Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy 8...

A/n: This story went through a LOT of title changes... none of them good mind you. If you have suggestions for a better title, tell me! My email is drunkpenpen@hotmail.com . Thank you. NOTE: The title doesn't have to make sense... just needs to sound cool, tee-hee!

Summary: AU! One night at Balamb Garden, there is a power outage and a mysterious song plays through the night. The next morning reports of an odd creature are sited throughout the island. 'The Ocarina plays and the dance of change begins.'

~* SeeD//OCARINA *~

~ Chapter ONE: Cat of 'The Western Wind' ~

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"SIR!!" A man sitting at a desk screamed as his computer flashed a red warning sign that read 'warning'. "The entire system of computers in Garden are malfunctioning!!" He yelled again, looking back to his screen.

"What!?" exclaimed Headmaster Kramer in amazement. "How's that possible!? Did someone hack into the system!?" He asked, panicked at the fact. The overhead lights flickered off in the large office, full of employees and their computers. "Huh?" Kramer gasped silently.

"]It's overwriting the Garden system files!" Another employee yelled, standing from their desk.

"It's hacked into the student record's system!" Another employee yelled, also standing from their desk. The employee looked back to their computer screen and turned back to Kramer. "It's head for the main power generator! It's going to shut off all the power in Garden!" The employee exclaimed in astonishment.

"What is this virus doing?" Kramer questioned quietly and to himself.

*

"YEAH!" A girl with dark brunette hair exclaimed with excitement as she tilted her chair back and kicked her legs up on her desk. She flicked on her room's lights, revealing a very clean, and very girly, room. "And now to save..." She said, mouth salivating that she had finally finished her horrendously long paper. As her mouse icon scrolled over it, the computer flicked off. She stared in shock and the lights went off. "A power outage? At a time like this!?" She screamed in aggravation. "I hate you." She said in a sad tone as she walked to the window and looked out it. The Balamb plains were ahead and it was immaculate black, save for the speck of light that the town of Balamb emitted.

"RINOA!!" A girl with a high pitched voice screamed through the room, almost shattering Rinoa's eardrums.

"SELPHIE!!" Rinoa screamed back, in her highest voice.

"RINOA!!" Selphie screamed back.

"WHAT!?!?" Rinoa screamed.

"Everyone is stealing food from the cafeteria!" Selphie said as she ran into the room and grabbed her friends hand. "C'mon, we gotta go before Zell eats all of the hotdogs!" She commanded.

"But-" Rinoa couldn't speak as Selphie's hand cupped her mouth.

"I know... don't speak.... just listen..." Selphie said very romantically. Selphie bent sensually towards her ear and whispered delicately "free... food..." in her most romantic and sensual voice. Rinoa pushed her friend off.

"Fine. Food here is to much money anyways." Rinoa said with a small giggle.

"Excellent!" Selphie said triumphantly as she jumped with joy. She grabbed her friends hand and ran for the door, but ran into a wall instead in the dark. "Ahehe..." Selphie giggled stupidly as she leapt out the door, Rinoa close behind. The hall was a flood of running students.

"Oh geez... Garden's really weird." Rinoa muttered, looking at all the people pushing and shoving in the halls.

"No time to talk now!" Selphie told her sternly as she grabbed Rinoa's hand once more and pulled her into the bustling crowd of students.

*

"That was quite the heist, Selphie!" Rinoa said with a happy tone as she trotted along towards her dorm, a huge sack of food on her back.

"I know! I'm gonna gorge myself tonight!" Selphie said with a giggle as she herself carried a huge sack of food on her back. "But we have to hurry... if the power returns, the Nights (That's how I'm spelling it) will come and might even put us under house arrest!" Selphie warned in a whisper, bending her head close to Rinoa's.

"Then let's hurry!" Rinoa told her, a shocked look all over her face. Almost on que the power returned. The lights above them in the hall way flickered on and a low hum came forth from the silence. "Oh shit!" Rinoa cursed as she looked above her.

"C'mon Rinoa! We've got to hurry!" Selphie commanded as she grabbed her friends hand and ran as fast as she could towards their dorms.

"Hold it right there." A booming voice came from behind them. They turned around quickly to find not a Night but a Garden Official standing no more than a few inches from them.

"Oh crap..." Rinoa whimpered as Selphie's shoulder's slumped and her bundle dropped to the floor, making the contents of it spill out everywhere. The Garden Official stepped back from them and looked at them with his creepy mask.

"Rinoa Heartily and Selphie Tilmitt... you shall report to the food court at approximately 13:00 hours tomorrow." The official said. "And if you aren't present than I shall be forced to suspend you both." He ended cryptically as he turned away from them, his robe trailing him. Rinoa sighed in annoyance.

*

Rinoa fell into her bed with an exhausted yawn. "Finally... All I wanna do is go to bed..." She said sleepily as her eyes closed involuntarily.

"You've arrived..." A voice rang through Rinoa's head. Rinoa blinked a few times, completely opened her eyes and scanned her surroundings, she was outside, on Garden's roof. She was standing at the edge of the roof, a strong and powerful song was being played from behind her. She whipped herself around and found a floating ocarina, it moved about ever so lightly as the song continued....

Rinoa awoke, blinking a bit as she did in the dream. She looked at her surroundings, expecting the Garden roof but instead found herself in her room. But one thing from the dream remained, the song. The song much quitter, but still audible. She sat up in her bed, a few of her brunette locks falling before her face.

"What's that song?" She asked herself in a hushed tone. She threw her feet over the side of her bed and stood. She stretched quickly and walked slowly and steadily to her window. The moon was high, it was still night. She sighed heavily and placed her hand against the cold window.

"I'm not having a good time, Mom." She said finally as her hand dropped from the window. She looked out the window a bit longer, the songstill playing and walked for her bed. She crept under the covers as the song lulled her to sleep.

*

"... that was all very disrespectful of what you all did last night..." Headmaster Kramer droned on as 70% of the student body crammed into the cafeteria for their punishment from last night. Rinoa sighed heavily as she continued to think about the song that had lulled her to sleep so peacefully. She had asked Selphie about it and she said it kept her up all night. Rinoa looked up to the popcorn ceiling, her brain tired from thinking of so many different things. But her attention returned as she thought she saw something out of the corner of her eye in the window. She whipped her head to see what was there, but there was nothing. She rubbed her temples softly and shook her head and looked to Kramer again, trying to pay attention. Her attention was quickly diverted as the same thing caught her eye. She whipped her head once more to the spot and found what had caught her eye. It was an odd looking cat person. It was small and wore a stereotypical witch's hat. It's clothes were worn and dirty, and the fur was black, save for the pink stars splotched randomly on its body.

Rinoa's breath caught, and her face twisted into a perplexed one. She had never seen a monster like that before, not in the text books or on the field. Was it even a monster? She didn't know. It pressed it's furry, five fingered, hands against the window and he said soundless words. Rinoa blinked in astonishment, it could talk? This was not a monster.

"Rinoa Heartily!" A stern voice called, pulling her attention back to the booming voice which was no doubt Kramer's. "Do you understand!?" He questioned, obviously finishing up whatever he was talking about. Rinoa didn't have any idea what he was talking about but just nodded quickly. "Good." He said, as he turned from her, his head held high and continued to jabber on about respect and all that stuff that no one cares about.

Rinoa darted her head back the spot where the cat person once was, but found nothing, just endless Balamb plains. She sighed and shook her head, trying to shake the 'craziness' out of her head. The cat caught her eye again and she instantly turned to find it, just as she found it before. It levitated above the ground for a moment and backed away from the window. The cat extended its furry hand in a symbol for her to come to him. Rinoa nodded hypnotically. She was about to stand and walk for the window, towards the cat until a hand on her shoulder brought her back into reality. Rinoa looked to the hand and found it to be Selphie's.

"Time to go Rinny!" Selphie chimed in a delighted tone.

"Ummm... okay..." Rinoa said stupidly, not knowing how to respond. She looked back towards the window to find nothing once more.

"What's wrong?" Selphie asked.

"Nothing... nothing at all." Rinoa said dryly as she followed Selphie to the exit, looking behind her and to the window to see if the cat person would appear once more, but never did. As the cafeteria emptied, the cat appeared where Rinoa once sat and looked at its feet nonchalantly. It stood up and cast its eyes to the door which they had all left through and disappeared once more.

***

A boy, no more older than Rinoa sat by a well, close to Garden. The wind tussled through his brunette hair and dark clothes. He let his slim gunblade rest against the ground and let it lean on his shoulder. The plains around him were of a wonderful, pure, green color as the danced with the same wind that had played with the man's hair and clothes. His head was down, eyes unnoticeable but with a melancholy expression none the less.

The sound of grass under feet could be heard and the man gripped the hilt of his gunblade.

"Relax." Came a deep voice. "I'm not here to hurt you." The voice reassured. The man hesitantly looked up to find a large, burly man standing there. The sun reflected off the brunette's eyes with amazing power. His eyes were as blue and as clear as the purest shore. The brunette's grip on his gunblade only tightened from the 'comforting' words. "I said it's okay. I'm not here to harm you in anyway." the burly man said once more. The brunette's grip loosened. "I'm from the 12th Century Garden Night Force. I'm their leader." The man told him. That statement did not obviously help the brunette's tension as his grip tightened once again. "I told you to relax." He said sternly. "We Nights value keeping order in Garden, not keeping violence." The man told him reassuringly. "Garden keeps violence to its enemies and peace to itself. We only enforce this common rule" The man continued as he stepped a bit closer. The brunette stood, gunblade still held in his hand, the blade touching the cool, soft grass. We were formed in order to help people." The man said, staying right where he was. "We also keep an eye on wrong doings in Garden..." His voice trailed off. "You by chance haven't seen-" The man stopped himself. "Of course you couldn't have... you're new..." The man reminded himself with a tiny smile. "Well, might as well ask. There are reports of an odd cat looking creature teleporting around the island, mostly around Garden. Have you by chance seen it?" The man asked. The brunette nodded. "Really!?" The man asked, astonished. "What did it look like and where was it?" The man asked as he dove into a nap sack to his side. He brought a pen and paper and was ready to write.

"It was black with odd pink stars on it. It looked like similar to a human." The brunette told the man.

"... similar to a human?" The man questioned, putting his pen and paper on the grass.

"Opposable thumbs, stood on two legs, wore clothes." The brunette told him with no emotion.

"That's odd..." The man said, rubbing his chin. The brunette continued to stand there and the man looked up. Suddenly, the cat person appeared behind the brunette, unbeknownst to him. It put it's furry hands close to the brunette's ears and floated above him so he was doing a hand stand. "HEY!!" The burly screamed as he drew his sword from the sheath on his back. The brunette looked questionably at him as the grip on his gunblade tightened and both hands gripped it, ready to do battle with him for whatever reason. "HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!!" The man screamed to the cat as he charged with his sword towards the two of them. The brunette looked horrified but that cat above him only smiled and touched the brunette's ears with his hands and they disappeared. "Dammit!" The man cursed. "I was so close!" He exclaimed, frustrated and annoyed. "I should have put a tracker on him the second I saw him..." He said regretfully.

**

The brunette appeared in the front of Balamb Garden. He looked around, perplexed, wonder what had happened. But before the man had much time to think about it a huge force crashed into his back. He stumbled forward a bit and looked behind him to see who it was. It was Rinoa.

"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry!" Rinoa apologized. "I was running away from my friend because we're playing tag and I looked behind to see if she was coming and she wasn't so when I turned back around I was face to back with your back and I crashed into you and then I said I was sorry and here we are now!" Rinoa said in one long breath. The man gave her a quizzical look and then a scowl.

"You don't like to shut up do you?" The man asked, irritated by her talking. Rinoa looked at him shocked, she was just trying to be nice. The man brushed past her and was going to enter Garden now that he was there.

"Hey!" Rinoa called in aggravation as she turned around to follow him. "That's awfully mean of you to say something like that to someone you have just met!" Rinoa told him.

"Leave me alone." The man commanded.

"You're even new to this school! You don't have any right to tell people that!" She continued.

"You're very annoying. Leave me alone." He told her, becoming agitated.

"We don't even know each other's names and plus-" She cut herself short as she saw what appeared in front of her, the strange cat person. "Do-do you two travel together?" Rinoa asked, mainly to the cat.

"Two? What the hell are you talking about?" The man asked.

"You know!" Rinoa told him, annoyed. The man turned around and the cat followed his back side, still hidden from him. "You know, that weird cat that followed you everywhere!" Rinoa told him, annoyed, thinking he knew of it. The man glared at her and turned away from her.

"I don't like you." The man told her forthrightly as he walked away from her.

"Hey!" She called as she chased after him.

"I said-!" The man was about to yell at her again until the cat appeared and touched his shoulders gently and they disappeared.

"What the hell... all that typing... it must be... all that typing." Rinoa concluded as she slowly made her way back to Garden, shaking her head....

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a/n: Refer back to the first 'a/n'... I'm counting on YOU... to prevent forest fires...