CHAPTER 1
"You do know that Raine loved you. Right Squall?" Laguna asked.
"Of course, but what I do not understand is why you two put me up for adoption with Ellone," Squall replied.
Father and Son sat in Balamb at a restaurant. It was mid-summer, and it had been the most beautiful summer Laguna had ever seen. It was warm out, and the ocean was just the right temperature. He would take his niece, Ellone, and his best buddies, Kiros and Ward, to Dollet in the summer sometimes to enjoy the water. The waved rolled ever so slowly, as if there was no wind at all. It was an enjoyable year so far. Laguna had told his son, Squall, about his mother a few months after the defeat of Ultemecia. It came to a slight shock at first, but Squall believed Laguna.
"Well," Laguna started. "Squall, at the time you were born, I was constantly defending Winhill with Kiros. Raine always stayed home, but one day, Raine was deathly ill. I could not defend the city and take care of a young child at the same time. It was a hard decision, but Mom had known Edea and Cid for a long time. Edea had mentioned to Mom that there were a lot of other kids your age there already. Ellone was getting older, and she was tired of staying in Winhill, so she volunteered to go to Edea's house to watch over you kids, and since Ellone was going, I figured it would be good for you too."
Squall slouched back in the chair. He had been waiting for his food for about twenty minutes and he was getting impatient. He was glad that he was with his father, but he hated the quiet life, like one such as a Balamb Resident. He figured his father thought the same.
Laguna was currently the president of Esthar, and a writer too, but he was not very good at it. Laguna was used to the technological advances, and the loud city, and the large buildings. Balamb was much too small for any sort of excitement.
"Do you understand why I did it?" Laguna asked.
"Of course, I just want my damn food," Squall blurted impatiently.
"Jesus Squall. Look at your posture. You are the headmaster of a highly popular school by many standards. Sit up strait," Laguna instructed.
"Dad, I'm twenty now. I'm an adult and an important person," Squall snapped.
Laguna laughed.
"You're still not old enough to drink," Laguna laughed sipping his wine. "See?" He added pointing to the wine glass.
Squall stared at his Pepsi.
"Don't worry," Laguna said cheerfully. "Say, weren't you supposed to me with Headmaster Martine at 3:00?"
"Yeah why?" Squall asked. "It's only 1:00."
"Squall… Your watch is two and a half hours off. It's 3:30," Laguna said seriously.
Laguna had lost the smile on his face when he saw Squall bang his fist on the table.
"God damnit," Squall murmured. "I'll go cancel my order."
Squall turned to go to the kitchen when he saw the waitress with their food. Squall sighed and sat back down.
"I guess Martine will have to wait," Squall said.
"What is that?" Laguna said to the hostess.
"The marinated chocobo," the waitress replied.
"No it's not! It's not even marinated!" Laguna said starting to get a little impatient.
Squall was getting embarrassed; his father was starting to make a scene. It was a good thing they were in the corner
"Sir, you can ask the chef yourself, this what you ordered," the waitress said, getting very defensive.
"Can you go ask the chef for me?" Laguna asked.
The waitress picked up the plate very roughly and started to walk away.
"I better be getting a tip," she said loud enough for Laguna to hear.
"She won't be getting a tip," Laguna said smiling to Squall.
Laguna got up and started to walk toward the exit. Squall had no clue what had just happened but he ran after his father.
"Did you like that distraction?" Laguna laughed. "You are going to Galbadia Garden, you had an appointment, you can't just blow it off, so I got the waitress to leave so we wouldn't get our food, so we don't have to pay."
Squall realized what his father had done and started to laugh. Laguna walked up to his expensive car and got in the driver's seat. Squall got in the passenger side.
Laguna got out of the parking lot and left Balamb. They started to drive down the road to the docks.
"Dad, I never thought the president of a country would ever do something so rude!" Squall said chuckling.
Laguna turned and faced his son. "You never blow off important appointments okay?"
"But it's okay if they aren't important appointments I guess, right?" Squall smiled.
Laguna smiled back. He had not seen his son this happy for months. It was probably because Squall had proposed to a wonderful young woman named Rinoa a few weeks ago.
"You do know that Rinoa is Julia's daughter right?" Laguna said,
"Yeah. If you had ended up with Julia like you should have, Rinoa would have been my sister," Squall said shaking at the idea.
"Yeah, but you and Rinoa will finish what Julia and I never did," Laguna replied.
Julia was a piano player at a bar, she and Laguna fell in love, but Laguna was called out on a mission, and he almost died in combat. He landed up near Winhill, where Raine and Ellone took care of him. Laguna was thought to be dead, and when Julia heard the news, she ended up marrying General Caraway a few years later. Julia was dead now though.
Squall reached down and started flipping radio stations. He came to a familiar song but changed the station.
"No! Put that back on!" Laguna shouted.
Laguna looked down to flip the station back to the song he had heard. It was called "Eyes on me". Julia had written that song many years ago; she had written it to remind herself of Laguna.
As he pressed the button, the car neared the side of the road.
"Dad!" Squall yelled.
Laguna looked up and found himself about to drive right through a guardrail. He had no time to stop. The car went through the rail and into the Balamb port.
The car sunk underwater. Laguna tried to get his door open but it was locked. Laguna hit the unlock button and he and Squall opened the car doors. They were a good 18 feet under the surface now.
Laguna swam out of the car door and started swimming toward the surface. He came near the top when a small motorboat zoomed by overhead. Laguna gasped, sucking in a ton of water. He felt the water force itself down his windpipe into his lungs. It burned like someone had lit a match inside of him. He looked for Squall, but he could not see his son. Laguna's vision blurred, and he passed out from lack of air and inhaling the water. Laguna floated down to the bottom of the port.
Squall swam toward the surface, but he came to something blocking his way. He pushed up but the thing would not budge. He looked around for his father. He saw Laguna floating down to the bottom.
Squall got his father and started kicking to the surface, he pushed up again but he could not resurface. He realized what it was though. It was the floating dock. Squall pushed up as hard as he could.
A fisherman was walking along the dock, until he stepped down and hit something.
Squall was hit in the head by someone walking by. Squall could not take the pain. He let go of Laguna, and he himself floated to the bottom.
Zell Dincht, Squall's closest friend, was a resident of Balamb. He had seen Laguna's car and he saw the car go into the port. Zell raced after the car and dove into the port after his friend and his friend's father.
Zell saw Squall and Laguna floating to the bottom of the port. Zell had reached Squall first. He kicked up and resurfaced. He handed Squall to the fisherman that had hit Squall, and Zell dived back in.
He saw Laguna lying on the sandy bottom. Zell picked Laguna up and pushed off the ocean floor.
He resurfaced and saw a crowd of people around the dock. The police were there, and Zell knew that Squall and Laguna didn't make it. He looked down at Laguna while still kicking and keeping himself afloat.
Zell handed Laguna to one of the police officers and he got out. The first thing he did was tell Rinoa the bad news.
Rinoa was crying. She could not accept the fact that her one true love was dead. She had heard the news hours ago but she could still not get over it.
Rinoa sat in her dorm room in Balamb Garden, the school that trained the elite force known as SeeD. Her best friends, Quistis Trepe, and Selphie Tilmitt were in the dorm with her. They were doing their best to comfort her.
"We were getting married in three weeks!" Rinoa cried. "Our day together was so close!"
"Shhh, shhh, calm down Rinoa," Quistis said. "Everything is going to be alright. The wake is tomorrow, and the funeral the day after. We'll get to see him again real soon."
"Yeah, cheer up!" Selphie said happily.
Quistis had also loved Squall, but she knew that she could not have Squall, so she tried not to show her feelings around Rinoa to make her feel bad. Selphie was a naturally happy person, and even though she was sad, she did not show it at all.
Rinoa buried her head in her hands and kept on crying.
"God damnit!" Irvine Kinneas shouted.
Irvine unloaded seven shotgun shells into the wall of the house he was building. Irvine and Zell had hired some people to build a house for Squall and Rinoa once they got married. All that time and money was wasted now.
Irvine refilled his shotgun and fired the bullets into the wall again.
"Calm down," Zell said walking over to Irvine. "We both put our money and brawn together to build this house. Let's not just destroy it now. We can live in it ourselves."
"No way, I'm not living in a dead man's house!" Irvine shouted.
Irvine was going crazy. He had built this beautiful house and now there was nobody to live in it.
It was two stories with a basement that was almost as big as the first floor. It was painted white, and it had twenty rooms, and three bathrooms. It cost about 200,000 Gil (The Final Fantasy Currency), and in the end was just a waste. Irvine hated it.
"So, do you feel up to going to the wake tonight?" Zell asked his buddy.
"Of course I'm going. What kind of friend wouldn't go?" Irvine replied.
"Oh, okay. I was just wondering."
Squall and Laguna were in the caskets. They were all set for the wake later on that night. It wouldn't be another four hours till the wake. The owners of the funeral home dressed Squall up in a nice suit, and the same with Laguna.
In the back of the room there was a lone shadow moving. Very slowly the person went up to Squall's casket and grabbed the deceased Squall's hand. The man kneeled and started crying.
Rinoa had her outfit all planned out; Quistis helped her pick it out. Rinoa liked the dress, and she almost wished that she could see Squall in his normal clothes instead of a suit.
Quistis was getting dressed in the other dorm room. She sat on the bed and started putting her make up on while looking at herself in a little mirror. She finished putting the mascara on when it hit her hard. It hit her like a brick. Squall, who had always been like a little brother to her, was dead.
Quistis started to cry uncontrollably. The mascara started running down her face. She covered her face with her hands. Tears streamed down her face as she thought of all the good times with Squall. When she found him lying injured in Dr. Kadowaki's room, when Squall was almost killed in the Dollet training mission and she killed the robot chasing Squall with the boat machine gun. She thought about when she and Squall went off to the training center together and they saved Ellone.
Quistis really loved Squall, not only as a friend, but also as a soul mate. She had known him since he was she was six. That was fifteen years of her life with him. She now knew what Rinoa was feeling.
Quistis shuddered at the thought of seeing her loved one tonight for the last time. She was crying loudly now, and she could not stop.
Rinoa appeared in the doorway. Quistis looked up and saw Rinoa's eyes shining. Her eyes were wet. Rinoa went and sat down next to Quistis on the soft bed that the Garden supplies everybody.
Quistis took a good look at Rinoa and saw how beautiful she was. Squall had chosen a wonderful girl to marry. Quistis stifled a smile and she hugged Rinoa. They stayed like that for about a minute. They both needed comforting.
Irvine put on his suit and looked at himself in the mirror.
God damnit, he thought to himself. We even had the whole frickin house furnished.
Irvine was in the house that he and Zell paid and built. Zell was in the upstairs getting ready. They were going to leave soon. Irvine wondered how Selphie would react if he had died.
Irvine and Selphie had been going out for about two years. They loved each other's company. He knew that Selphie would be sad. But he never saw her cry. Would she cry for him?
"You do know that Raine loved you. Right Squall?" Laguna asked.
"Of course, but what I do not understand is why you two put me up for adoption with Ellone," Squall replied.
Father and Son sat in Balamb at a restaurant. It was mid-summer, and it had been the most beautiful summer Laguna had ever seen. It was warm out, and the ocean was just the right temperature. He would take his niece, Ellone, and his best buddies, Kiros and Ward, to Dollet in the summer sometimes to enjoy the water. The waved rolled ever so slowly, as if there was no wind at all. It was an enjoyable year so far. Laguna had told his son, Squall, about his mother a few months after the defeat of Ultemecia. It came to a slight shock at first, but Squall believed Laguna.
"Well," Laguna started. "Squall, at the time you were born, I was constantly defending Winhill with Kiros. Raine always stayed home, but one day, Raine was deathly ill. I could not defend the city and take care of a young child at the same time. It was a hard decision, but Mom had known Edea and Cid for a long time. Edea had mentioned to Mom that there were a lot of other kids your age there already. Ellone was getting older, and she was tired of staying in Winhill, so she volunteered to go to Edea's house to watch over you kids, and since Ellone was going, I figured it would be good for you too."
Squall slouched back in the chair. He had been waiting for his food for about twenty minutes and he was getting impatient. He was glad that he was with his father, but he hated the quiet life, like one such as a Balamb Resident. He figured his father thought the same.
Laguna was currently the president of Esthar, and a writer too, but he was not very good at it. Laguna was used to the technological advances, and the loud city, and the large buildings. Balamb was much too small for any sort of excitement.
"Do you understand why I did it?" Laguna asked.
"Of course, I just want my damn food," Squall blurted impatiently.
"Jesus Squall. Look at your posture. You are the headmaster of a highly popular school by many standards. Sit up strait," Laguna instructed.
"Dad, I'm twenty now. I'm an adult and an important person," Squall snapped.
Laguna laughed.
"You're still not old enough to drink," Laguna laughed sipping his wine. "See?" He added pointing to the wine glass.
Squall stared at his Pepsi.
"Don't worry," Laguna said cheerfully. "Say, weren't you supposed to me with Headmaster Martine at 3:00?"
"Yeah why?" Squall asked. "It's only 1:00."
"Squall… Your watch is two and a half hours off. It's 3:30," Laguna said seriously.
Laguna had lost the smile on his face when he saw Squall bang his fist on the table.
"God damnit," Squall murmured. "I'll go cancel my order."
Squall turned to go to the kitchen when he saw the waitress with their food. Squall sighed and sat back down.
"I guess Martine will have to wait," Squall said.
"What is that?" Laguna said to the hostess.
"The marinated chocobo," the waitress replied.
"No it's not! It's not even marinated!" Laguna said starting to get a little impatient.
Squall was getting embarrassed; his father was starting to make a scene. It was a good thing they were in the corner
"Sir, you can ask the chef yourself, this what you ordered," the waitress said, getting very defensive.
"Can you go ask the chef for me?" Laguna asked.
The waitress picked up the plate very roughly and started to walk away.
"I better be getting a tip," she said loud enough for Laguna to hear.
"She won't be getting a tip," Laguna said smiling to Squall.
Laguna got up and started to walk toward the exit. Squall had no clue what had just happened but he ran after his father.
"Did you like that distraction?" Laguna laughed. "You are going to Galbadia Garden, you had an appointment, you can't just blow it off, so I got the waitress to leave so we wouldn't get our food, so we don't have to pay."
Squall realized what his father had done and started to laugh. Laguna walked up to his expensive car and got in the driver's seat. Squall got in the passenger side.
Laguna got out of the parking lot and left Balamb. They started to drive down the road to the docks.
"Dad, I never thought the president of a country would ever do something so rude!" Squall said chuckling.
Laguna turned and faced his son. "You never blow off important appointments okay?"
"But it's okay if they aren't important appointments I guess, right?" Squall smiled.
Laguna smiled back. He had not seen his son this happy for months. It was probably because Squall had proposed to a wonderful young woman named Rinoa a few weeks ago.
"You do know that Rinoa is Julia's daughter right?" Laguna said,
"Yeah. If you had ended up with Julia like you should have, Rinoa would have been my sister," Squall said shaking at the idea.
"Yeah, but you and Rinoa will finish what Julia and I never did," Laguna replied.
Julia was a piano player at a bar, she and Laguna fell in love, but Laguna was called out on a mission, and he almost died in combat. He landed up near Winhill, where Raine and Ellone took care of him. Laguna was thought to be dead, and when Julia heard the news, she ended up marrying General Caraway a few years later. Julia was dead now though.
Squall reached down and started flipping radio stations. He came to a familiar song but changed the station.
"No! Put that back on!" Laguna shouted.
Laguna looked down to flip the station back to the song he had heard. It was called "Eyes on me". Julia had written that song many years ago; she had written it to remind herself of Laguna.
As he pressed the button, the car neared the side of the road.
"Dad!" Squall yelled.
Laguna looked up and found himself about to drive right through a guardrail. He had no time to stop. The car went through the rail and into the Balamb port.
The car sunk underwater. Laguna tried to get his door open but it was locked. Laguna hit the unlock button and he and Squall opened the car doors. They were a good 18 feet under the surface now.
Laguna swam out of the car door and started swimming toward the surface. He came near the top when a small motorboat zoomed by overhead. Laguna gasped, sucking in a ton of water. He felt the water force itself down his windpipe into his lungs. It burned like someone had lit a match inside of him. He looked for Squall, but he could not see his son. Laguna's vision blurred, and he passed out from lack of air and inhaling the water. Laguna floated down to the bottom of the port.
Squall swam toward the surface, but he came to something blocking his way. He pushed up but the thing would not budge. He looked around for his father. He saw Laguna floating down to the bottom.
Squall got his father and started kicking to the surface, he pushed up again but he could not resurface. He realized what it was though. It was the floating dock. Squall pushed up as hard as he could.
A fisherman was walking along the dock, until he stepped down and hit something.
Squall was hit in the head by someone walking by. Squall could not take the pain. He let go of Laguna, and he himself floated to the bottom.
Zell Dincht, Squall's closest friend, was a resident of Balamb. He had seen Laguna's car and he saw the car go into the port. Zell raced after the car and dove into the port after his friend and his friend's father.
Zell saw Squall and Laguna floating to the bottom of the port. Zell had reached Squall first. He kicked up and resurfaced. He handed Squall to the fisherman that had hit Squall, and Zell dived back in.
He saw Laguna lying on the sandy bottom. Zell picked Laguna up and pushed off the ocean floor.
He resurfaced and saw a crowd of people around the dock. The police were there, and Zell knew that Squall and Laguna didn't make it. He looked down at Laguna while still kicking and keeping himself afloat.
Zell handed Laguna to one of the police officers and he got out. The first thing he did was tell Rinoa the bad news.
Rinoa was crying. She could not accept the fact that her one true love was dead. She had heard the news hours ago but she could still not get over it.
Rinoa sat in her dorm room in Balamb Garden, the school that trained the elite force known as SeeD. Her best friends, Quistis Trepe, and Selphie Tilmitt were in the dorm with her. They were doing their best to comfort her.
"We were getting married in three weeks!" Rinoa cried. "Our day together was so close!"
"Shhh, shhh, calm down Rinoa," Quistis said. "Everything is going to be alright. The wake is tomorrow, and the funeral the day after. We'll get to see him again real soon."
"Yeah, cheer up!" Selphie said happily.
Quistis had also loved Squall, but she knew that she could not have Squall, so she tried not to show her feelings around Rinoa to make her feel bad. Selphie was a naturally happy person, and even though she was sad, she did not show it at all.
Rinoa buried her head in her hands and kept on crying.
"God damnit!" Irvine Kinneas shouted.
Irvine unloaded seven shotgun shells into the wall of the house he was building. Irvine and Zell had hired some people to build a house for Squall and Rinoa once they got married. All that time and money was wasted now.
Irvine refilled his shotgun and fired the bullets into the wall again.
"Calm down," Zell said walking over to Irvine. "We both put our money and brawn together to build this house. Let's not just destroy it now. We can live in it ourselves."
"No way, I'm not living in a dead man's house!" Irvine shouted.
Irvine was going crazy. He had built this beautiful house and now there was nobody to live in it.
It was two stories with a basement that was almost as big as the first floor. It was painted white, and it had twenty rooms, and three bathrooms. It cost about 200,000 Gil (The Final Fantasy Currency), and in the end was just a waste. Irvine hated it.
"So, do you feel up to going to the wake tonight?" Zell asked his buddy.
"Of course I'm going. What kind of friend wouldn't go?" Irvine replied.
"Oh, okay. I was just wondering."
Squall and Laguna were in the caskets. They were all set for the wake later on that night. It wouldn't be another four hours till the wake. The owners of the funeral home dressed Squall up in a nice suit, and the same with Laguna.
In the back of the room there was a lone shadow moving. Very slowly the person went up to Squall's casket and grabbed the deceased Squall's hand. The man kneeled and started crying.
Rinoa had her outfit all planned out; Quistis helped her pick it out. Rinoa liked the dress, and she almost wished that she could see Squall in his normal clothes instead of a suit.
Quistis was getting dressed in the other dorm room. She sat on the bed and started putting her make up on while looking at herself in a little mirror. She finished putting the mascara on when it hit her hard. It hit her like a brick. Squall, who had always been like a little brother to her, was dead.
Quistis started to cry uncontrollably. The mascara started running down her face. She covered her face with her hands. Tears streamed down her face as she thought of all the good times with Squall. When she found him lying injured in Dr. Kadowaki's room, when Squall was almost killed in the Dollet training mission and she killed the robot chasing Squall with the boat machine gun. She thought about when she and Squall went off to the training center together and they saved Ellone.
Quistis really loved Squall, not only as a friend, but also as a soul mate. She had known him since he was she was six. That was fifteen years of her life with him. She now knew what Rinoa was feeling.
Quistis shuddered at the thought of seeing her loved one tonight for the last time. She was crying loudly now, and she could not stop.
Rinoa appeared in the doorway. Quistis looked up and saw Rinoa's eyes shining. Her eyes were wet. Rinoa went and sat down next to Quistis on the soft bed that the Garden supplies everybody.
Quistis took a good look at Rinoa and saw how beautiful she was. Squall had chosen a wonderful girl to marry. Quistis stifled a smile and she hugged Rinoa. They stayed like that for about a minute. They both needed comforting.
Irvine put on his suit and looked at himself in the mirror.
God damnit, he thought to himself. We even had the whole frickin house furnished.
Irvine was in the house that he and Zell paid and built. Zell was in the upstairs getting ready. They were going to leave soon. Irvine wondered how Selphie would react if he had died.
Irvine and Selphie had been going out for about two years. They loved each other's company. He knew that Selphie would be sad. But he never saw her cry. Would she cry for him?