Irvine didn't know why Selphie was overreacting. I mean she even thought of it first, it's not like she hadn't expected it to happen at some stage. Her negative reaction had caught Irvine off guard. He thought she would be happy at the prospect of a third person in their relationship.

"But No", mused Irvine, "She had to to have an emotional outburst, and storm away". Leaving him with his newest partner in crime. She at least seemed to understand her position in their relationship perfectly. He had taken her back to his dorm rooms so she could get to make herself at home. Irvine put the conditioner back on the in shower rack. He was quite a deep person, and enjoyed the time that the shower gave him to think. He knew Selphie would be back, and he had to look his best if he was going to pitch his proposition at her again.

"IRVINE! YOU THOUGHTLESS BARSTARD! HOW COULD YOU BRING HER BACK HERE!". That was Selphie, most of the time he liked that when he thought about her she seemed to pop out of thin air, but it did have its disadvantages. He sighed as he moved the shower curtain out of the way, sigh again when he realised that he had "once again" forgotten to put a mat down. Shrugged it off and grabbed a towel. Neither Selphie or his new guest was ready to see him in such a degree of undress. Grabbing his hat, which he had hung up outside his bathroom, he went out to the lounge to confront the pair.

Selphie was staring daggers at her.

"Guess, you haven't come to tell me you changed your mind."

"Irvy, how could you be so thoughtless! Did you even consider this from my point of view?"

"I thought I did! It was you who suggested it would spice up our relationship!"

"I know!" Sephie retaliated, "But I meant a dog! Or a Chocobo! You KNOW I'm allergic to cats! This she said with particular emphasis directed against said feline, who, still only being quite small, (and in Irvine defence quite cute), hissed and ran into the next room.

"Ah, okay well that explains a lot pumkin." Irvine said slowly "I honestly thought it was dogs. I did think about that, I'm... sorry?"

"Well I'm going to be..." Selphie interrupted herself with a particular large sneeze "Sneezing, every time I come in here now!"

"Okay, Okay, she'll go!" Appeased Irvine "I'll get rid of her, just don't be angry! You know I love you right?" Selphie looked at him, sneezed, and then giggled. The Kitten, seemingly taking this to be a sign that everything was alright for it to come back in into the room, jump up on the table near where Selphie was standing. At the moment the door burst open, resulting in a rather peculiar chain of events. In some rather unique acts of physical movement, involving a startled cat, some empty glasses, two chairs, Selphie, and unopened wine bottle and a light bulb, and resulting in some minor lacerations, a failed attempt from Irvine to help, the loss of his hat (though NOT his towel), some broken glass, and a fit of Sneezing, all of which mixed together on the floor like split spaghetti.

Xu, to her credit was only marginally set back, and after a moment of silence stated the reason to her intrusion.

"Has anyone seen Squall? He didn't show up in his office today, and I've been looking all over Garden for him!"

"Squall, oh he is probably just exhausted from last nights party" reasoned Irvine, as Selphie was still sneezing "Have you tried the Quad? He sometimes goes there to think, or to the balcony in the training area, which is, heh, supposed to be a secret, but everyone knows anyway".

"Irvine" deadpaned Xu "Fisrtly, that party was TWO nights ago, which you would have known if you didn't sleep through all of yesterday. Secondly, yes, I have tried the Quad, no one seems to have seen him. Thirdly, nice towel."

Irvine tipped his now-recovered hat, "Thanking you ma'am, my grandpappy would always say, "Son, a man should never bee seen without his towel."" When he looked up Xu was gone, leaving the door half closed behind her. Selphie, meanwhile, had picked herself up off the ground, accosted the cat, and thrust it into Irvines arms.

"Get rid of it" She said "and i'll see you Tomorrow. Without that monster."

Irvine tried to explain that it was a cat, not a monster, and that furthermore it was a "she", but Selphie had already slammed the door behind her.

"Well" he said, addressing the cat, "I think I have thought of the perfect person to donate you too..."


Xu, who only ever went to Irvine dorm as a LAST resort, concluded her pick and comb search through Garden, and headed back to Cid's Office. It was en route that she received a page from Nida, and changed her course tot he security room.

"Xu, hey" Nida warmly said, "I though you might want to have a look at this." He guested toward one of the screens before him. "When you told me that Squall was missing, I immediately started going through the security footage, to see if he had gone anywhere."

"Excellent work Nida" replied Xu, "always thinking one step ahead. Now I assume that since you have called me here you must have something to show for it? What are all these Empty Screens I see before me?"

"You are right when you say that they are empty. I have watched over each and every room, and Squall leonhart did NOT leave his dorm that night. So I thought to myself, Why is it So?" He looked at her, as if waiting to be congratulated, realised he hadn't said his punchline, and continued "A SeeD of Squall Caliber would never miss a such an important meeting, and I very much doubt anything but an army of sick Malbaros would be able to stop him from doing anything he wanted. Thus I concluded that he has disappeared of his own will."

"you called me here to tell me..."

"Hush," Interjected Nida "Not done. Squall has an intricate understanding of Garden's Cameras, and is probably only one of a handful that could get past them, and even then only while heavily juctioned." He paused while Xu eyed him off. "As you know, we have moved back to our primary docking point, outside Balaam for the Semester. But what you do not know, is that before the war, Norg comissioned a number of cameras to be placed in the woods outside of Garden, so he could watch his SeeD and Cadets train in an uncontrolled environment. Squall wouldn't have know this either, and so wouldn't have know to avoid them. Lucky for us they were all wireless. I've been working on getting them up and running now that we..."

"Cut to the chase Nida, honestly I don't know why I put up with you. Do you have him on camera or not?"

"What if I told you maybe" said Nida, appropriately chastened. "Look at this." He played a video loop of about 5 seconds, which showed a shadow pass the screen. It could have been human, save for the speed at which it was moving. Most would have passed it off as a shadow only that it seemed to use the tree in front of the camera like a momentum break to alter is course slightly, causing it to shake respectably. Xu exhaled audibly.

"He must have had to cast Haste ten times to get that kind of speed."

"What do we do now?" inquired Nida

"We should inform the Headmaster right away."


"So what you are trying to tell me is," clarified Cid, "Is that a Class S SeeD has gone Awol, and stolen multiple Guardian Forces, for an unknown reason, with an unknown purpose, with your only evidence being a tree that shook in the wind, and an empty dorm room?" Cid shook his head "All it seems to me is that Squall is just going through a tough time at the moment and is taking some much deserved, if spontaneous, days of work. Besides, i'm looking at our files here and it says that the two GF that he uses most at not even with him, the files say that he has lent Shiva to Ms Trepe, and that Bahamut hasn't been used since the war one year ago."

Xu looked questioningly at Nida, who shrugged.

"There has to be an explanation." Replied Nida "It would have been impossible for Squall to get out of Garden without a GF. Considering some of the jumps he would have had to make, the spells he would have had to cast... he had to have had one. Logically speaking that means that he must have a GF that is not on our records."

Quistis, who was standing next to Edea off to the side, Now spoke up.

"That actually may be the case. I'm sorry I didn't mention this before Headmaster. You know that when we fought Ultimecia, she also used a GF, One that we were unable to draw from her, it was so closely bonded. Well Squall did manage to do just that. He then turned it's power against her other GF Tiamat who was preventing us from attacking her with full force. I had assumed that it was lost during his wanderings in time compression, as he was gone far longer than any of us."

"How," ask Cid "Was Squall able to to draw something out of Ultemica, when Four other SeeD's could not?"

"I can only assume that he had some natural affiliation that was strong enough to attract the beast to him, from it's original host. No, there is something more in it than that, The GF he stole was Griever, who's image he hangs around his neck and on his gunblade."

Edea, who up until this point had been silent, stood up.

"As much as we like to know that we understand the Guardians, we must keep foremost in our minds that there is still much we do not know. Up until 50 years ago, these forces we now presume to play with were thought fair stories, with imperfect information about them preserved only in myths. Why in this last year we have had numerous encounters with these Spirits. We Rescued Bahamut from his self imposed prison, and we should remember that the King of GF's owe us very little. We found Siren, who was found, like the old stories tell us, in the shadow's of heaven. It is possible that Squall's pendant also housed a GF, it is not unheard of. Perhaps this Spirit, perceiving Itself in the present, chose to turn to Squall."

"It's true" Quistis added, "I once told Selphie about a GF I had read about who resided in a ring, and could only be coaxed out with the right ingredients. It was said that it appears differently in each age to each summoner. Once she found the ring, she rested at nothing to open it, and it appeared to her as a Train, of all things... she named it something equally ridiculous as well..." Quistis shook her head at the memory of it.

"So even assuming he has a GF" Xu, said, steering the conversation back on track, "where would he be going?"

"Well," said Cid "He may be going after Ellone? I told him to be patient with the new Estarian Democracy, but it is possible that he will try and regain custody. Either way, whether this is his goal or not, Laguna should be contacted. He is staying with General Caraway while he recovers, yes?

The sound of her Husbands voice faded away as Edea stared out the window. The skies darkened outside, rich thunderheads ready to burst over a dry land. The whisperings of Bahamut worried her. She occasionally junctioned him to train what little magic ability she had left. Bahamuts power was needed to amplify hers to be even noticeable. She had learned afterwards that Bahamuts true power lay in his knowledge, and he was the source of the information she had volunteered during the meeting. He urged her caution. His Wisdom was unmatched, but there were a select group of GF that were is betters in raw power. Ellone, Edea decided was a good place to start. While the other did that, she would pay a visit to Odine. The prunish Imp that he was, he did know what he was talking about – and she needed answers. About GF, about her powers, and about Rinoa.

Review. or Squall will come for you.