Ok. So this is awkward. I usually don't write fan fictions. (You'll probably notice that cough), but this story got stuck in my brains and wanted to come out. So I let it, and unleash it on the world, now.

I am NOT a native English-speaker. So not. So I'll apologize for the mistakes. If somebody wants to point them out to me, or even so the beta-reading-stuff, just yell at me. I'd be glad. No, really ) (if someone actually wants to know the rest of this crap, that is)

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Disclaimers? Usual stuff, square rules and I don't. And I don't like Rinoa.

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Psssscht

The aspirin tablet made a happy sound as it danced towards the bottom of the water glass. Squall hated aspirin. It always left a nasty white rim on the glass, and it tasted awfully salty. Plus it gave the plain water one drank afterwards a weird taste.

Just… horrible. Squall tried to avoid it as much as he could. But on days like these, when the paperwork piles would just look as high as they had in the morning, he forced himself to take something against the hammering headaches.

And today was such a day. A day, on which he almost regretted Rinoa leaving him. She was a clumsy and untalented bit of a sorceress, but she knew how to use curga at its full potential.

Someone knocked at the door. Not too loud, in a discrete way, but yet firmly. Quistis.

The commander wondered if it was a good sign that he could identify his co-workers by the way they knocked at his door.

"Hng?" he grunted, knowing that Quistis was going to translate that into a "Come on in, and show me all the extra work you brought me today."

And so she did.

"Good evening, Squall", she said, entering the room and standing still before his desk. She always stood, never taking the seat Squall offered her every time. He began to think that it was some kind of silent protest against the unconfortableness of those chairs.

Squall leaned backwards, the glass of now bubbling water in one hand, yet not quite decided to drink it up. "Evening. Brought me something?" he asked, dryly. The headache was killing him.

Quistis nodded. "It just entered ten minutes ago", she said, "it's a request. From Trabia."

Squall just waved his hand in a "I don't really care" sort of way. "Whatever it is, just send Selphie. They like her, she likes them, and all's going to be fine, end of the problem. Now if you'll excuse me…"

"They're not asking for help to come. They want to send someone here." Quistis' voice was calm as always. She probably knew how annoying that late request must be for the commander, and yet she was too serious to just putting it on the to-do list. "One of their soon-to-be SeeDs turned out to be a sorceress." She shuffled through the papers she had brought with her, "and Trabia still lacks the infrastructure to protect her for now. So they want to send her here."

Squall rubbed his eyes. "Wait. SeeDs. Protect. A sorceress? Where's the sense in that?"

Quistis narrowed her eyes a slight bit and muttered something that sounded much like "look at who's speaking" and added, in a louder voice "They just want to make sure nothing bad is going to happen. As it seems, this sorceress, if well trained, could be quite powerful. I suppose the Trabia Garden just doesn't what anything or anyone taking her over."

"Just who should do that?" The headache was now pounding against Squalls temples, making him feel sick for a moment. "There's no one who could do that, Ultimecia's…"

"It's a quite widely spread rumor that she didn't really die. I know we killed her body, but there's no proof her soul or spirit or so didn't escape form compression as we did."

Squall looked at her blankly. "Have you been hanging around Odyne lately, Quistis?"

She pulled some strands of hair behind her ear nervously. "Just that one time. Don't really want the repeat the experience, trust me." Then she straightened again. "I think we should help.

Squall sighted. It was obvious that Quistis had already taken the decision, and there was no possibility she was not going to have her way. He wasn't going to give up so easily though. A sorceress meant trouble. And he liked avoiding trouble.

"So, what do we know about her anyway?"

Quistis fumbled through her papers again, looking for the right beginning. "Well, her name's Mary Sue Darling…"

Squall winced inwardly. 'Darling'. That name was just so… so… it almost beat 'Heartilly'. And for Mary Sue... that wasn't any better. It seemed just too perfect.

"She's the daughter of a well known Trabian actress and the ambassador of Estar in Trabia. She entered the Garden at an early age, being quite talented. She took up gunblading, by the way. She has first class ranks and she's already able to beat the instructors. Her powers only got noticed recently, after the war, but they are already good enough to match with Rinoa's."

Squall snorted. That sounded perfectly like a 'Mary Sue' to him. And he was quite sure he didn't want such a monster near him. Not at all.

Not noticing her commander's unease, Quistis continued. "It was clear from the beginning that she couldn't stay in Trabia. So she chose the Balamb Garden as her new home."

Squall peeked at her through his messy bangs. "Why Balamb? There are other Gardens out there…"

That seemed to be the no-no question, as Quistis suddenly became very, very annoyed and very, very nervous at the same time. Not an easy task, but she did fine.

"It's because… well, how to put it? She requested for a knight. She being a sorceress, she might have assumed that she also had a right to have a knight."

"And?"

"Well, she requested for a certain person…" Quistis unease was growing with every word.

Squall shut his eyes, and began a metal mantra not me not me not me not me not me not me not me, please, not me

"Who?"

Quistis shifted her weight on her left leg. She rolled her tongue in her mouth, as if it were very hard to pronounce the name and give some proper sound to it.

"She requested for Sir…" she made a pause, as to show that word just how much she hated it, "Sir Seifer."