, I cannot leave unless I am assured of Rinoa's safety."
"I can assure you she is more than safe here." Cid replied softly.
"Under whose protection? Yours?" Squall asked, shaking his head in disbelief. "And if her powers managed to get the best of her would you do everything to protect her still?"
Cid dropped his pencil and glared at him suspiciously. "I am not sure exactly what you are getting at."
"You would have allowed us to kill your own wife in exchange for our safety and it is the fact that you would do so that worries me."
Cid faced flushed, pain and angry by his accusation. "How dare you try and question my motives! You have no idea the kind of choice I had to make!"
"I do and I am sorry for questioning your motives, I meant no disrespect. All the same, Rinoa must at least be given the choice in deciding whether she wishes to join us or not."
"That's complete and utter bullshit. You know damn well she will follow you no matter what was at stake."
Squall shrugged and said nothing, knowing all too well he had served Garden faithfully to be refused one simple request now.
Cid himself seemed to be debating this one and single fact and after a moment of silence, he sighed, defeated.
"Very well, I will allow this one single concession this time and this time only." Cid agreed and saluted, dismissing him.
Squall saluting back and quickly turned and left the room.
