A/N: Okay, so before I begin the story, I would like to remind everyone that today is Squall Leonhart's birthday. Happy birthday, Squall, and as a present, you get to begin a new adventure! Yay!
Final Fantasy VIII has always been my favorite Final Fantasy game, and when I started watching Doctor Who, I referred to FF8 as the "wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey installment of the series." I hope you enjoy this crossover between the (in my opinion) greatest wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey pieces of entertainment of all time!
The Second Sorceress War was over, ended even before it could well and truly begin. The world could hardly believe that two of the most dangerous Sorceresses ever, Sorceress Adel and the future Sorceress Ultimecia, had been killed by children, the youngest having barely been a few months over eighteen, but they were not complaining, particularly the Estharans. They already had to clean things up after the Lunar Cry at Tears Point, they didn't think that they could handle another world domination attempt from Adel. The Galbadians might have been able, but not the Estharans.
However, if either the Galbadians or Estharans could have seen into the future, they would have known that Adel would have been the least of their worries.
Celebrations were occurring all across the world, celebrations that even the now-famous (and usually aloof) Commander Squall Leonhart of Balamb Garden took part in. Of course, most of the time, he participated simply because his Sorceress insisted, but he found out that he had become the type who was unable to refuse anything that she asked. He also found out that, due to Rinoa's persistence, he was slowly, but surely, shedding his lone wolf personality and becoming more social, much to Rinoa's delight.
As the Commander of Balamb Garden, Squall had several responsibilities to make sure that the school got back on its feet. Condolence letters had to be written to the families of those who had been killed in the Battle of the Gardens, there were reports of monsters still running wild from the Lunar Cry and leftover SeeDs had to be dispatched to take care of them. Selphie had taken a leave of absence from Balamb and had gone to rebuild the Trabia Garden. SeeD itself had mostly been disbanded after the war was over and the only Sorceresses left were Sorceress Rinoa and Sorceress Edea, and the world knew that their Knights would kill anyone who ever tried to harm them.
It was a full two months before Squall had any sort of free time that lasted for multiple days. Before the first half hour had passed, he found himself (quite by accident) at the rail of the convenient balcony of his office that faced Esthar. It was like this that Rinoa found him.
"Gil for your thoughts?" she teased.
"I want to visit my father," he declared without even looking away from the window. "I don't like the fact that the man wasn't there for my entire childhood, but I don't want to cut him out of my life completely. Besides," even without being able to see his face, Rinoa was sure that he was making a face like he had swallowed something sour, "Laguna was the one who came up with the plan to defeat both the really dangerous Sorceresses during the war - we were just the ones who fought them."
Rinoa giggled at that and came up behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist. "I really must be rubbing off on you if you're willing to reconcile with your dad - or is there some other reason?" This last sentence was supposed to be a joke, but Rinoa wasn't entirely surprised when her Knight nodded his head. She knew that he hadn't completely forgiven the President of Esthar for not being there during his childhood.
"Laguna called me a few days ago." Squall reported, turning in her embrace in order to face her before reciprocating the hug. "Told me that some sort of statue was found in the Lunatic Pandora, left over from the Lunar Cry; Amazingly, the thing was still intact. Anyone that he's sent to investigate it hasn't come back, so he wants to see how I'd handle it. Also, he said he came across a video tape that I absolutely have to see the contents of; he couldn't describe it over the phone. I told him I'd be there as soon as I could."
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Rinoa asked. "Should I tell Nida to set the Garden on a course for Esthar, or..." she allowed her beautiful wings to unfurl from her back. "Shall we go my way?"
"We're not going to leave just yet!" Squall exclaimed, a low rumble of a laugh sounding in his chest. "I've got to leave notes for Cid and Doctor Kadowaki so that they know where I'm going."
"I honestly think that you only need to let Cid know." Rinoa informed him as he pulled away from her (reluctantly so), and sat at his desk to start writing. "I'm sure that, if you only send a note to him, he'll let everyone else know where their Commander's gone for the next two weeks."
"Good point," Squall conceded, writing out a quick letter to Balamb Garden's headmaster, explaining that he was taking a vacation for a fortnight and visiting Esthar. He got up, gave his Sorceress a quick kiss and said, "I'll be right back, and then we'll head to Esthar - your way."
Rinoa didn't bother to fold her wings back up, since she knew that she would be getting to use them in a little while.
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Even though he was slowly becoming more social, Squall kept to the shadows on his journey up to Headmaster Cid's office. The reason for this being that he didn't want to chance running into Mr. Talkative or Mr. Womanizer, he just wanted to get his memo in to Cid's office and go visit his father.
When he got to the headmaster's office, Squall was surprised to see that the elderly man was sitting at his desk. The young Commander had expected that Cid would have virtually retired from Garden (now that SeeD was no longer necessary) and be spending most of his time with his own Sorceress.
"Ah, Commander Leonhart," Cid Kramer greeted the war hero, having looked up when he heard the elevator ding. "Good morning. What brings you here this early?"
Squall approached and handed the headmaster his letter. "I find myself with two weeks all to myself with no pressing matters, and I wish to use those weeks to visit my father."
"Well, it's about time you decided when you were going to visit the man," Cid admonished, even though there was a twinkle in his eyes. "President Loire contacted me a week ago, asking that I give you time off so that you could visit."
"With all due respect, sir, things are still pretty mucked up after the War and the Lunar Cry. It's my job to help patch things up. Plus, he also contacted me a few days ago, and I told him I would visit as soon as I could."
"Very well then, Squall," Cid told him. "Leave of absence granted. I'll inform the rest of Garden immediately."
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It took Squall less than five minutes to return to his office and Rinoa. It would have taken him even less time if the elevator wasn't so slow.
His Sorceress smirked when he came back out onto the balcony. "Well, that certainly didn't take long at all." she teased, curling one of her wings around him almost seductively as she brought up a hand to cup his cheek. "You ready to go visit your father now?"
The kiss he gave her this time was longer as he snaked his arms around her waist. "Visit my father... not really. Get away from here and all this paperwork? Absolutely."
If it was possible, Rinoa's smirk grew even wider as she spread her wings. "Deny it all you want," she teased. "I think that you're actually looking forward to visiting him." She took off immediately after finishing her sentence, rendering Squall silent, and he spent the rest of the flight thinking about what he expected would be an uneventful visit with his father.
Oh, how wrong he was.
A/N: Don't worry, I know that it might be a little slow, but remember, this is just the prologue. The action will pick up, I promise.