This and the next two chapters were meant to be one. Smashing over 15,000 words into one chapter didn't seem like a good idea so it was split up. The benefit, you get an additional two end tidbits! Enjoy!

Goodnight, Dad

'Squall. Squall, wake up. Squall!'

My eyes snapped open at the sound of Quezacotl's voice in my head and the thundering boom of the last snap in her tone. I looked up to the view of the corridor above and the wide-open view of what was more of a storage bay of the ship. Underneath me was a sleeping, large, three-headed dog that I immediately recognized as Cerberus, having summoned himself at some point in the night. It wasn't the worst bed I slept on, though it would get grumpy if I woke it up.

'What's up, Quezy?'

'There's someone here to see you…'

She trailed off into a hiss. That was enough to both tell me who it was and that I had slept through my alarm. Considering the time I had went to bed, the later wasn't a surprise, and with having to stay docked till Laguna got there in the morning, it was somewhat acceptable.

I carefully and cautiously moved off my new mattress. It grumbled a few times and I had a singular eye glare at me, but overall Cerberus either stayed asleep or immediately went back to sleep after I had woken him up. As I made my way to the exit, I put in minimal effort to not look so disheveled.

"Morning!"

I stared at Laguna expectantly and without any indication of gracing him with a reply or acknowledgement to his statement. It would still be bedtime if I had had the chance. I was a morning person, but this particular morning wasn't doing it for me.

"I have these for you." Laguna offered a small stack of papers which I snatched out of his hands without a second thought. He didn't seem as chipper and looked like there was something wrong, but I'd be damned if I was asking any questions about it and get a story. It was the beginning of my morning and I'd already had enough of Laguna in my day. However, when he didn't budge to leave, I realized I was going to hear it regardless.

"I wanted to ask you if this is what you want." The man fidgeted slightly.

No. I wasn't sure on what I wanted but it wasn't this. I didn't need money or a ship in return for being related to someone. I already was being paid ridiculous amounts from Garden and had more than I'd ever use. The Ragnarok was an attempt at passive aggressiveness gone wrong. But, saying any of that wasn't worth it. It didn't matter what I wanted, Laguna hadn't wanted anything to do with me when I was younger, and it was clear with how excited he had gotten on accepting his terms that that was a constant theme. Saying anything now would just lead to a longer conversation full of disappointment and hurt.

"Yes."

My tone sounded cold even coming from me. I felt ice on my fingertips inside my gloves and silently wished I hadn't given Ifrit to Seifer in secret as an attempt to keep the blond from getting assassinated by some random kid trying to play hero. As much as Shiva and Ifrit disliked each other, they kept each other in check.

I began to look through the papers as Laguna started to babble on about how he wanted to make sure I was okay with everything. Whatever he needed to do to make himself feel better. On top were the papers for the Ragnarok. Somehow, in the span of a night he had managed to transfer her over to my name, bill of sale and receipt both present in the ownership papers. I was slightly impressed before I heard a snappy voice in my head.

"If he wants to do something, he does it. No excuses."

Not what I needed to hear from my GFs. I shuffled the papers underneath the stack, looking at what was below. It was a money transfer and receipt, as to be expected from the conversation the night before, but the amount was not. It took a rather large amount of willpower not to blurt out the 'holy shit' I was thinking.

There in large, bold, scribbly handwriting was 1,000,000,000 gil. I became a Gillionaire overnight. Could put that on and scratch that off my bucket list at the same time all the while getting that creeping feeling of disgust. I stood there staring at it partially in shock before willing myself to concentrate on what the man in front of me, looking at him and listening to what he had to say.

"-not like I meant to keep talking without letting you interject. I'm doing it again, aren't I? Okay, I'll stop talking and you start."

I stared into his green eyes for a few moments before finding any words to say. Laguna looked like he could die on the spot and I was starting to wonder if I should have been paying attention to what he was saying. Too late for that now. Whatever the point of the conversation had been had left Laguna's mouth a long time ago and I had missed it.

"I don't need this."

I offered, and I was surprised at how hoarse my voice sounded, the tiredness having had crept into it. Laguna looked perplexed before he realized I was speaking about the gil, looking down before rubbing his head.

"I wasn't sure how much you wanted or needed so I went with a safe bet. Keep it. Donate it to charity. It's up to you."

He rose his head up at the end with a smile. A defeated smile that I didn't understand. I should have been paying attention, but I figured I was too far in to ask him to repeat what he had been saying or what it was about. As the seconds ticked by I was starting to muster up the resolve to ask, but just as things had gone earlier with Laguna, the man started speaking again before I could get a word in edgewise.

"You know, you haven't taken a day off since you started dealing with this Lunar Cry situation, you should take a few days to figure things out. The army will handle any problems that come up."

A genuine smile followed, to which I nodded to, losing my focus from the topic from before. Laguna moved too fast in a conversation for me to keep up or to pick up on all the social cues. It was exhausting. A break to go see Rinoa would be great, though by now she'd be in Deling and not Garden. I started to walk towards the elevator for the bridge, leaving the other there with a stupid expression on his face before he sighed and gave a "I guess that's that" while he turned to leave.

I situated myself in the pilot's seat before calling to Quezacotl in my mind, throwing the papers onto the passenger seat beside me. I'd put them away later.

'Quez, close the door. I want you to overload any circuits in the ship that would be potential tracking devices and then pilot to Deling City.'

If the Ragnarok was mine, I wasn't going to keep anyone aware about where she, or I, was located. She was downgraded from military weapon to a personal jet, so I was going to make her a bit more to my tastes over time. I felt Quezacotl's agreeance to what I had said before I heard her speak in my mind.

'I will do what I can. If there are any complications I will call for you.'

I gave an audible humph of agreeance before taking the Ragnarok into the air. Auto-pilot was safe enough for the thunder GF to handle, but landings and takeoff were much trickier. Once the jet was in the air, I strode out of the bridge, aiming to get back to the area where Cerberus was still sleeping. The flight would take hours from Esthar and with the timezone change there was no point in staying awake. It was a 14-hour difference and if it was going to be a 5-hour flight, I'd still get there before 11pm and I was tired enough to go back to bed a second time.

Cerberus gave a grumble and a stretch as I walked into the compartment. His middle head, Ber, give me a sleepy look and a yawn before closing his eyes again. Rus, left-hand side head was drooling and had his tongue out while Cer was snoring. They worked in conjunction, but each had their own quirks and personality. It was a package of three extra opinions for one GF, which sometimes was more of a regret than a positive. I huddled in beside Rus, putting some extra distance between myself and the snoring before drifting back off to sleep.

I woke up to a low rumbling beside me. The Ragnarok was still whizzing through the air, but I could tell she was going slower than she normally would be. Cerberus was arguing between itself on whether and how they were going to wake me up and were growling to one another. Upon sensing that I was awake beside them, albeit drowsy, the three heads turned towards me. Only Rus was about to see me in the position I was in, buddle up to the beasts' arm, and vice versa, but the effect was the same. He happily growled to me.

"We're approaching Deling City. We've been discussing if we should land."

Moving to get up, I shot the three heads a scowl. I wasn't following why we wouldn't land.

"Why?"

Cer growled in response this time, visibly unhappy with whatever the conversation had been about. I'd about had it up to here with how moody these GFs were getting today. They meant well, but sometimes it was a bit much.

"We stay hidden. Less curious eyes," Cer gave a scowl back to me, "and less people trying to hound you."

It was a fair point, I liked it. Since the war had ended I was made out to be this war hero and in a place like Deling City that wasn't about to go unnoticed when the ship landed. Now that there was no tracking on the Ragnarok it would be reasonable to keep her out of sight and out of mind, but the issue remained that I needed to get down on the ground.

'I will fly you down.'

Bahamut offered. I face palmed. What I was doing with the GFs, letting them have free reign, was not Garden procedure. The war had gone by quickly enough and with so much going on at once it never came up, but before I became a SeeD I would leave the Garden between classes to let Quez and Shiva have their own space. I needed mine, so I figured they needed theirs. It was why these certain GFs clung to me, Bahamut having a fear of humans and the rest not being fond of them for their respective reasons. But, doing so led to the possibility that GFs could leave and go rogue. They could summon themselves and kill their caster. If anyone saw Bahamut being used for a purpose other than battle it would be a much larger problem than any crowd. Undoubtedly, that was the cause for debate.

'No. We'll land a distance out from the city and I'll use haste to make my way in faster.'

'As you wish.'

A rumble from Bahamut came in reply. As I moved to the bridge, Cerberus dismissed itself from this realm, settling back into my mind comfortably. I took control of the ship over from Quezacotl, bringing down the Ragnarok and once it was on the ground, started my stride towards Caraway's house. As the GFs had predicted, there were various people who were staring at me, but I did what I could to ignore them. I had one mission on my mind, to see Rinoa. I wanted to hear her voice, to see her smile.

I glared and walked past the guard that was stationed in front of Caraway's house. He knew better than to refuse me entry. With the defeat of the sorceress, Caraway was once again one of the generals of the Galbadian military and security to get onto his property was normally tight.

Two knocks was all it took before I had a bouncy brunette answer the door, decked out in a loose baby blue overshirt on top of a black tank top and dark skinny jeans. I figured she'd be awake. For all that I was a morning person, Rinoa was a night owl. Her eyes lit up when she saw me, and I got the full force of her lunging into me. I held onto her tight in an embrace. Moments like these with Rinoa where when I felt wanted. For all the bickering and arguments that we had, she made me feel like I could take on the world.

"Squall! What are you doing here?"

Rinoa spoke with an excited but worried tone when she pulled away from me. She knew I shouldn't be here, and I could almost see the thought running through her head that I had quit SeeD. I shrugged at her and responded flatly.

"I got time off."

She flashed another smile at me, genuinely happy that to find out that I did not in fact abandon my duties, even if it would have been for her. Rinoa had a happy sparkle in her eye and as she invited me in, she continued.

"I missed you."

We walked inside and I caught myself grabbing her, looking her in the eye while running my thumb across her cheek. I was about to lean down and kiss her when the sound of someone clearing their throat interrupted us and my head snapped to attention. Caraway was standing in a doorway just off from the entrance. It was no secret that Caraway and I did not get along, but for Rinoa's sake, I would try to be civil. Truthfully, I didn't get along with a lot of adults, but that was beside the point. I nodded to the man in acknowledgement and he did the same.

"Are we finishing our movie?"

Caraway was demanding an answer from Rinoa, obvious that he didn't care if I was joining them or not. She gave a quick "yep" to him before dragging me with her to the movie room where a too-large tv was paused on a movie I could already tell was not what I was interested in watching. It looked like a romance, but I'd sit through it. I was wired from the nap I had had and the timezone difference. Rinoa sat on a couch, pulling me to sit beside and close to her before she spoke, signaling to the ever-present Caraway to not unpause yet.

"Did you go see Laguna?"

I looked away from her then. I expected her to ask considering she was making an effort with her own father, but my mind was still numb from earlier and my body was basically running on auto-pilot. It wasn't a subject I was interested in sharing. I just wanted to enjoy the evening with her.

"Yes."

"How did it go?"

I shrugged at her again and shook my head.

"I got time off."

Rinoa made a pout. That wasn't the answer she was looking for. Her brows were furrowed at me and I silently prayed to Hyne that she would drop the subject because it was going to turn into another argument. I didn't want that to begin with but in front of Caraway, definitely not. She whined at me.

"You know what I mean."

Sighing, I defaulted back to whatever answers where at the back of my mind. This also wasn't something I wanted to explain in front of Caraway.

"I'm not in the mood to talk about it."

She raised a brow at me, looking like a sad puppy before giving up and avoiding touching me. Caraway was staring and I began to get uncomfortable in the minute that passed till he resumed the movie. It was thankfully a romantic comedy, but it was still corny as ever. By the time it was over, Rinoa was already starting to fall asleep. Her day had already been much longer than mine, where I had already started the next day and gained time, her day had just become longer instead. No matter how hard she tried to stay up to adjust her body to the time difference she was done.

Caraway flashed me a death glare as I went to wake Rinoa up. I expected either to sleep in a different room or to head back to the Ragnarok that night, but I wanted Rinoa to be the one to decide that, not Caraway. I knew what he would pick. Her big doe eyes looked at me and she flashed me a sleepy smile as she got up. I was surprised that she bypassed me immediately and went to Caraway instead, opting to give him a sleepy hug while she spoke to him in a happy voice.

"I'm going to head to bed. Thanks for watching with me. Goodnight, Dad."

"Goodnight, Rin. Sleep well."

I raised a brow at that. I had never heard Rinoa call him that before or even refer to him as 'dad'. As hard as I tried to avoid it, I felt a pang of jealousy and resentment towards Rinoa run through me. He smiled at her and Rinoa turned to face me, holding her hand out so that I would take it and follow her. Caraway stood up as I did and I could feel the coldness coming off of him. Protective dad mode had activated and the glare he was giving could rival my own.

"I expect you'll be sleeping in separate rooms."

"Of course." I nodded to the older man. His face softened towards me, but his tone was still wary.

"Goodnight, Squall."

"Goodnight."

I followed Rinoa out of there after that, leaving Caraway to his own devices. Now, I wasn't a fool. I knew what I was walking into. Rinoa does not just drop things. She will stew on them and make them a larger issue than they need to be, but she doesn't drop them. So, as we were walking upstairs towards a guest bedroom, I steeled myself for the firestorm that was about to hit. Once the door was shut, she turned to me with all the tiredness gone from her face, replaced by determination.

"What happened with Laguna? Did you even go see him?"

Opening my mouth to answer, I considered my options and promptly shut my mouth. I had two options, I could tell her I didn't go see him, she would be angry, I could tell her I wanted to see her instead and I needed time. Much cleaner, much less drama, and I could convince myself nothing happened. Or, I could be honest, talk about something I didn't want to, and then proceed to be coddled and pitied. Neither option was too tempting, so I went with the truth.

"I saw him."

As I paused, Rinoa put her hands on her waist expectantly. She wasn't going to interject or interrupt, she was giving me the time I needed to gather my thoughts into words, but she didn't look happy about it.

"He…" I started before looking down and swallowing hard, I didn't want to give this words. Rinoa's eyes flickered more to worry than to the firey determination of getting the answer she wanted. With a steadying breath, I pushed myself to start again, surprised at how unconfident my voice came out.

"He wants nothing to do with me."

Rinoa strode over to me, the pity strong in her eyes. I hated it. She cupped her hands around my face and spoke softly.

"I'm sorry…"

I shook my head, careful not to upset her hands.

"It's not your fault."

"I never expected that. Laguna's so nice and welcoming. I still remember when we came back from Time Compression and he started giving me gifts from Odine's wares, just in case I ever wanted to test out my magic on them, and that I'd always be welcome in Esthar. No worries on being sealed." She chuckled at the memory before continuing and I saw a flicker run through her eyes. "Are you sure?"

The amount my brows furrowed and the scowl that appeared on my face was completely out of my control. What? I didn't even realize it was a question till I computed it for a second after being slightly confused on why I was being told how nice Laguna was, again, which is what gave me false hope to begin him.

"He told me."

"Yeah but he's too nice to do that. Did you walk out on him without giving him a chance?"

I understood why she asked the question, but considering I already was in a bad mood from said topic occurring the night before, or night of if you're going by day, I wasn't having it. Rinoa had this new fire in her eye and whatever this feeling in that was in my chest was starting to choke me and didn't feel good at all.

"No."

Rinoa tilted her head to the side, expectantly. Maybe if the conversation with Laguna had gone how I expected it, this exact conversation would have happened, and she would have been right, but that wasn't the case. She knew me too well, but she didn't know Laguna. It was an impossible argument for me to win. Most were, but this one especially so.

"I walked out, but after he had said he didn't want me there."

She shook her head. I was facing the judge, jury, and council.

"Did he specifically say he didn't want to be your father?"

I gaped. I didn't realize he needed to say it outright and my answer was greeted by an eyeroll.

"Not specifically."

"I think you should go back and talk to him."

Rinoa was stern and she wasn't taking no for an answer and she wasn't about to start listening to any other reasoning I had. I could tell her I got paid off and guaranteed that would be pinned on me too. Suddenly, I felt even more like shit than when I had left for Deling City. She was taking his side without realizing what his side was. I wanted to get out of here. Everything, everything for the past month had been a fight, had been my fault. I came to see this woman to relax and feel better and it was anything but. When it rained, it poured.

"Okay, I'll go."

I started heading out the room and Rinoa was following behind. All she did was fuel the fire.

"I wouldn't have asked if I thought you'd do this. I thought you'd put some effort into it. I'm putting effort in over here!"

"I did! Unlike your father for you, mine wants nothing to do with me. He's not going to call me over to try and reach out to me or for movie nights."

We had both raised our voices and at this point we were in the entrance way and Caraway had peeped out to see what was going on. I was in distress and the earlier jealousy and resentment I had was coming out. Rinoa had noticed both Caraway and the jealousy present because as I had swung around to face her with my last rebuttal, she took a deep breath and looked away from me.

"Just go."

I looked away from her too and pinched the bridge of my nose. This wasn't how I wanted to leave. I sighed and turned around, aiming for the door and back out to the Ragnarok. I wasn't going to stay here after that, it would just fuel the fire and make Rinoa furious.

When I got back to the Ragnarok I went straight up to the bridge. The screen flickered at me, August 3rd, 2:45pm EST. I could fly back, I'd have just missed sunset. But, I also didn't want to go back to Esthar yet, preferably not Garden or anything work related either. I was supposed to be having days off. An icy voice made itself known an suggested an option.

'Why don't you check up on Ifrit? It's been 3 months.'

'He'd have to deal with the weak fool attached.'

Diablos was quipping back at Shiva, unintrigued by the idea of going to see Seifer. I didn't even know if I could find him. After the trial, to which Seifer was pardoned under to condition that he was completely unarmed, Hyperion and his Guardian Forces were taken away from him. I gave him Ifrit afterwards, passing him by and giving him nothing more than a touch when I saw him after everything had been unjunctioned from him. Nobody would be none the wiser as long as no one checked what GFs I had equipped and the idiot didn't make his junctioning known. It would be embarrassing to have a rival up and die from being mugged or the like.

However, Hyperion was supposed to be melted down. The Garden staff knew better than to leave the blade in one piece, Seifer would come back for it. I was perfectly fine with it happening till I pulled out Lionheart hours before the blade was supposed to be melted. If something happened to Lionheart I would be devastated. My entire childhood and life had gone into that gunblade. With that, I knew that I was doing could get me fired, but I genuinely believed Seifer would do the same for me. I picked up Hyperion at the smelter, flashed that I was the commander at SeeD, stuck a tracking chip on it, wrapped it up nice and tight with a note saying the chip was on it but only I could track him and that I would kill him slowly and painfully if he ever let anyone know about Ifrit or Hyperion, and had it left at where Seifer was staying. Seifer vanished after that. The likelihood of the tracking chip being left on Hyperion was about zero.

'You could try. You could spar and not think about any of this.'

That was a comforting thought. Shiva had known that was all it would take to convince me. Monsters were getting boring, it would be nice to have a real spar. It would also beat talking to Rinoa or Laguna or the other option or me thinking to myself for the next couple of days, alone and in a state of self-pity.

But when a location was pinpointed when I put in the frequency of the chip into the Ragnarok, I couldn't help but be shocked regardless of what I wanted. I took my bird into the air.


Leonhart. I had just been drug out of one of Balamb Garden's disciplinary rooms, cuffed and with guards on either side of me. The staff had graciously decided to wipe all my magic and guardian forces to keep me from 'being a threat'. I wanted to laugh in their faces but when I started that cold icy glare had pierced through the temptation and squashed it. He looked like he was trying to threaten me. As an expert Squall reader, I shut my mouth and expected him to show up later to glare at me so I could interpret what he was saying.

What I hadn't expected was for my one and only rival to swoop by me as we came to a stop, the guards checking on whatever they needed to give me one last push out of what used to be my home and say good riddance. He went behind me and brushed my hand as he walked by. My face went stoic. If Leonhart making physical contact without Lionheart wasn't enough to send me into a heart attack, the firey sensation he left on my hand and the roar that appeared in my head was. It kept grumbling to me as it spoke.

'I'm here to keep you alive human, nothing more, nothing less. You show anyone I am here and I will do everything in my power to kill you and let you be killed.'

That would be Ifrit. An alright Guardian Force, nothing near like what Ultimecia had given me during the war, but I wasn't complaining if Leonhart was offering him up. Having Griever attached got to be a bit much anyways and when time compression hit it sucked he was gone but the GF was almost as sentimental as Squall. And he seemed to know Squall too, and liked him a lot, talking about shared sparing session Squall and I had, mostly the ones which I had lost which of course would be what he would tell a GF, and other moments that hadn't even happened yet. The faculty had already taken away Hyperion so other than this fire beast, I pretty much had nothing.

'Watch your tongue, I am GF, not a beast.'

'Ehhh, you look pretty beastly.'

Ifrit roared back to me and a pang of fire ran down my spine as the guards finally uncuffed me and sent me on my way. I would have to get that under control, damn Leonhart and letting his GFs have free run to do what they wanted, Ifrit was fighting my attempts at keeping him contained like a Guardian Force should be. I threatened to tattle on him as part of the disciplinary committee for that, but when I saw him smile, or mouth twitch which meant he actually felt some emotion close to being happy, when Shiva was showing off some of her martial art moves in her dancing or how Quezacotl would fiddle with portable study panels out in their secret area away from Garden, I couldn't do it. And he knew it. Every time I threatened he called bullshit on me. It led to a fight, but that's what I wanted anyways.

As I made it back to my temporary lodging in Balamb, I made my resolve to get out of here. I wanted to stick around Raijin and Fuijin, but none of the townspeople wanted me here, that was obvious. No point in staying around, I'd go find some little town and be the hero they aspire to be. My face wasn't plastered everywhere so it had exist. My romantic dream was gone, no matter what Griever had continuously said otherwise, but I could still have a noble dream. The package that was waiting for me when I opened the door steeled my resolve. Inside the letter was written:

Seifer.

I put a tracking chip on her, but I'm the only one with the frequency. If you fuck me over, I'll kill you. Slowly.

Squall

A smirk split across my face as I opened it up to reveal Hyperion. Leonhart was something else. Garden would strip him of his GF and weapon if they found out, but he didn't give two fucks. People thought he was such a goody goody, but deep down inside he was a rebel just like me. I was thankful for it, Hyperion meant the world to me. I'd have to pay him back somehow. Or maybe not, I'd leave the chip on it so he could find me. And when he decided to show his face I'd whoop him in a spar and then decide if I'd repay his little act of kindness by decreasing my asshole level by a few points.