Legal mumbo jumbo: I don't own anyone or anything in the Final Fantasy universe. This is all for my personal entertainment and yours as well. Anything that goes on here does not represent the ideas of those at Square and should not be taken as canon to their story and game.

Warning: If you're deathly afraid of any profanity whatsoever, you may not want to read. I try not to bog it down too much, but then again, this is my story and this is how I would react to these situations and it's my foul mouth so I can say what I want. Also, I can tell you that in the distant future there will be male-female relations as well as male-male relations. They will not be explicit at all (when it comes to sex), so I doubt anyone will have a problem with it, but if you do, then be aware and you should see it coming. I will not place anymore warnings in my chapters.

Introduction: Alright so before you get reading, I'd like to say that this is my first fanfic and I'm very excited for it, and I appreciate any feedback (whether it's positive or negative, so long as it's constructive). OC fics have a bad rep and I'd like to change that; I've poured my heart into this and spent loads of time working on this when I should be doing things like studying for midterms or doing homework :) . I'd also like to thank 'xianghua 4 kilik 4ever' and 'Takayu' for volunteering to proofread my chapters and offering corrections and suggestions. I get my best ideas by bouncing them off other people. They helped me get these first few chapters off to a good start, but now I'm going solo (from chapter 4 and on).

Some of you might be opposed to this, but the story is written in the first person from my point-of-view. There will be some digressions into the third-person for the sake of plot (interesting things can go on without my character's knowledge).

I currently have many random scenes worked out in my head (the very end included), so hopefully updates won't be few and far between. Alas, it is the school year, and my priorities lie with academics and my job first and foremost, so please be patient with me.

Author's Note: This chapter was a lot of fun to write. I had it worked out in my head for the longest time and I'm glad to get it down on paper. I feel it starts the story off with a bang and gets things moving. I'm hoping it will suck my readers in and get them interested right off the bat ;)

Alright then, let's get to it!

Chapter 1: From Bed to Bench

I lay on my bed, covered in sweat, despite a fan on the desk at my feet blowing on me, and another one from the ceiling circulating the air. I look out the window at the clear blue sky and think, Such a pretty day today… but way too hot to be outside.

We were going through a heat wave here in sunny southern California, and it was only the middle of June! Usually they don't hit until August and September. I look back at my small television across the room, sitting on my dresser. I yawn as I realize my latest cure of boredom has run out. The end credits of Final Fantasy VIII had finally finished. It had been many years since I last played the game, but it was a good one at that, and I needed an entertaining way to kill a few weeks while my brain was rebuilding itself from the difficult school year.

I throw the controller to my side and let it bounce on the bed. While stretching and yawning again, I walk over to the PlayStation and suddenly something strange happens. An image appears on the TV. It looks like one of those "Please Insert Disc whatever" messages.

That's impossible, I think, I just beat the game and took care of that dumb Ultimecia whore.

I laugh and read the message aloud, just to be absolutely sure it says what I think it says. "Please insert disc 5. Sure thing, let me get it," I say sarcastically.

I pull the jewel case off my shelf and open up the second compartment where the third and fourth discs go.

"Oh, shit!" I gasp as I drop the case on the floor.

The cause of my surprise, a fifth disc, pops out and lands next to the case. It's completely blank, black on one side (the side with the data) and white on the other. I stare at it for a minute before I do the inevitable and place the disc in the console. The image fades and the screen remains blank. Right as I reach to turn it off, I hear some blips and bleeps and see a bunch of random colors and pixels flash across the screen.

"Weird," I mutter as the screen goes back to being blank. I turn off the TV set and the PlayStation and open up the lid.

Wow… ok… I must be going mental.

I never thought it was possible to become insane and start imagining things at the flip of a switch, but here I am staring at an empty PlayStation. Yes, empty. Empty as in: lacking the non-existent Disc 5 of FF8 I just put in there. It's not like I was up all night and afternoon playing this, it definitely wasn't sleep deprivation. But I decided to lie down and take a nap anyway. I have never experienced anything like this before, but hopefully a nap will make it go away.

I close the shades and jump on my bed, lying on top of the covers in my clothes. I blindly reach over to my side and feel around until I find my stereo remote and turn it on. I have got to cover up the noisy fan with some nice music. I close my eyes and fall asleep, the sound of the music and the feeling of hot air fading.

I rolled around on something solid. My bed was a little stiff, but it never felt as hard as a wooden bench! I drowsily opened my eyes and sat up. I wish I could have seen my face, I must have been completely bewildered considering I was sitting on a wooden bench in the middle of some strange village or town. It looked slightly medieval in a way. The road was made of stone instead of asphalt, and the buildings were made of stone and wood, and had a curvy architecture. Wooden signs hung down from chains attached to awnings. People were milling about, dressed not quite like people from medieval times, but not quite 21st century either. I smelled salt water as I felt a cool sea breeze blow by. It was a bit cooler than my room, and the sky was a light blue with a few puffy clouds spread about. A couple walked by me and looked at me strangely in silence, and then continued on down the road, chatting quietly amongst themselves (probably about me). My eyes then came across a multi-storied building across the street and I read the big sign above the door, "Balamb Hotel".

Hmm, I knew this place looked familiar… Whoa! Wait, what!? No way! Oh, fuck me!!

This was quite a strange dream I was having. Never have I had a dream that felt so real and was so detailed, let alone a dream that I felt conscious in. I rubbed my eyes and the familiar videogame town was still in front of me. Then I slapped my own face, lightly at first and then harder and harder. A small crowd had begun to gather around me because of my antics. I stood up and started spinning around to look at all the faces staring at me.

"Where am I? What is going on here!? What the ffff… Oh my god," I screamed in despair.

I felt weak in my knees and quickly bent over as I gagged and dry-heaved. I have a strong stomach, but even this was becoming too much to handle. Despite the absurdity of my position, I still felt a small bit of comfort knowing that I wasn't spewing my guts out in front of this crowd of people that weren't so pixilated anymore.

"Get outta here you damn drunk!" I heard someone yell at me.

Someone else called out in the distance, "Hey check out this guy! It's hilarious!"

I regained my strength and quickly stood up. I pushed my way through a few people and ran towards the town entrance. Amazing how I knew exactly where to go and had a small sense of familiarity even though it still looked like a completely new place. I would have liked to hang around a while and take everything in, and see things that I wasn't able to see before when I played the game. I chuckled to myself at that thought.

There is no way this is real, it's impossible to be transported into some digital, programmed universe, right?

I was beginning to doubt physics and logic and reason as my feet pounded the solid ground and I heavily breathed in the cool air. This felt too real to be just a figment of my (or someone else's) imagination.

I sat down on some grass outside the town entrance and leaned against the blue, stone wall, catching my breath and trying to calm myself. Luckily I wound up in the most familiar location of the game and I didn't need a red, lizard-like spaceship or an over-sized, yellow bird to get anywhere. I gazed across the plains, from the mountains to my left, to the beach to my right. There is only one other form of civilization on this island, and it's the only logical place to go: Balamb Garden.

This entire situation felt so unreal and so unbelievable, yet somehow I willed myself to keep going and not worry about it yet. I'll think about the details later, right now I just need to get to Balamb Garden and hope that Headmaster Cid, or Squall, or heck even the self-titled Mr. Know-It-All occult-enthusiast Zell might know something of my predicament and more importantly, how to get out of it.

As I paced along the winding road, I reminisced on some thoughts from when I was younger. When I was a kid I had always thought it would be cool and fun to enter a videogame world and meet some of the characters and fight some bad guys and all that fun stuff. But why now? I'm twenty years old for god's sake! That was kiddy stuff, I've got a life to live in a world of my own. I don't need to be mucking around in some imaginary place making invisible friends! Then I thought back to that mystical Disc 5. How could putting in a fifth disc to a videogame, then having it go berserk on my PlayStation before it vanishes into thin air, bring me into this world?

"Oh man," I sighed as I thought of the ludicrousness of my day.

Suddenly I heard a rustle in a nearby forest. This can't be happening! Why now!? I was almost to Garden, I could see it about half a mile ahead. Why does a monster have to come pester me now? I was almost curious, though, to see what it would look like when it came to face me. It was probably a measly Bite Bug, but I was playing a videogame! I couldn't feel any pain when I got attacked! My characters knew how to fight, they're trained to be mercenaries! The flying, blue, beetle-like creature hovered out of the trees and stared at me with its yellow eyes. It began to move towards me, and as it came within a few yards of me it lurched forward.

"Oh shiiiiit!" I yelled out, raising the pitch of my voice in fear. I instinctively threw a roundhouse kick as it got to me. It connected with full force and the bug fell to the ground.

"Phew, seven years and a second degree black belt do come in handy," I said to myself in a cocky tone.

Then two more Bite Bugs and one of those large, green and pink caterpillar creatures came bumbling out of the forest in my direction. A 2-foot tall beetle was one thing, but a group of them with a massive caterpillar? I don't think so.

I sprinted towards Garden as fast as I could. I'm terrible when it comes to running, but fortunately adrenaline was pumping through my veins and I managed to make it to the pearly gates before those creepy monsters could catch me. Before I made it inside, I glanced back to revel in my success.

I'll fight you little pests another day, right now I've got bigger things to worry about.

Suddenly I bumped into something in front of me while I was looking back. It felt sort of squishy, and had many tentacles twitching and slithering. I slowly looked up and towering over me was a floating ice-blue creature. A Glacial Eye. I made the obligatory gulping sound as I swallowed the lump in my throat, and before I knew it, it swung its tail up at me and knocked me off my feet. My head struck the ground and everything went black.

My eyes were still closed, but this time I felt the comfort of a soft bed instead of a wooden bench.

Well that was certainly an interesting dream, definitely one to remember.

I opened my eyes and took a look around.

This is not my bed, this is not my room!

To my right was a small, cushioned bench. On the left, a window with a view into another similar room. And behind me, a window allowing some sunlight and air in. I heard a whisk of air and looked up in front of me as a sliding door opened and a short, stocky, older woman walked in. I could tell she was a doctor by her white coat and stethoscope wrapped around her neck. Then I realized who it was.

"Dr. Kadowaki," I said slowly and quietly.

"Ah, it seems you already know my name. So what's yours?"

"Matt."

"Right. How are you feeling?"

"Umm… I don't even know. I'm confused, in disbelief, sore, nauseous, and I have no idea how I got here."

"Well, alright then. I don't really know what to tell you, considering I've never seen you here before."

There was a brief moment of silence before I regained my composure and continued on.

"I need to see Cid, or Squall, or whoever is in charge."

"Don't worry, I've already called for Cid, he'll be here shortly. I would say you have a case of amnesia or some sort of brain damage, especially after whatever gave you that nasty bump and cut on the back of your head."

I reached back and gently touched the back of my head, then winced in pain as it was very tender.

"Stupid monster," I mumbled.

"Yeah you've got to be careful out there. Anyway, I would say you have slight brain damage, but seeing as how you're dressed, the way you act and talk, and your lack of any identification, I think we may have a vastly different scenario on our hands."

She sounded and looked worried. And the way she held her chin in her hand and frowned was not reassuring at all. I rubbed my eyes and leaned back against the pillows supporting me. I brought my hands down to my side and just stared blankly at the ceiling.

The sound of a distant door opening snapped me out of my trance. A man that looked almost exactly like Robin Williams, but with glasses, walked into the infirmary and stood next to the doctor at the room door, examining me. I managed to suppress my chuckles as I saw that Cid really did look like that hairy comedian. Even when playing the game and seeing the low-resolution pixels that made up Cid, I and other gamers had always thought he would like Williams in real life.

He walked into my room, sat down on the chair next to the bed, and smiled warmly at me. He was still dressed in his typical brown pants, red vest, and white shirt, and wearing those small spectacles.

"I hope you're feeling better," Cid said.

He seemed like a genuinely nice, caring person. At any time he could have thrown me out of the Garden and left me to fend for myself with the monsters of the forests and citizens of Balamb. Why should he burden himself with some stranger who came out of nowhere?

"Thank you for letting me stay here. I didn't know what to do. This was my only choice, to come here," I said to Cid.

"I understand… probably more than you think. This isn't the first time we've been in this kind of situation."

I felt suddenly confused. The tables had been turned. Did he mean that they've already had to deal with events like this, someone coming into their world? Sure, I had been plopped into a world I didn't think existed, but I figured I at least knew what was going on. Maybe they knew enough to send me back and get this ordeal done with?

I asked him quickly, "How do you know what's wrong with me? Do you even know where I'm from? Are you saying I'm not the only one to go through this?"

"Slow down," he answered, "I'll explain everything." He leaned back and took a deep breath before continuing.

"There have been others like you. They have shown the same symptoms, and behaved exactly the same when arriving here. You're lucky you ended up in Balamb. There have been reports of people ending up in the gardens in Galbadia and Trabia over the past year."

Ah ha! So I wasn't alone! Surely they would know what to do with me, and maybe I'd be able to meet these other people. I became excited and hopeful, and especially glad I wasn't the only, or the first, one to enter this real-life Final Fantasy universe.

"Unfortunately, you won't be able to see these people."

My heart sunk. What could it be? Were they killed? Did they go insane and completely lose themselves? Then I felt a slight bit of hope as I thought of a better possibility. Did they get to leave quickly? Did they figure out how to send us back?

"One of them could not handle the pressure and stress, and went into a coma almost immediately after arriving. They eventually pulled the plug when it was obvious she wouldn't be waking up. The other was here for a few days before he was taken to Dr. Odine for testing. However he was not able to adapt to our world and couldn't handle life here. He escaped from the lab and his body was found on the outskirts of Esthar a few days later."

My mind was running full speed.

What's to happen to me? Am I doomed to be a vegetable, a psychopath, a suicidal maniac?

I stopped thinking. I've got to calm down, take this one step at a time. I took a deep breath and sighed. If I don't relax and go with the flow, I'm going to end up like the others, and I don't want that. I should just enjoy my time here, think of it as a vacation, make some new friends, learn about this new world, and before I know it I'll be back on my own turf.

I thought back to what he said just before, "Wait you said only over the past year? Why not any time before then?"

"Time must pass differently in our worlds. Errr-- at least that's what we've been able to gather."

"Yeah I suppose so. That's good for me, though. At least I didn't come here when everyone else was old geezers. If I didn't have any familiarity to cling to, I'd probably wind up the like the others…"

There was an awkward silence. It's hard to keep a conversation going when someone says something so negative and depressing. After a minute, Cid broke the silence and continued his little information session.

"Anyways, you're our first of these special guests here at Balamb—"

"Please," I interrupted, "don't call me a special guest. I'd like to just fit in as much as possible and I hate getting special treatment or anything like that."

Cid smiled and continued, "Well, we'll try to help you fit in and get you back to your world, but considering the circumstances, you will have to deal with a little bit of special treatment to allow you to assimilate. Anyways, when Dr. Odine had examined the other, he wasn't able to obtain any useful results. He'll probably want to take a look at you, but we'll do that later, much later. We won't let anyone know who you are or where you're from. For now, just relax. Dr. Kadowaki and I think it would be good for you to spend a few days here in the infirmary before you get back out there. This can be a lot to handle, and it would be great for you to take it slow so you're not overwhelmed. I'm sure the 'orphanage gang' will be excited to meet you, especially since they weren't able to meet the others, but we can do that later in the week. Although, tomorrow I will send Squall down here. …Oh that reminds me! I should probably update you on what's gone on since you... well... last saw us."

I looked at him intently.

"It's been about a year since we got out of Time Compression and defeated Ultimecia. Squall has been made Commander of Garden, and even though there isn't a sorceress around to fight, we still go on missions for various countries and organizations, and keep training any who wish to come here. I'm still Headmaster here, but I mostly run the logistical stuff like keeping Garden operational and watching over the students. I'm through with politics; I leave the big decisions up to Squall now." He then leaned forward, "He doesn't like that!" and laughed before moving on.

"Other than that, things are basically the same. Not much has changed, and it's only been a year anyway."

Cid stood up and walked towards the door, then turned around and faced me.

"I'll make sure the doctor takes good care of you. Now get some rest because these next few days are going to be tough."

I was getting ready to lie back down but then I remembered something. "Oh wait, I almost forgot!" I cried out. "When I got here, the Garden looked pretty much the same as it did before it took off and went mobile. Are you guys permanently here again?"

"Yes, now that we have the Ragnarok to go on missions and since we only send a few people on a mission (instead of going to war with an entire Garden as I'm sure you remember), there's no need to drive such a huge hunk of metal around."

"Ah, I see. Well I can't wait to get out of here and check it out!"

He chuckled, "Like I just said, get some rest. I'll see you tomorrow."

Being cooped up in the infirmary made me anxious. I wasn't allowed to leave my room, and even when I got up to walk around it made Kadowaki nervous. I couldn't see much out of the window either. No one was allowed to talk to me, much less, see me. I could hear mumbled voices outside in the waiting room, but that was the only human contact I got, aside from the doctor occasionally checking in on me and giving me food and water.

I was lying in bed half asleep, staring at the ceiling. It was very late at night, completely dark outside, and silent. I could feel my eyes watering up and my face getting hot. Tears began to roll down my cheeks as I rolled on my side, tightly gripping one of my pillows.

I was stuck here, I had to face it, and there was no way I'd be able to get back. I will never be able to see my family or friends again. Everything I ever knew was gone in the snap of a finger. It's going to be impossible to completely fit in. I don't even know how long I'll last. The others only lasted a few hours to a week. I'm hopeless.

It was morning and I felt weary. Last night had really ruined me. I felt so hopeless. I was always so mellow and easy-going; I just went with the flow, rolled with the punches. I had never been in an entirely new place where I didn't know anyone nor had any direction to go. This was definitely going to be an interesting experience.

I was standing by the window, leaning on the sill, looking out on the sun-covered plains. I heard the whisk of the door open.

"No thanks, doctor, I'm not hungry."

"I'm not here to offer you food," a quiet, but strong voice answered me.

I turned around and smiled. He stepped further into the room and sat down on the chair. I offered my hand for a handshake, but he just looked away.

"Still the same old Squall," I chuckled and sat down on the bed. He really was the same old Squall. Same clothing, same appearance, same attitude; even his face looked exactly like it did in the FMVs, but much more realistic of course.

"Look, let's just get down to business first. It's summer, so classes won't be in session, but you'll probably be here a while, so you may want to consider enrolling to become a SeeD, especially since you've done it before, I guess. Tomorrow I'll take you to meet the rest of the gang."

"Alrighty then, sounds good. How are they doing anyway?"

"Hmm… I should probably update you on them. Quistis is back as an instructor. She was teaching the basic stuff like magic use, GFs, but now she's moving up to stuff like history and politics. Zell is a new instructor and trainer; his classes focus on battle strategies, and physical combat. Selphie and Irvine are usually off doing their own thing at the other gardens, so you probably won't see much of them. They're our unofficial ambassadors I suppose. Don't worry about tomorrow, though, they'll all be here."

"I see," I nodded. "Oh, what about Rinoa?"

This must have struck a nerve with Squall as I could see him flinch a little. He looked down into his lap with his arms folded and elbows on his knees.

"She's back in Timber, doing her resistance thing. …After the elimination of Ultimecia, we realized things weren't so great for us, and we were just together because of the circumstances."

"That sucks, I'm sorry." I really was sincere about it, but he shook it off. "I guess you grow up real fast when you save the world at the ripe age of 17, eh?"

"Sure," he replied unenthusiastically. He looked back down at the floor and stared. I guess he decided to wait around a bit to see if I had any questions. Or maybe he was using this precious time to avoid everyone else in Garden.

"So I guess I won't be seeing much of the gang then? Seems like everyone's broken apart," I told him.

"Yeah, it seems so. The circumstances back then brought us together, like I said before. But after Ultimecia, we all just kind of moved on."

After a minute, Squall stood up slowly and left the room as he told me, "See you tomorrow, along with everyone else."

I sat back down on my bed and leaned back into my pillows and thought about the upcoming meeting.

It's going to be weird for them considering they don't know anything about me. I just hope they don't ask me too many questions about the place I came from. It'd take forever to explain everything, and I'd probably miss a lot of stuff. I just want to fit right in as soon as possible and worry about the future, not the past.