Author's Notes: Well, this is gonna be short. I've had this fic done for months, and I haven't gotten around to writing the author notes for it. So here they are. This is the "much anticipated" Children of Fate fic, which is a compilation of posts and written works by myself, Katie (Stickz), and Rin (Fala). Although this particular chapter was written solely by me. There were also other people who added some stuff, but I have yet to even chapter-ize that, so I'll get to that when it happens.
This chapter is set up a different way than I usually write. Each chapter starts with a character's biography. So their name, age, gender, weapon prefs, Limit Breaks, et cetera. After that, there's the chapter itself. You can tell where each bios ends when you see "Chapter #, Title " . Alright? This way, for the newly introduced characters, you can figure out who they are. Anyway, onto the Disclaimer, then the fic itself.
A NOTE: This fic takes place a month after the events in the game. The randomly decided date we came up with was December 1st, 2130CE. In our heads, we decided the day Ultimecia died was October 31st. Alright? Alright. Just in case you don't bother to read the bio...
Disclaimer: Yeah, I own nothing. Well, I own stuff, the stuff I own just doesn't happen to include Square or any of their games. Well, I own their games...just not, OWN own. Ah, you get my picture. Squall, Zell, Rinoa, the rest of the Final Fantasy VIII cast, locations, GF, magic, Limits, et cetera, is all owned by Square or Squaresoft or Square-Enix or whatever they wanna call themselves. All I own is randomly created characters (Damien, Devas, Katherine, Geoff, Seth, Luke, et cetera) and maybe some other stuff. And this story, though even that I share with some other amazing people. Anyway, without further adieu, I own nothing, on with the story!
Children of Fate
The Fic
Chapter 1
Squall
Name: Squall Leonhart
Age: 17
Gender: Male
Nicknames: Lion, Lone Wolf, Leonhart, Squallie
Date of Birth: August 23
Hair: medium brown, and somewhat long. Very spiky.
Eyes: Ice blue/grey. Can change depending on dominant GFHeight: 5' 8"
Weight: unknown
Distinguishing features: a long scar running from above his right eyebrow diagonally to the middle of his left cheek.
Weapon preference: Gunblade
Limit: Renzokuken; Lionheart, Blasting Zone, Fated Circle, Rough Divide.
Clothes: Informal/Battle: A short black leather jacket with a fur collar, a white T-Shirt, black leather pants. Two criss-crossing belts, along with a third holding up his pants, and a ring and necklace with the Greiver symbol on it. Black boots and black leather gloves. A sheath for his gunblade.
Formal: His SeeD uniform.
Social Behaviour: Squall is a loner. He has problems expressing his emotions and ideas, for fear of being wrong or different. He is an anti-social young man because as a child all those he cared for abandoned him. He believed that so long as he didn't make any friends he wouldn't have to experience that kind of pain again. After the events of the Second Sorceress War, he realized he can have friends, and needs them. He doesn't talk more than he has to, and because of this comes off as selfish, self-absorbed and uncaring. In reality Squall is a very caring person, but he doesn't like to get involved in others affairs. He is serious and tries his best not to show himself off. Basically, Squall is a lone wolf.
Weaknesses: Squall fears being alone. When it comes to those he cares about, he will do anything to keep them from being hurt. He also appears to are about what people think of him, even though he says he doesn't.
Squall was an orphan. At some point between his birth and about the age of four, he found himself at Edea's Orphanage in the Centra region. There, he lived with his Matron, Edea, and the other children she kept. Here were his 'Sis' Ellone; Zell, Seifer, Quistis, Selphie, and Irvine. Some other children were also kept here. Around five, Ellone left the orphanage to live on Edea's SeeD ship, and Squall spent the next few months looking for her, to no avail.
At about five or six, Squall was sent to the newly constructed Balamb Garden, whose headmaster happened also to be the husband of his 'Matron'. There he stayed and grew up, along with fellow 'child' Seifer. The boys became rivals, and when Squall was nine Quistis joined Garden. She became a moderator, always breaking up their fights. At thirteen Zell also became a student at Garden, and shortly thereafter Quistis became his Instructor. At seventeen Squall decided to become a SeeD. He took the written exam with some fellow students and passed. Before he was able to finish his field exam, he was challenged to a fight by his ever-rival Seifer. The battle left the boys with mirror image scars across each other's faces and Squall in the Infirmary. Quistis helped him in his field exam at getting the GF Ifrit and he was sent on a field mission to Dollet to prove himself a SeeD. On this mission he was paired with Seifer and Zell, and of course Seifer was the leader. Squall and Zell would have failed their mission had it not been for Selphie, a messenger from another squad. Together Squall, Zell and Selphie passed the SeeD exam along with Nida, and Seifer was left to take all the blame. At the inauguration party, Squall met a beautiful girl. They danced almost all night until the girl suddenly left. Squall also discovered that night that Quistis was no longer an instructor at Garden.
The next morning, headmaster Cid tells Squall, Zell and Selphie of their first and newest mission. They are to liberate the town of Timber from Galbadian rule. On the train ride there the party falls into a dream-like state, and meet Laguna, Ward and Kiros for the first time. Once they arrive in Timber, they quickly discover that the girl at the dance was the one they are working for, and that her name is Rinoa. Somehow they end up trying to overthrow the President, which fails. Meanwhile Seifer escapes from Garden and makes his way to Timber and attacks the President of Galbadia. The president was introducing his ambassador, the sorceress. Quistis had followed Seifer and the gang meet up and somehow (Zell) the president discovers all of them were from Garden. This leads to an escape from Timber and a trip to the closest Garden, Galbadia.
At Galbadia Garden, he was given yet another mission, supposedly a joint mission between Balamb and Galbadia Gardens. Squall was to assassinate the Sorceress. To help Squall with this Irvine was introduced, and the gang made their way to Galbadia's capital, Deling City.
In Deling City, the group met up with General Caraway, who is also Rinoa's father. General Caraway gave the group their mission briefing and the group was separated, leaving Squall with Irvine, to carry out the assassination plan. If Irvine missed, it was up to Squall to take on the sorceress face to face. Unfortunately, Rinoa managed to get herself captured by the sorceress and Squall, with Irvine, had to save her. Just before, they watched the President murdered by the sorceress. When the time came, Irvine failed the assassination attempt, and Squall goes to confront the sorceress. He has to go through the sorceress' knight first; Seifer. The two fought and Seifer lost. Then, with the help of Irvine and Rinoa, he took on the sorceress. Unfortunately, they lost at the last moment when the sorceress used her Ice Strike Limit, and the group; minus Irvine, ended up in the D-District Prison.
With Irvine's (reluctant) help, the group escaped the prison, only to learn that the sorceress and Seifer were going to destroy both Trabia and Balamb Gardens and kill all the SeeD. The group separates again, and Squall made his way back to Balamb Garden to warn the students and Cid. The Garden was in chaos when he arrived with two friends in tow. The Garden Master NORG had the students and faculty of Garden searching for Cid, violently. SeeD and some of the students were protecting Cid's whereabouts, including Xu. The three also found Fujin and Raijin, who both agreed to help spread the word of the missiles. After finding Xu, Squall and the two others went to speak with Cid, led by Xu. Cid tells of a secret MD Level to the Garden, once used when the garden was a Centra Shelter, and Squall takes it upon himself to find out the secrets of the level, hoping it might save Garden. Below, he discovers the hidden ability of the Garden. . . mobility. The Garden came from its resting place outside Balamb and floated past the town and plunged itself into the ocean, floating on its waves, uncontrollable.
During the drift, Squall meets and defeated NORG, and discovered that in fact the mission to destroy the sorceress had not been from Balamb Garden, and that the sorceress, Edea, is Cid's wife!!!
The Garden floated to the city of Fisherman's Horizon, built on top of the ocean. Squall is sent to apologize for the rough entrance of the Garden, and he sees that the town is being overrun by Galbadian soldiers. After eliminating the threat, Squall is reunited with the other members of his team, those who went to 'stop' the missiles. (They had failed; Trabia Garden was almost totally destroyed, and had Balamb Garden not become mobile, it would have been destroyed too.). Squall discovers the Galbadians were searching for a young woman named Ellone for the sorceress. With Nida as pilot, the gang went to discover what had happened to Balamb, and discover it too overrun by Galbadia.
The group liberates Balamb, and Squall discovers that Raijin and Fujin are now working for the sorceress. From here, on Quisits' plea on behalf of Selphie, Squall takes the Balamb Garden to Trabia's destroyed one. Once here, Squall and the gang look around before remembering something. They all used to live at the same place. All of them but Rinoa. They remembered the orphanage and each other and then, her. Their matron. The sorceress Edea. With this new knowledge, Squall took Garden to the abandoned building once known as Edea's Orphanage.
Just before reaching their destination, Galbadia Garden, now mobile as well, attacks. During their first wave, Rinoa is left hanging onto fragments of the destroyed Quad as a section of it falls away from a hit from the other Garden. Squall manages to save her using a Galbadian flying-Armor-type suit. They ride it to the Galbadia Garden entrance, and join up with the other four inside. Here, Squall leads the group to a battle with Seifer, who loses. Edea and her knight disappear through the floor, into the Garden's auditorium. Here, they defeat Seifer before taking on Edea. Their Matron acted quite differently then they remembered her, and finally defeated her. Somehow, Edea seems to change and become her old self again...and Rinoa goes into a coma.
Squall learned Edea was possessed by a sorceress in the future named Ultimecia. Ultimecia's goal is to defeat and destroy SeeD. Ultimecia's goal was Time Compression, a state where past, present and future combine and one sorceress would be given supreme powers. She possessed Edea but somehow, Edea decided, she managed to suppress the evil sorceress. Squall remembers Ellone's powers, the power to time travel, and searches her out only to discover she has gone to the mysterious Esthar. So, they begin their search. Squall finds a way to the Esthar continent via the train tracks of Horizon Bridge. After arriving, they search the seemingly empty continent and find the hidden city. Squall meets with the very eccentric yet supposedly expert Doctor Odine, and the mad doctor tells him they have the necessary equipment on board the Lunar Base, in space. Squall goes to the Lunar Gate, where he leaves Zell in charge to protect Edea while he, Rinoa, and another head into space. Still in a coma, Rinoa is placed in a secure room to sleep while they wait on treatment. Once they searched the space station, they found Ellone.
Ellone explains some things to Squall, before an alarm goes off. Rinoa, no more comatose, has escaped and is going out into space. At the same time, on Earth, the Galbadians, not stopped by Zell and the others, find the Lunatic Pandora and place it atop Tear's Point. The had begun a Lunar Cry, and those of the space station could see it. Rinoa is trying to free Adel, the evil sorceress that took over Esthar years before until finally being stopped by a mysterious someone almost 17 years before. She was asleep here, with no magic, no junctions, no nothing. The Space Station was created to block out all kinds of waves that may awaken the sleeping sorceress. Including the radio waves down on Earth. Rinoa frees Adel before Squall could stop her, and the tomb holding Adel's body plummets back down to Earth via the Lunar Cry, and Rinoa with it. Squall manages somehow to save Rinoa himself, and the two find an abandoned spaceship that they use for protection. Inside it, the two discovered it was infested with aliens called Propagator, and after defeating them used the spaceship: Ragnarok. Inside, they learn that Rinoa too was possessed by Ultimecia, how now sleeps with Adel, and is a sorceress. Squall and Rinoa manage to return to Earth with the help of some people from Esthar.
Once returned, Squall discovers that Rinoa is to be taken to Esthar's Sorceress Memorial to be made safe to the rest of humanity, sealed away much like Adel was. Taken away as soon as they landed, Rinoa said her goodbyes as Squall learned that Ellone had been captured by the Galbadians. With a bit of coaxing from Zell and Quistis, Squall decided to rescue Rinoa, with a spunky Selphie piloting the spaceship. With help, Squall rescues Rinoa and they flee to Edea's house, almost stopped by soldiers had it not been for a mysterious large man. At Edea's house, in her field of flowers, Rinoa and Squall make a promise to be here, in the field, if they ever get separated. Then, Zell came in to tell them some news. The President of Esthar wishes to see them. The scariest thing? The Aide who requested their presence was Kiros. The gang arrived and discovered that Laguna Loire was the President of Esthar, with Kiros and a mute Ward as his Aides. Laguna told Squall of his plan to rescue Ellone, who was being help within the Lunatic Pandora with a still comatose Sorceress Adel and a possessed Knight Seifer. With Laguna, Kiros and Ward onboard the Ragnarok, the group went to the Lunatic Pandora to save Ellone and begin the Time Compression that Ultimecia longed for by killing Adel.
Inside the Pandora, Squall defeated Fujin and Raijin, who escaped deeper into the Pandora to warn their leader Seifer. They were finished working for him. They might be a posse but they no longer agreed with what he did. Further inside, Squall discovers Raijin, Fujin, Seifer and Ellone. Fujin and Raijin release Ellone into the safety of Laguna before telling Seifer how they feel. The usually QUIET Fujin giving Seifer a speech on their friendship before retreating from the Pandora. Then Seifer attacks Squall and the others. Odin goes to attack and kill Seifer but at the last moment Seifer gives the Death GF a taste of his own medicine and kills Odin (after Time Compression ended it was discovered he was really not dead, or if he was the Compression of Time brought him back) Before Squall can defeat Seifer himself, a mysterious new GF, Gilgamesh, does the job for him, taking Odin's sword and seemingly defeating Seifer. Rinoa, saddened by Seifer's 'death', runs off, only to have Seifer stand right after she leaves. He grinned at Squall and ran after Rinoa, capturing her and bringing her to Adel.
The group minus Rinoa confront Adel and Seifer, with a screaming Rinoa attached to the 12 foot tall sorceress' chest, drawing strength and Magics from the defenceless girl. The manage to kill Adel without killing Rinoa in the process and Ellone instigates Time Compression, sending Ultimecia's consciousness to the future and then bringing Rinoa's back to the present before setting the Time Compression into full swing. Squall and the others are pulled into a world some unknown amount of time into the future. They face off against various Sorceresses throughout time before making their way from what they thought was Edea's House. Outside, the landscape changes, and before Squall stood not the Lighthouse, but a floating Castle, Ultimecia's Castle. Squall past the bodies of dead SeeD, and continued up the large chain links keeping the castle from floating off into the sky.
On their way, they past 4 portals to various other places on Earth, and managed to regain control of Ragnarok and find Xu and the rest of the Card Club still safe. Squall and company then returned to Ultimecia's Castle and entered, discovering the had no use of various battle commands, and the ability to save. In order to regain them, they defeated various bosses scattered throughout Ultimecia's Castle, including a monster that was once known as Bahamut. Before facing Ultimecia, Squall took on ultimate monster Omega Weapon and made his way to the top of the Castle. To the Master's Room where Ultimecia waited.
Inside Ultimecia's chambers, the teenagers were confronted by a young, silver haired woman they knew as Ultimecia. After her speech of temporal domination and ending the lives of all SeeD, she attacked, using powerful Magics and special abilities to take out the would-be heros. They defeated her once, and she summoned the most powerful of GFs. Griever. The GF represented in Squall's Ring. They battled it and managed to defeat it too, only for the GF to junction itself with Ultimecia. After taking the combined two out, stars began falling around them, and they stood on seemingly starry space, alone. Until, of course, Ultimecia appeared in her true and final form. She used the most powerful Apocalypse magic against them and an attack called Hell's Judgment that lowered the party's HP to one. She spoke, her words sad and disturbing. Using a Holy War, Squall used the one HP and the Invincible status to use his Limit, ending with the finishing move Lionheart. Ultimecia had finally taken too much damage. Her dying words only audible by Squall. The Time Compressed world began to change back and the group all slipped back into their own time.
Except Squall.
He ended up at Edea's Orphanage, and saw his Matron, Edea, watching over a smaller version of himself. He told her about SeeD and Garden, before being interrupted by an also time-trekked Ultimecia. The woman was dying, but needed someone to pass her powers onto. Edea accepted those powers, as so none of the other children would become a sorceress. Edea, after all, had been a sorceress since birth as well. How ironic that the powers she received that day were in fact the powers of the sorceress the children she raised who later defeat. After Ultimecia disappeared into death, and the young Squall returned, Edea asked Squall to return to his time, and Squall knew now he could. And he disappeared. . .
. . . Only to find himself lost in time with no one to help him come back. The nightmare Rinoa had was playing out in reality. At the last moment, Rinoa rescued him and they returned to the present. About a week after Ultimecia's demise in the once-again normal time, there was a party to celebrate their accomplishments. Squall and Rinoa stood on the balcony to the Ballroom and looked at the shooting star before kissing for the first time.
The other three weeks had been uneventful. Squall was appointed official Headmaster of Balamb Garden and in turn appointed Quistis, Zell and Selphie instructors. Irvine and Rinoa were both given the option to apply for SeeDship. Squall also was given the authority to create other Gardens around the world, and Esthar and Fisherman's Horizon aided in the reconstruction of Trabia Garden before setting the plans for other Gardens into motion. It was a very hectic month, with a lot of mission debriefings, paperwork and craziness. Things are finally starting to settle down again. There was just two things that bothered him. Ultimecia's cryptic dying words.
And his unknown desire to head to the Trabian Snowfields.
Chapter 1- Fade Out
Squall Point of View
A dark, spiky haired teenager wandered slowly to the dorms. Me. I had had a long day. There was a lot of paperwork to handle. Everyday more students were joining Garden, and everyday I had to deal with SeeD missions, various committees within Garden, and external affairs. It was driving me slowly insane.
I sighed. 'Finally', I thought. 'Sleep.'
I had been working 18 hours straight. I started at 9AM, and was finally finished enough that I could sleep. It was 3AM. And I had to be up and back to work at 8AM latest.
Being headmaster sucks.
I turned down the hallway leading to the boys' dorms.
Why I had let them give me the job of Headmaster at Balamb Garden when Headmaster Cid moved back to the Orphanage-soon-to-be-Garden in Centra, I don't know.
'Sleep. What need now is about twelve hours of sleep. . .'
I rolled my eyes, continuing to the elite dorms at Garden. I passed the SeeD dorm rooms, then the Instructor suites, before finally coming to the end of the hall.
The Headmaster's suite. They had to build an addition for it, since before the Headmaster's room had been on the third floor.
Too bad about the whole 'third floor no longer private' thing. Really messed things up.
I dug into my pocket, barely awake. I pulled out my ID card and swiped it across the lock, typing in '4-9-4' into the keypad and hearing the faint beep before sliding silently open, revealing a colourless room.
I glanced around the spacious suite. Being Headmaster wasn't so bad. The pay sucked, but the room was nice. I shrugged off my leather jacket and hung it over the back of a dining room chair. I kicked off my boots into a shadowy corner by the door and moved slowly to the bedroom, turning on and off lights as I went.
I slipped into the bedroom, contemplating the usefulness of getting changed. I undid the multiple belts, and decided to skip the changing thing, to collapse into the softness and comfortableness of my bed. The Lion Heart glowed pale blue in the corner, a natural night-light.
And as if being headmaster isn't hard enough, I also have to double as an instructor. And, of all subjects, English. I have no idea how they talked me into that. I know we're having an instructors shortage; with many of them either leaving Garden while we were in Esthar or dying in the battle against Galbadia Garden trying to protect the Junior Classmen. So, without an English or Psychology instructor, they needed someone to teach it. And for English, it was me or Zell. Zell contracts words that can't be contracted, my favourite sentence is ''...'' . So, guess who gets stuck teaching it. . . ?
I close my eyes, wishing for Ellone's powers right about now.
Compressing time seems like a fairly decent idea right about now . . .
I slipped into dreams, one thought on my mind. . . .
I am NOT a morning person.
My sleep came easily. And, same as with every night in the past four weeks, so did my dreams.
The Dream.
My Dream.
The dream was reoccurring. It never changed, except for the inclusion or deletion or certain scenes. Otherwise, it was the same dream. Night after night. It haunted me.
I killed Ultimecia.
And now I would pay. . . . With my sanity.
Dream Sequence: Fallen Ones
A lone figure stood in a barren waste land. Me. I was alone, my worst fear. My dark hair and clothes blending me into the dark stone around me. My pale blue weapon suspended at my side. I lifted my head, looking from side to side.
"Where am I?"
The voice was my own, but I knew the answer already. I had been here often. I then turned to walk, my footsteps heavy with fatigue and hopelessness. I knew how it ended.
My footsteps became leaden, and my pace slowed to near non-existence. I fell. My energy wasted, I collapsed roughly to the ground, the sharp stone jabbing my side. If I'd had the energy, I would have cried out in pain. But I couldn't, and wouldn't. It was no use. I was alone. A lone tear slid down my cheek, freezing into a shard of ice before it could be free of my face. A wave of exhaustion came over me.
"I give up."
And with that, I slipped into unconsciousness.
I awoke, but I was no longer where I had begun. The ground was black. I felt suspended, and soon realized why. Stars shot across the black sky, which doubled as ground as well. I heard a voice, far off. I recognized it.
Ultimecia.
I stood, with much effort, and felt a breath on the back of my neck. I spun to face the nameless stalker.
It was her.
The silver-haired sorceress stood as she had before he death. Her red dress made redder by the blood of her veins. Her skin pale from exhaustion, the purple and red tattoos of her face and body standing out against its paleness. I whispered her name.
"Ultimecia."
She smiled faintly, and spoke, her voice lacking the accent she had developed over her life. Her voice reverting for the first time in years to the way it sounded then. When her knight had been alive, with her. She spoke now, the same words she spoke the moment before her death, before I took the final, fatal slash of Lion Heart. The words placed in my mind.
"Awoken from a sleep Eternal, the Childhood years all gone. Fated Children arise and search, preparing a new era's dawn. The seeds of the future lie buried in the past. Everything happens for a reason. Let not the ice shatter you, but instead freeze your fears. Go to the Garden of Truth, the Garden of Spring's truth. With fiery truth, burn the evil of the world. In fiery truth, light the darkness of this world. Be well, Child of Fate. These days, they've died. All is not what it seems, to find the truth, search your dreams."
With that, I felt a sharp pain across my face, and the scar from my gunblade fight bled once more. The blood ran down my face, into my eyes, my nose, my mouth. I let out a scream and clutched my face in pain. I felt myself fall. Just as I had fallen after I completed the fated limit that ended the possessed sorceress' life. A fallen one for a fallen one. The blood seeped through my hands, falling to the ground. I could not see her, but I knew she was gone. I screamed.
I was awake.
As it always happened.
I lay in the bed, sweat frozen to me. I shivered, pulling the blankets over my chilled body. I turned on my side, searching a more comfortable position. Then something out of the ordinary happened. That was when I saw it.
A drop of blood, still wet on my pillow.
". . . Was it a dream this time? Or was it. . . real. . .?"
I awoke from my half hour of dreamless sleep. I had given up trying to sleep now, and got myself out of bed. I took a quick shower and dressed into my casual clothes, still stretching in order to fully wake myself up. I strapped the gunblade to my hip and walked out of the dorms. I wasn't quite sure where I was going. I was just walking to keep myself awake. I sighed, my words sleep -riddled.
"I need some caffeine before I collapse."
'. . . Cafeteria it is.'
Author's Notes2: Yeah, there it is. Chapter One. In case you're confused, this story follows the events of "Your Final Fantasy Ends at Eight". Squall's headmaster, as well as an instructor, and he's having crazy-realistic dreams. Lot's of confusingness all round. Well, hope it didn't suck. If you're interested, check out the site listed in my bio [click my name], and go there, you'll see where I've been getting some of this. Anyway, chapter 2 should also be up, so move on, person.