((Hello everyone! And welcome to my crossover FF fanfiction. While set in FF8, it pulls characters from 6, 7, 8, CC, and 10. I've had this story in my head forever - this is actually something of an evolution of one of the first fanfictions I ever submitted on here - and I'm glad I managed to get this much of it written down. Will I ever continue? Well, I have a second chapter completed and then who knows? Anyway, I thought that it was enough for someone out there to enjoy even if I never continue. So I hope you do! Please like and comment to encourage me!))

The intruders were found on a morning patrol near the front gate of Balamb Garden. No one could say how long they'd been there, nor could they guess as to why. All that anyone could agree on was that there were five of them (though Zell swore he'd counted six), that they'd once been armed, and that every single one of them had been found unconscious.

This was the report that came to Squall that morning once he'd woken, dressed, and started towards the cafeteria. He hadn't made it halfway before Selphie came bolting down the hallway and stopped, panting, in front of him. "Squall! Squall, you won't believe what happened!"

Squall paused and looked at her. When she didn't continue, he hesitated before asking "What now?"

She straightened at his acknowledgement and looked at him with wide eyes. "There were these people outside! We just found them there, all asleep and stuff, but they're, like, really weird. Like really, really weird! So we brought them inside, you know, and they all had these weird swords and were wearing weird stuff, and this one boy, he had a tail. A tail, I swear! Just like a Moomba! So, Squall? What do you want to do?"

Squall watched her speak, blinked twice, and then kept walking.

"Wha-? Squall! Squall, where are you going?" she said, and when he didn't respond, she added, "Well fine, you big meanie!"

When Squall reached the cafeteria, he half-expected the whole thing to have been another product of Selphie's over-active imagination. It was a false expectation, however. Quistis met him before the doors had swung shut behind him.

"Oh, Squall. There you are. I sent Selphie for you. I hope you got the message."

Quistis stood with her usual half-crossed arms, one hand poised at the rim of her glasses. It was the look of a stern teacher, awaiting response from an unwilling student. Squall had seen it many times before.

"Yeah. Selphie found me," he said. Quistis shook her head.

"Your presence was requested in the medical bay. The matter's been taken to Headmaster Cid." She paused thoughtfully before adding, "Are you armed?"

"Yeah," Squall said. He never went anywhere without his gunblade, and its weight hung comfortably from his side.

"And properly junctioned?" Quistis asked skeptically.

Squall nodded.

"Well then, you're certainly more responsible than Zell," Quistis said. "Caution is advised. They're believed to be dangerous."

Squall didn't eat that morning. Quistis watched him expectantly until he turned and walked back out the cafeteria door.

No one bothered Squall as he started through the first floor lobby. There were no excitable students, no unprepared SeeDs, and no Triple Triad players. As Squall made his way past the elevators, he found himself alone except for the click of his own boots on linoleum floors.

He relished the silence.

Squall heard the commotion around the medical bay before he saw it. Throngs of SeeDs gathered outside the doors and spilled out into the hallway beyond. Squall pushed his way past them and ignored their whispers of adoration. Two soldiers stood on guard near the infirmary doors. They held back the crowd and gave Squall a sharp look when he approached.

"Absolutely no entry unless cleared by the-," one started to say, then froze. "Oh, Squall. The Headmaster's been looking for you."

Squall nodded and passed them by. Here, the hallway was less crowded, but buzzed with a kind of hushed energy. Down the hall, there were several grunts of exertion and then a metallic scraping noise. Squall peered around the corner to see three soldiers struggling to drag a five foot slab of steel. The soldiers straightened as he approached. One gave him a SeeD salute.

"Squall Leonhart. The Headmaster asked to see you, sir."

Squall's eyes wandered from the tip of the metal plate to the handle at the end. "What is this?" he asked.

"Woh, he spoke to me!" said the one on the end. The one in the middle quickly hushed him while the third answered, "We think it's a sword, sir. The Headmaster asked us to take their weapons away, so we're bringing it to the others."

The soldier gestured down the hall where a pile of weapons had formed. Ornately carved swords, shining daggers, and a round-faced staff all stacked in a flurry of blades and sharp edges. Squall looked across from the pile to the infirmary doors, not two feet away. He frowned. "Want to move them a little farther from the doors?" he said.

The soldiers blinked in surprise. "Yes, sir!" they said and hurried as quickly as they could with the five feet of metal in store. As they passed, the middle one whispered, "That's why he's the Headmaster's favorite."

Squall touched his forehead and continued onwards.

Headmaster Cid waited for him inside the medical bay lobby. As soon as Squall entered, the Headmaster turned to face him. A line of worry crinkled his forehead. "There you are. I didn't think I could handle this alone."

Squall nodded and took his place against the wall. The Headmaster's hands wrung nervously at the hem of his loose-knit sweater.

"This morning, at approximately 7:03 a.m., we found several intruders on Garden property. They were unconscious, but appeared unharmed. We brought them in for medical treatment."

Headmaster Cid looked to Squall for comment. When Squall said nothing, he continued.

"A thorough analysis proved that there was nothing physically wrong with them. However, the examination also brought up several unsettling characteristics. Strange eyes, unprecedented magical levels, and well, one of them appears to have a fully functional tail of sorts. We didn't know what to think of it."

"Why do you need me?" Squall said. Cid nodded twice.

"I'm glad you asked. Well, it seems they've...gained consciousness."

Squall raised an eyebrow. "They're awake?"

"Ah, yes. And, well, I don't know what to make of it. I thought I'd ask your opinion."

Squall brought the gunblade across his shoulder. "Don't worry. I'll take care of it."

"Now, now. There's no need for violence, Squall. We still don't know if they're dangerous or not." The Headmaster tugged once on the edge of his sleeve cuff.

Squall shrugged, but didn't holster his blade. He walked past the Headmaster, around a desk covered in scattered files, and towards the largest examination room - the only one with a locked door. The Headmaster handed him the key and he unlocked it. Five pairs of eyes turned to him as he entered. The door closed and locked behind him.

Before him was a room with pale green walls and six medical cots lined in a row. The occupants had likely each been given their own on arrival, but had since scattered and reorganized. They waited in pairs with two men on one side, a boy and a girl in the center, and a single woman alone with her back against the opposite wall.

The two men looked like they might have been in their early twenties. It was their eyes that caught Squall's attention - blue like Shiva's ice with a kind of unnatural glow at the edges. They sat huddled together, and with their dark belts and high boots, Squall might have mistaken them for SeeDs had they not turned to look at him.

The two in the center didn't have that ambiguity. The girl was brightly dressed in trailing sleeves and floral-patterned skirts. She nervously twisted a ring on her finger while the boy next to her eyed Squall suspiciously. With his buttoned cuffs and lacy collar, the boy looked like he'd stepped out of some history drama, but that hardly mattered once Squall caught a glimpse of movement behind him. It seemed that, for once, the stories he'd heard were true. A thin, blonde tail trailed out from the seam of the boy's pants. It swept irritably behind him like a snake.

Finally, there was the woman in the corner. She sat with her knees drawn against her chest. With her head down, blonde hair scattered over her face in rivulets. Beneath the mess, Squall caught what looked to be white shoulder guards and a gold-trimmed cape that wrapped around her boots like a shroud.

Squall was not one to agree with Selphie, but as he looked over each stranger over in turn, it was her words that came to mind. All in all, there was no other word to describe the five in front of him but weird.

It was the boy with the tail who spoke first. "We don't know anything, just like we all said before." He hopped to his feet to face Squall on even ground, but it was a wasted effort. Even standing, the boy proved shorter than Squall by a good half foot.

The girl looked at Squall imploringly. "Please, won't you tell us where we are?" she asked.

Squall frowned. "Balamb Garden," he said.

"But we don't know where that is," the boy said with a frustrated swipe of his hand. The girl nodded in agreement.

"You don't know Balamb?" Squall said. He glanced at the woman who remained silent and then at the two men in the corner. The darker-haired one blinked as their eyes met. He shook his head and gave a weak half-grin. "Don't look at me," he said, "We just woke up here."

Memory loss, Squall decided. Far beyond his scale or pay grade. Squall leaned against the door and touched his forehead. "What's the last thing you remember?" he asked. The room filled with silence.

Suddenly, no one wanted to look at him. Eyes averted, the girl made an uncertain humming noise, and the woman in the corner still refused to lift her head from her knees. When someone did speak, the voice was so quiet that Squall wasn't sure where it had come from.

"I think I might be dead."

Squall raised an eyebrow. "Dead?" he repeated. From the new intonation, he guessed that it was the second, smaller man who'd spoken, but if so, that man refused to look at him now. The darker-haired man ran a hand uncomfortably through heavily gelled hair. No one else said anything. Squall's eyebrows furrowed.

"Why do you think that?"

Again, nothing. Squall looked longingly at the door.

"Look, you probably all have amnesia. If you use GFs too much, I think it can mess with your head or...something."

"GFs?" the girl echoed.

"I'm not forgetting anything," the boy added with an irritable flick of his tail.

"Right, whatever," Squall said. Whatever Squall had been expecting to handle, it wasn't this. He grabbed for the door handle, but it wouldn't budge. He knocked twice and the lock clicked.

"What, that's it?" the boy said, "You didn't answer anything!"

Squall left without another word. Once the door had been closed and locked behind him, the Headmaster looked to him, hands clasped in worry. "So, what did you think?"

"Memory loss," Squall said.

"And? What else?"

Squall shrugged. "And you'll have to find someone better with people."

"Hm. Yes. Maybe you're right."

Squall found a seat by the door. He leaned his head against the wall and listened to the cool buzz of air-conditioning and the hum of fluorescent lights.

The clock clicked 10 a.m., and he already longed for sleep.

It had only been six months since the time compression - too long to still worry but too short to forget. Somehow over the course of less than a year, Squall had gone from a seventeen year old student to the most revered soldier on the planet. Breathless teenagers called him the savior of time. Adults said they owed him their lives.

Really, he'd only done what was ordered of him. Sometimes he'd taken his own path to save his friends, but never outside of official authorization. It felt unreal, sometimes, when he looked into the excitable eyes of those he'd once called his superiors. When he closed his eyes, he still saw timeless candlelight sputtering on tarnished brass.

His friends weren't safe from the extra attention either. When asked about Sorceress Ultimecia, the more excitable of his allies wouldn't miss the chance to ramble about high-powered explosions, limit breaks, and a GF like a god. The more coherent of his crew would comment on the specifics of the matter. Quistis liked to theorize on the nature of time and their possible future, Irvine used the opportunity to impress any women who might be about, while Rinoa said only that "we did it through love, friendship, and courage."

Squall never said anything at all. He thought that maybe if he ignored the truth for long enough that eventually he'd forget.

Squall had only ever brought it up once, five months ago, when the clock had hit three after midnight and he'd found himself alone on the ballroom balcony. There had been a party for their victory, the third of the month. This time, their Garden had been graced by the leaders of Esthar, and Squall had fled outside to avoid Laguna's company. As the night wore on, he didn't think to check the time. Even after most students had left and Laguna was long gone, Squall stayed on the balcony, leaning against the railing with his chin in his palm. Moonlight filtered through the clouds like water.

"There you are. We've been looking all over for you."

Then there was Rinoa, standing beside him. She leaned backwards against the railing with her hands clasped and her head angled to face him. She smiled. "The whole night, Laguna kept asking, 'Where's Squall? Where's Squall?' Then Zell said he wanted to show you something. He ended up fitting three hot dogs in his mouth at once. You missed it."

Squall shrugged and leaned heavier against the palm of his hand. Rinoa frowned and tilted closer to see him. The moon caught the blonde streak in her hair and glinted off the ring around her neck.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Squall started to shrug again, but then thought better of it. Instead, he looked into her dark eyes and said, "I don't know."

"You don't know?"

Squall shook his head. Rinoa sighed and then stretched her arms above her head and turned to face the railing. They watched the clouds together, like waves in a vast, starry sea.

"Rinoa?" Squall asked after a long moment of silence.

"Yes?"

"Have you ever…?" Squall stopped, suddenly uncertain of what he was going to say. After a moment's thought, he decided on, "Have you ever regretted it?"

Rinoa glanced at him in surprise. "Regretted it?"

"You know. Regretted getting involved."

"Involved?"

Squall felt heat rising to his face. "With us. SeeD. And Ultimecia."

"Oh." Rinoa looked to the sky again. Her hands folded together beneath blue-knit arm-warmers. "I think that everything went the way it had to. To save time, I mean."

"Still, it could have been someone else. Anyone else." Squall didn't know where he was going with this until he lowered his head and muttered, "It didn't have to be me."

"Hm. Maybe not," Rinoa said, "Any other SeeD could have done it. But you're the one that did."

"But I'm not anything special," Squall said. "I'm just…"

When Rinoa looked at him, she was smiling. "Just Squall," she finished.

Squall frowned, but she took his hand, and he found that he couldn't anymore.

"You're just Squall," Rinoa continued, "My Squall. And you did it."

"I guess…" Squall started, but she put a finger to his lips.

"Don't guess anything. You're here now, and everything's fine." She readjusted her grip on his hand and looked back out over the grounds of Balamb. Her smile had faded. "Besides, I'm the one with the sorceress powers."

Squall looked to her questioningly, but she didn't say anything more. Set against the backdrop of distant grass and blackened sky, she looked small beneath the trails of her overlong sweater. Squall moved to put an arm around her shoulder, but thought better of it. Instead, he kept the grip on her hand.

As the silence stretched on between them, Squall had thought to tell her of his recurring nightmares. He'd wanted to tell her that not a day passed when he didn't think of Rinoa, quiet and alone in the icy chills of space. He'd wanted to tell her that he'd missed her warm weight in his arms, and that he'd always protect her no matter what stood between them. But the moment passed, and he couldn't manage the words. When the Garden's clock struck four in the morning, Rinoa pulled her hand from his and took a step back towards the door.

"Well, it's getting late. I'd better get some sleep," she said. Squall nodded mutely as she waved her goodbye.

He'd wanted to call out to her then, to stop her and say what was on his mind. But she'd already slipped inside before his mouth could form the word, "Wait."

"Hm. Are you asleep? Come on, wake up!"

It was Rinoa that Headmaster Cid sent for in the wake of Squall's failure, and it was her voice that he woke to an hour later once she'd arrived. Between the morning's exhaustion and his own sleepless nights, Squall had managed to fall into a kind of thoughtful half-consciousness while waiting against the wall of the Garden's medical bay. He opened his eyes to find Rinoa's face not three inches away from his.

"There you are," she said. "They told me everything. I'm ready to help."

Squall nodded and squinted the sleep from his eyes. His hair had fallen in his face, and he swept it away with the back of his hand. Rinoa hopped up and backwards with a half-skip of her boots. She looked positive as always, and Squall tried to follow suit. At the very least, he managed to muffle a scowl.

Headmaster Cid had taken a seat behind the cluttered medical desk. "I've already briefed Rinoa on the situation. She thinks she can handle it on her own, but I'd like you to accompany her, Squall."

Squall wanted to say that of course he'd protect her, but he didn't think it was necessary. Instead, he just nodded and un-holstered the gunblade from his belt. Rinoa frowned a little at the sight of it, but didn't comment. Instead, she headed towards the door, touched the handle, and asked, "Ready?"

Squall was about to tell her to open it when he heard something. He put a finger to his lips and pressed closer to the door.

Inside, there were voices.

"Don't worry, Yuna. Whatever's going on, we'll help get you home."

"Yeah. I promise, we won't let anything happen to you."

"Thank you. Both of you. There's just...something very important that I must do."

Rinoa gave Squall a questioning look. He shook his head and knocked on the door. The voices stopped.

The five of them watched as they came in. The brightly dressed girl and the boy with the tail still sat in the middle, though the dark-haired man had joined them and now leaned against a nearby wall. The other two stayed at opposite ends of the room and looked away almost as soon as their eyes met. Squall didn't imagine he'd get much out of them either way.

"Hi, everyone. I'm Rinoa." Rinoa leaned up on her toes and gave them all a little wave. "I'm here to talk to everyone and try to figure out what's going on."

The tailed-boy sat up straighter. "Hey there, Rinoa," he said. "I'm Zidane." There was something about his sudden half-grin that set Squall on edge, but Rinoa didn't seem to notice.

"Oh, right! Let's learn everyone's names!" she said, "That sounds like a great place to start!"

The boy - Zidane - wilted as she turned to the others. His tail drooped behind him and swept at the linoleum floor.

Rinoa addressed each of them in turn. The girl, it turned out, was Yuna - "a summoner," whatever that meant. The dark-haired man said that he was a soldier named Zack and asked as to the location of his sword. When Squall told him that it had been taken for inspection, Zack said to keep it safe because he was "holding it for a friend." Squall pretended to understand.

The other man barely looked up when Rinoa called to him. He just sat with his arms rested on his knees, watching the wall with those eerie blue eyes of his. "Cloud," he said before she could ask him again. Rinoa's smile faltered, but she didn't force anything else and he said nothing more.

Squall hadn't expected much from the woman, and clearly neither had Rinoa. She leaned over onto her knees so that the two were eye-level and spoke with the same, docile tones she would use with her dog, Angelo.

"And what about you? What's your name?"

The woman lifted her head, and for the first time, Squall got a good look at her face. It wasn't right to say that she was beautiful, but there were traces of it there - the golden blonde of her hair, the luster of her eyes, the soft curve of her face. It might have been better to say that she could have been beautiful without her cracked lips, sharp cheekbones, and harsh eyebrows. She looked between them and then touched at the bandana across her forehead, laughing.

"You don't know anything, do you?"

Rinoa blinked in surprise. "Um." She glanced at Squall uncertainly. "Well. That would depend on what you mean."

The woman's eyebrows furrowed. "About him. About what happened! About…" Her fists clenched around the edges of her cape. "About Kefka."

"Um. No. I've never heard about that."

The woman laughed again before burrowing her face back into her knees and muttering, "This can't be real."

'Traumatized,' Squall thought, but only because "crazy" felt too harsh. The woman had been through a lot - that much was obvious from her dust-streaked clothes to her calloused hands to the way her fingernails dug into her palms. Rinoa just stared at her with nothing to offer but a muted, "Oh."

"She's been like that for a while." The blonde boy, Zidane, offered the woman a sympathetic look. "Since we woke up here. She kept saying this place couldn't exist. Something about a 'Light burning it all' or something. But I guess I'm not much better." He gave a quick glance around the room from the vinyl beds to the linoleum floor. "So what is this, anyway? Some kind of crazy high-tech ruins? Another planet? I'm open to just about anything right now."

Rinoa tilted her head. "A planet?" she asked. "No. You're in Balamb."

"Yeah, but is that like some lost city or another dimension or…?"

"It's a Garden."

"What does that even mean?" The boy groaned and sprawled back sideways on the cot. The girl beside him, Yuna, gave him a slightly alarmed look before explaining, "There aren't any flowers."

Squall felt his hand creeping up to touch his forehead. Beside him, Rinoa struggled to keep her natural smile. "That's not what a Garden is. If you want flowers, I think there's a training area…"

For some reason, the traumatized woman laughed at this without lifting her head. The dark-haired man, Zack, gave her a sympathetic look before shaking his head. "Look, we're all just confused, alright? Why don't you start from the beginning here?"

Squall looked longingly to the door. When it didn't open, he sighed and slumped against the wall. If he'd been the one to try and teach a bunch of amnesiacs about the world, he probably would have left right then. Thankfully, he wasn't alone, however, and Rinoa had more patience than he ever would.

She told them about the Gardens and Balamb in particular - about the mercenaries they trained and the trouble they dealt with. She told them about their usual clients: Galbadia, Esthar, and even the OWLs. Finally, she told them all about SeeD. "I'm not a SeeD myself, but I think I've got a knack for it." Rinoa brought a finger to her cheek and turned to wink at Squall. "What do you think?"

Squall shrugged. When Rinoa didn't get a better answer, she gave a loud huff before turning her back on him. "Well fine," she said then crossed her arms and muttered, "Meanie."

Zack gave them both a strange look. "So you're saying you're a bunch of mercenaries?" he said before glancing aside. "Well that sounds familiar."

"So it is a different planet!" Zidane stretched out his arms above his head before lowering them and shaking his head. "Well that makes sense. We don't have anything like that back home."

"I don't understand," Yuna said before looking questioningly at Zidane. "A...planet?"

"Well, yeah. That's the only answer for it, isn't it? Like a different world, you know? I don't know how it happened. Maybe that crazy monster...god...thing threw me here. I don't really know what it was, but that must have been it!" Zidane hopped to his feet and rocked forward on his heels. "Yeah. That must be it," he repeated before looking expectantly at Squall. "So what's the name of this world anyway? Not, uh, your 'Garden' or whatever, but the planet?"

Squall stared at him. He'd never heard a stupider question in his life.

"Gaia," he said. The boy's eyes lit with recognition.

"Hey! That's mine too!" he said, then paused and touched his chin thoughtfully. "Wait, that doesn't make any sense. Why would it be the same?"

"We're not in Spira?" Yuna's eyes were wide. "How…?" Her eyebrows furrowed in thought before they snapped upwards and she slapped her hand over her mouth with a muffled "Oh!" Zack and Zidane looked at her in concern.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"Did you think of something?"

Yuna shook her head but wouldn't give them any more than a noncommittal hum. Her eyes were glued to the floor.

"Hey." Zack frowned and pushed off the wall. "It'll be okay. I promise." He reached out a hand to touch her shoulder, but Zidane beat him to it. In a second, he was kneeling on the floor in front of her, looking up imploringly.

"No matter where we are, no matter what's happened, you don't have to be afraid." He reached up and took her hands in both of his. "Because you're not alone here. I'll protect you."

"Ah." Yuna's cheeks reddened at the boy's touch. She gave him a weak smile. "Thank you." Zidane nodded back.

"No problem," he said then stood and let go of her hands. Yuna turned her head to hide her blush. Behind them, Zack gave Zidane a knowing grin.

"Aw," Rinoa cooed and then for some reason looked at Squall. Squall raised an eyebrow at her. After a moment, she huffed again and muttered, "Nevermind."

Squall wondered what he'd done wrong.

"Are we done?" Squall asked.

"Hm. Well we have their names," Rinoa said. "Is that enough?"

Zack tilted his head. "Enough for what?" he said then glanced between them cautiously. "We're not here to cause any trouble." He gave them a weak grin. "We're just as confused as you are, so why don't you just let us go?"

"Hm…" Rinoa grasped her hands behind her back. "Maybe…"

"No," Squall said.

Zack gave him a wary look. "Why not?"

Squall shrugged and shook his head. "That's not my call."

"Look, we're not going to hurt anyone. We just want out of here."

Squall didn't respond at first because he didn't know how to best repeat himself. Thankfully, someone interrupted him.

"It doesn't matter."

Squall had almost forgotten about the blonde man - Cloud - sitting quietly in his own corner. Cloud looked at Zack and then shook his head. "If this is real, then there's no changing their minds."

Something painful passed over Zack's expression. Zidane and Yuna looked between the two warily. Even the blonde woman lifted her head to give them a careful glance. Something had clearly happened between them, but Squall didn't care enough to ask. "Let's go," he said.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Zidane had jumped to his feet. "You're just going to leave us here? Again? Zack's right, we're not doing anything! Just give us a chance!"

Rinoa looked to Squall, saw his expression, then turned to wave at the others. "Sorry. We'll come to see you soon, okay?" Squall reached for the door knob. It wasn't locked.

He left without another word, waited for Rinoa, and closed the door behind her. It clicked closed, and Squall heard the dead-bolts fall into place.

"Well? How did it go?" Cid sat up from where he'd been watching at the window. Squall shook his head.

"Useless."

"Oh? Well that's a shame," Cid said. Squall walked to the other side of the room and leaned against the wall. Rinoa lingered by the locked door. She touched her cheek thoughtfully.

"Something's weird about them," she said. She took a few slow steps forward. "Something weird…" She grasped her hands behind her back and looked up towards the ceiling. "Hm. Do you think it has something to do with time?"

"Time?" Cid's eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"I mean...Whenever something weird happens, it always has to do with time, right?"

"That's not exactly hard evidence, Miss Heartilly."

Rinoa's face scrunched together in frustration. "Well, at least I tried!" she said then crossed her arms and pouted, "I bet you don't have a better idea."

Cid sighed before looking to Squall. "Well? Do you have anything to say?"

"No." Squall said. "Ask Quistis. I've got work to do."

He left before either of them could stop him. The SeeDs at the door gasped and stepped back to let him through. Squall spotted the strangers' stockpile of weapons sticking out of an archway three rooms down the hall, but didn't care enough to tell them to close the door so the weapons wouldn't be found.

It was 11:30 by the time that Squall made it back to the cafeteria for his very belated breakfast. He sat by himself at a table in the far back corner and spoke to no one.