A Final Fantasy VIII Fan Fic
By Robertdogwood
Rated M
Final Fantasy VIII characters and locations from said game are owned by Square-Enix.
Chapter One
The day appeared at first glance to be just another day at Garden. Daybreak occurred at 6:17 a.m. The midnight shift had had an easy time of it - no major incidents to report and no one was discovered out past curfew. Reveille was sounded at O seven hundred, everyone was timely and not even one person had shown up for sick call. By the time the early morning sun was burning off the chill from the previous night, breakfast was being served. All in all, just another day at the Garden - except after that day, nothing would ever be the same again.
After breakfast, Quistis Trepe was not in her usual spot, doing what she usually did, which was in the coffee shop enjoying her second cup of coffee of the morning. If she were not on a mission or involved with one errand or another for the Garden, she enjoyed beginning her day with one or more of her friends. Usually she would spend some time with Selphie or Rinoa or once in a great while Squall, who would then have to hurry so as not to be late to morning staff meeting. The young woman had come to look forward to that special time spent with her friends before the hectic schedule of the official day began.
But not on that particular day - that day she was in her small room packing her meager belongings. Garden did not invite clutter as most of the bedrooms were too small to accommodate much in the way of anything extra and plus Quistis was a strong believer in frugality. It helped that students at Garden received no financial reward until they were promoted to SeeDs and/or instructors, so young people there learned early how to survive without any money of their own. This economic conservatism on Quistis' part did not however extend to clothing. The beautiful young woman served as the perfect example of the expression - clothes horse; although there was nothing Equus caballus in her appearance. It was a given that of all the women at the Garden, Quistis had the most exquisite taste in apparel. The major difficulty was tasteful clothing is expensive, therefore Quistis was always in a state of warfare with herself - her innate desire to save money versus her love of new clothes.
Quistis took the extra time to carefully pack her clothing so none of it would arrive at Trabia Garden badly wrinkled. She was particularly happy that her transfer had been approved in time for her to do some last minute shopping in Esthar for warm winter clothing. It was frigid in Trabia, even in the summer time. Quistis was confident that she was doing the right thing, although it certainly shocked her close friends when they first learned she had requested a transfer to Trabia Garden. It had directly followed the board of directors of Trabia Garden deciding for the first time in its history to allow SeeDs to work and reside there. This decision was reached because of the tremendous amount of work still needed to be done in repairs and the absolute dearth of personnel.
Soon after the initial excitement of returning home from time compression had died down, the young woman came to realize that she was no longer happy in Balamb Garden. For sure the first flurry of world adoration extended toward the young heroes had been exciting as they traveled and were feted the world over. She attended so many congratulatory state dinners that she had gained five pounds in two weeks. To raise revenue for the Garden, Cid had hired a PR flack to quickly write a biography of the six young heroes that naturally concluded in their utter destruction of Sorceress Ultimecia. There was even some talk of a movie being made about their adventures. Naturally Quistis had first been flattered to go on the various television talk shows to converse about herself and the book in order to increase sales. She also did numerous book signings; many more than the rest of them because Cid felt the beautiful young woman offered the best image to represent the Garden.
Many people in the world press blamed Cid for shamefully cashing in on a horrible situation, but Cid thought (and rightfully so) that Garden had lost a tremendous amount of revenue through their participation in the war and they needed to recoup somehow. Besides Garden had pledged a certain percentage of the book sales to various countries to help them in their rebuilding.
A couple of months later, all of the uproar surrounding the Garden and their role in the suppression of Ultimecia was pretty much forgotten and had been replaced by something new in the world's thrill parade; all except for the whereabouts of Seifer Almasy. Even though the Garden itself reported him as either dead or missing in action, several countries still listed him as number one on their ten most wanted list. Galbadia, in particular, wished to exonerate itself for its role in the Second Sorceress War by bringing Seifer to the High Tribunal and trying him for war crimes. There was even a five hundred thousand Gil reward out on Seifer - dead or alive. The remuneration was sponsored by Galbadia, Timber, Trabia and East Academy. No one could even remember the last time those governments had ever did anything in tandem. Consequently there were government agents, private detectives and bounty hunters out searching for Seifer. Even the world's most famous bounty hunter, Big Dawg, was hot on his trail, but no luck so far. Quistis was positive from little hints that Cid had dropped in her presence that Garden had been approached to assist in the hunt, but the headmaster had responded that there wasn't enough money in the world to hire them to pursue one of their own. Good for him! Quistis had thought at the time. For once, Cid had stood up to world pressure.
Along this time also, Cid decided to land the Garden permanently in Balamb. There were many reasons to do this, but the primary one was it was cost effective (of course). The cost of flying the Garden constantly around the world was prohibitive. The only one of the six closely knit cohorts negatively affected by this was Quistis. She discovered herself longing for and missing the constant stimulation of always traveling to different places. Through her adventures Quistis now hated the hum drum, the routine, and feeling planted in one place. She considered herself far too young and too bright to already feel trapped by her life. And speaking of her life, the young woman had no idea at all how she wanted to spend it or with who. That was another reason for her disquietude. Quistis hoped she wasn't being neurotic but who did she have? After all, Rinoa had finally convinced Squall to trust her. Quistis realized that she was not only not in that ball game anymore, she wasn't even in the goddamned stadium. Irvine had finally won Selphie's heart and Zell (Hyne help him) had finally woke up and smelled the coffee and was going out with the pigtail girl. Quistis was just too intelligent and realized she had too much going for her to ever feel sorry for herself, but on the other hand she certainly had nobody to keep her anchored to Balamb Garden either.
The former instructor - yes, that was the last straw. Being demoted from an instructor still rankled deep within her soul - being told she lacked leadership qualities - that was so damned unfair. Obviously Quistis had proven her worth as a leader time and time again following her demotion. So what gives? she often wondered. After the first night when she had attempted to share with Squall how badly she felt over it, only to be cruelly pushed away from him, she had always acted as though it hadn't bothered her at all. Quistis had always found it ironic that Squall had done her a huge favor by refusing to commiserate with her, by pointing out that ultimately every individual is on their own and has to deal with their own problems. What hurt almost as much is when Quistis went to Cid to request that he approve a transfer to Trabia Garden for her, he had informed her if she remained, he would promote her to head supervisor of all the instructors. If he had felt that she was qualified to do the job and had earned the promotion, why had the headmaster waited until now? Quistis readily understood the dynamics of the situation. She was offered the position in the same manner that a dog would be offered a bone in hopes of keeping him from running away. And that's the name of that tune, Quistis cynically thought.
Despite it all, the young woman hadn't made up her mind for certain, until she accidentally overheard something she wasn't supposed to. And that's when everything changed.
Rinoa leaned back in the comfortable, overstuffed couch in one of the Garden's TV rooms and flung her left leg unladylike over the arm. It hardly mattered. There was only a handful of SeeDs and upperclassmen in the room, plus she was wearing a pair of knee high shorts. The meager attendance was due to it being only midafternoon and most people were still busy with their duties or their classes.
The young sorceress was basically killing time until Squall arrived to accompany her to the get together Cid was throwing Quistis on her farewell from the Garden. She had felt so betwixt and between during lunch that she had asked Squall to meet her in the TV room. Rinoa ordinarily never watched television, feeling as though practically anything to occupy her time held more validity than that. This sense of feeling lost at sea was something that Rinoa had been feeling more and more lately. The truth be told the dark-haired woman filled no legitimate position at the Garden, fulfilled no job responsibility and her own sense of personal worthlessness was growing steadily day by day.
Only when she was with Squall, did she feel she belonged at the Garden. Certainly her friends did all they could do to make her feel welcome and to spend time with her; but they had their own careers to concentrate on Everyone else in the Garden ignored her, except for the upperclassmen women who made cutting remarks when they were around her, because of their jealousy over her relationship with Squall. Every time she spoke to Zone, who was busy in the rehabilitation of Timber Rinoa felt a little more guilty that she wasn't there following through on the commitment that she had made a long time before. It certainly didn't help that Zone begged her to come back to her emotional home. Of course, he had never kept it a secret that he didn't approve of Squall. And after all, why couldn't she return to Timber and remain there Monday through Friday? It was close enough and easy enough to return to Garden for each weekend.
But what would Squall think? There never was a question what he would do. The taciturn young man would say it was up to her; whatever made her happy made him happy. But would he feel deserted or would he feel relief?
"Where exactly is Seifer Almasy? Is he dead or missing in action as Garden, the mercenary academy from whose loins he sprang would have us believe or is he hiding among the denizens of a large city somewhere as most of the world believes?"
The deep bass voice of Keith Oberberg the announcer of the show "Where are They Now?" cut across Rinoa's ruminating. He continued, "It has been almost six months since the destruction of Sorceress Ultimecia and the disappearance of Seifer Almasy, along with his two cohorts. Is it possible he is still alive? Yes, according to many eye witnesses spread world wide. We could spend hours showing you interviews we have had with citizens in every major city who say they have spotted him. But no matter - we're still no closer to finding him than we were on the day time compression ended. Let's go to our correspondent in Esthar, Emily Litella."
A dark-haired pigtailed woman, who wore unattractive black framed glasses appeared on the screen. "Hello, Kirk," she said.
"That's Keith, Emily," the announcer off screen corrected her.
Rinoa giggled at the ridiculousness of it all, when suddenly she was aware Squall was standing beside her. "I have been looking for Seifer Almasy high and low," the woman announcer continued. "And Kurt, I can't find him anywhere."
"That's Keith, Emily," Keith Oberberg corrected her again.
Squall scowled and said, "Let's go, Rinoa."
A male SeeD picked up the remote and quickly changed the TV channel to Deling Cartoon Channel. It was well known that the commander could not stand any mention of Seifer in his presence.
Before things could get worse, Rinoa quickly stood up and followed Squall from the room. The young man and woman had not traveled very far down the corridor when Rinoa heard the television being changed back to the original channel. From Squall tensing for a second, his girlfriend realized he hadn't missed the transition either.
Seifer this and Seifer that, Squall thought. I am so sick of hearing about Seifer. What's the big deal? He's a no good criminal who tried to kill Rinoa, torture me to death and help destroy the whole world. Who cares where he is? If I knew where he was at, I'd kill him. I should have killed him before, it would have saved everyone a lot of trouble.
"Why so quiet?" Rinoa asked and then smiled at him.
"Oh, just thinking, Squall said, attempting to sound casual.
Yeah, about Seifer, the young woman thought.
Squall had been so distant lately. The longer that they had been back from time compression, the more disaffected Squall had become. Squall never had been loquacious, but now he was down right silent. It was difficult to entice a coherent sentence out of him.
"It's too bad about Quistis, isn't it?" Rinoa asked.
"Huh, what, oh yeah, I guess," Squall agreed.
"I wonder why she wants to leave?" Rinoa tried again.
"I guess she doesn't want to stay here," Squall said.
"Oh, Squall," Rinoa sighed.
"What?"
"Oh, never mind," Rinoa said, and then fell silent by his side.
It'd be different if there was a reason Squall had to remain a commander. As much as he didn't like to admit it, there was a rationale when he took over the running of the Garden originally. Cid was caught betwixt and between the Garden's responsibility to find and kill the sorceress and the sorceress being his wife. But now? Cid had taken back over as headmaster - as well he should. It was his dream from the beginning. It wouldn't be right that he wasn't running it. But why did Squall have to stay on as commander? Why couldn't he just become an ordinary SeeD again? That's all he wanted. Whenever Squall attempted to broach the subject with Cid, he was told to wait.
It seemed to Squall that the only alternative he had, other than being miserable in the commander position, was to resign and leave the Garden. A feeling of hopelessness always passed through Squall whenever he considered that option. What would he do then? What had Squall been trained to do - other than to be a mercenary? In his more whimsical moments, he imagined he could open a "Ye Olde Mercenary Shop" and Rinoa could be his receptionist. Or maybe he could hire himself out as a wandering samurai. With each passing day he felt more helpless in discovering a solution. But what was worse than that - with each passing day, he buried his feelings deeper.
Unfortunately all of his feelings were being buried. He was lately finding it difficult to even wish Rinoa a good morning. He was afraid he was going to lose her, but he seemed to be unable to stop the vicious cycle.
Traveling in the elevator to the second highest floor of the Garden, Rinoa, without looking, fumbled about for Squall's hand. Finally locating it, she grasped it and squeezed. Squall looked down into her beautiful beaming face and nodded,
Hyne help me, he thought, greatly alarmed. I just nodded at her - like she was a business associate.
"Rinoa," Squall said.
"What, Squall?"
The elevator landed at the desired floor and the doors opened. The two young people stepped out and began walking down the corridor to Cid's private quarters.
"I'll - I'll tell you later," he stuttered.
See that you do, You've been leaving a lot out lately, Rinoa thought.
"Rinoa, I've been thinking of leaving SeeD," Squall blurted out.
Rinoa was silent for several shocked seconds and then asked, "Really?"
"Yeah."
"What would you do instead?" she said.
"I don't know," admitted Squall. "Maybe sell vacuum cleaners door to door?"
Rinoa laughed and then said, "You're putting me on? Right?"
"Nope," Squall said, shaking his head. "Not in the slightest."
By now, they were standing in front of Cid's door.
"Squall, I don't know what to say," Rinoa admitted.
"That's not strange, I don't either."
Suddenly Cid's door was ripped open. "There you two slowpokes are!" Selphie's voice boomed out shrilly; both qualities being part of her normal speech pattern.
"I told you I heard them out here. Come in, come in," Selphie welcomed, first pulling Rinoa into Cid's apartment and then Squall. She shut the door behind them.
Before neither one of them could protest, Cid thrust glasses of champagne into their hands. "It's domestic," he explained.
Irvine snorted and said, "He means it's from Balamb."
"Now, now," Cid said, stepping back from the two newcomers. "It behooves us to patronize the businesses in Balamb."
"I didn't know they had any vineyards in Balamb," Rinoa commented.
Cid coughed slightly and explained, "Well, they don't actually, but they press the grapes here."
"Nothing is too good for Quistis," Zell said, raising his glass high.
It was altogether too obvious that his glass wasn't the only thing in the room that was high. Kasumi, the pigtailed girl from the library and currently Zell's girlfriend, pulled his arm down and cautioned, "Shush, Zell."
"I've asked you all together today to wish Quistis a fond farewell -," Cid began.
Selphie began to weep gently.
Irvine reached out and touched the green-eyed SeeD on the arm, "It'll be okay, Sefie. Quistis isn't moving to the moon."
This unfortunate allusion brought back unpleasant memories to Rinoa and she winced slightly.
Glancing around the small apartment, Rinoa asked, "Where's Edea?"
Cid flushed and said, "Uh, Edea is very sorry she couldn't attend. She had a prior commitment."
A prior commitment hanging out at an orphanage? The sorceress thought with a snort.
Cid glanced unpleasantly at her and began again. "We're meeting today to wish our close friend and cohort, Quistis -."
Selphie sobbed much more loudly at this statement.
"Selphie, please!" Cid snapped at her.
"Oh, to heck with it," Squall suddenly said. Holding up his champagne glass up and waiting until everyone else had done the same, save for Selphie, Squall said, "Quistis has asked for a transfer to Trabia Garden. It has been approved and she will be leaving. We wish her good bye and good luck."
Six glasses were clinked together in unison, Zell clicked his with the air, missing the other glasses rather badly and Selphie was still crying. Rinoa tried a sip of her champagne, winced and set the glass down surreptitiously.
"When are you leaving, Quistis?" Rinoa asked,
"Later this afternoon."
"Oh my God, what am I gonna do?" Selphie wailed, and began to cry again.
"Can't wait to get away, huh Quisty?" Irvine said with a smile.
"What a hideous thing to say," Selphie whined.
"Lighten up, Sefie. It was a joke," Irvine complained.
Zell turned his glass up and finished his champagne. He held up his glass for a refill. "Could I have snother bun? I mean an udder come, please?"
"I think you've had enough, Zell," Kasumi said and took the fragile glass from his hand before he dropped it.
"Killjoy," he muttered, just before he staggered a few steps and fell heavily onto a chair.
Kasumi smiled embarrassedly at everyone.
As Selphie continued to weep, Quistis stepped forward and took her friend by her hand.
"It's not the end of the world, Selphie," her good friend said. "I'll be coming to Balamb some for the holidays and you're not exactly a stranger at Trabia."
The two young women embraced in a big hug. "You're right, Quisty. I'm sorry about acting like such a zit. It's just that somehow I always thought we would always be together - until we're old and gray."
"Yeah, I can just see that. A senile old Selphie doddering around trying to get Squall to show her around the Garden," Irvine said.
As everyone laughed, Rinoa had to admit to herself that Irvine was a master at helping any situation, no matter how dire it had become, to lighten up.
Quistis placed her glass down on a small end table and said, "Thank you so much, everybody. I'd like to stay, but I have some last minute packing to do before I leave."
She's lying, Rinoa thought. There was always a certain tenseness that Rinoa could pick up on whenever Quistis lied. But I can hardly blame her for wanting to leave. This is terrible.
Quistis presented Selphie a quick kiss on the cheek and then walked to the door. Just before leaving, she turned and offered a quick wave. "See you around."
And then Quistis was gone from their lives.