"You are adorable when you're sleeping." A melodic voice intoned.
Squall bolted upright in his bed, sweat still upon his brow. Rinoa leaped back a few paces from his side as he turned to look at her with menace. At once his expression softened, he did not mean to frighten her. He could barely remember what his dream was about but it was horrific. He placed a clammy palm against his forehead, wiping the slickness away with a disgusted look. The summer was rather hot and Garden's air conditioning was broke. Zell promised he'd fix it one of these days but he apparently hadn't gotten around to it yet.
"Bad dream again?" Rinoa inquired, sitting softly on his bed, inches away from his legs.
Squall groaned, "Do you even bother to knock or do you just let yourself in?"
She bonked his nose with her finger as she stuck a tongue out at him, "You still didn't answer my question silly."
He waved her hand off, "Whatever. It is not like it's a secret that we're together. However as commander of Garden, there is a reputation and image I have to upkeep to the students here." He admonished her.
She adored him when he got flustered, which happened often around her. Her smile faded slightly. They had been growing further apart as of late. Ever since he was assigned the permanent position of Garden commander, Squall was inundated with paperwork, mission assignments and overall administration of the academy. It was a miracle at all that he got any sleep during the week. He looked haggard and even his scar which ran beautifully down between his eyes and across his nose was a darker shade than usual.
"You know they honestly don't care, right? They are just happy that you are happy." She smirked, placing a hand on his leg.
Squall huffed, "The students might not but our employers and potential contracts might. What would they think if they found out the leader of Balamb Garden was freely consorting with a sorceress and having an illicit affair?"
Rinoa slapped a hand to her mouth in a futile effort to prevent her laughter from bursting forth, "Is that what they are calling it these days?" At a scowl from Squall, she continued, "Oh come on! Don't get so hung up on titles that you yourselves imposed! We should take a vacation and leave Garden and travel to Esthar to see Laguna. Wouldn't that be fun?" She grappled his arm and practically tried to drag him out from under the sheets.
"Hey!" He snatched his arm away, hastily trying to cover himself up. "If you last recall, it was only a month ago that several operations went missing in that area. Esthar isn't exactly a safe place for casual vacationing."
"Oh, like I haven't seen that before!" Rinoa chuckled, addressing the sheets, completely ignoring what Squall had said.
"I'm serious. I can't just up and abandon my post. We have too many recovery and renovation operations happening throughout the world. We are in close contact with Galbadia Garden in supervising reconstruction efforts for Trabia Garden. We should hear word from Trabia any day now. I can't just leave when all this is happening!" He sighed heavily, wishing he could make her see his position.
Brushing back her black hair with a flick of her head, Rinoa beamed at him, satisfied that she was finally getting him to talk. "This is the most I've gotten out of you all week Squall! You know what the best thing about being a leader is? They can delegate! How about you delegate your duties to 'Colonel' Quistis? After all, it seems you spend more time with her than me!"
Squall grimaced at the accusation, "Don't do that. You know our relationship is purely professional. I needed someone to assist me in the daily handling of Garden administration and financial upkeep. She was the most qualified person for the job."
Her expression soured, "So you don't trust me to take care of that for you? My father is a general you know! I do know a few things about this type of stuff."
"It's not the same thing." He exhaled, "You're not a SeeD. You don't have the training and-" His words were immediately silenced at the look she gave him.
"So I'm not one of you right? I'm just some trophy sorceress girlfriend that you happened to make fall for you only a year ago." She casually flashed an arm around the room to indicate the rather opulent headmaster room that he had taken residence in after Cid handed Garden over. "Now that you are successful running a multi-billion dollar mercenary force and the last evil sorceress out of the picture, all is well in the world right? Who needs a stifling girlfriend? Just so long as she stays out of the way and is only there to warm your bed when you need it, did I get it right?"
A bewildered look splayed across Squall's face as he saw the headlights of a freight train coming straight for him. Rinoa's disposition went from being playful and coy to downright vicious in a span of minutes. Reflecting back on the past several months, he knew he probably should have taken the time away to spend it with her. He could recall moments where she waited by the sidelines as he continued to settle Garden's business, only accompanying him to his room hours later. How long had she waited in silence for his attention? What happened to their love? It was so strong and undefeatable a year ago. Where had they gone wrong?
"That's…not what I meant." Squall stammered. Why did girls always have to twist words around? It was so frustrating!
An icy chill descended upon the room as the intercom buzzed by the door. "Squall?" It was Quistis. He shut his eyes tight as Rinoa glared at him before leaving the bed and walking over to the speaker. "Are you awake Squall?" Quistis was insistent this morning.
Rinoa coolly pressed the button, "Yeah, he's in here. Come on in."
"Rinoa!" Squall hissed, wrapping the covers up tighter around his body.
With a soft hum, the door slid open; standing there in full orange leather dress was Quistis Trepe, his right hand 'man' as it were. She had her dirty blonde hair done up in her usual cowlick ponytail, allowing her two prominent bangs to extend down past her cheeks to her shoulders. Resting on her arm was a clipboard with various documents and ledgers, in her other hand was a pin, already clicked open and ready to begin writing.
With a casual flick of the wrist, Rinoa utilized her power to rip the sheets right off Squall before throwing them before the feet of Quistis. She gave a smug look back at him before addressing Quistis, "She's all yours Squall. Hope you enjoy your new girlfriend!"
Rinoa stormed out of the room, ensuring the door shut behind her before stomping off down the tiled hallway. Squall and Quistis's eyes locked before she promptly turned around with a cough as he scrambled swiftly off the bed to go get some clothes on. "Ahem, she was quite saucy today wasn't she?" She commented, trying her best to remain blasé. "Did you two get in another fight again?"
"It doesn't matter!" He roared as he jammed his leg down one pants leg then the other. He rammed his fists through a white t-shirt before fluffing up his black jacket around his shoulders, petting down the white fur lining the collar.
Quistis tried to remain professional but there was some curiosity about seeing Squall in this capacity that she chanced a look in his direction. "Ah, I haven't seen you wear that in ages. Going back to the good old days?"
He glowered as he buckled up the last of his three belts around his waist. So what if he was attached to this outfit, it was one of the few things that helped define who he was back then. It was his personal style that he created himself to help stand out from the sea of mediocrity around him. Granted the situation is different now but it still didn't change the fact he felt comfortable in it, almost like a second skin.
"Whatever." He said, dismissing her comment. He wasn't in any mood for jokes today. Not even ten minutes into the morning and Rinoa had already tainted the entire day. "Just give me the day's reports."
With a clearing of her throat and a finger press up on the bridge of her glasses, she began while Squall sat back down on the end of the bed intently listening. "Contracts are down 3.5% from last week while mission completion has increased by 1.1%. We just got two new contracts last night. One for Esthar," Squall waggled his hand as if to disregard that contract, "…and another from Trabia Garden. Its…a rather odd one."
He signaled her, "Give it to me."
She flipped it over and handed the contract to him as he flipped through the two page document, his eyes intense as he scanned the words. At length he looked up at her, "That's odd. It doesn't have a point of contact or person of employ. Who are we working for and why?" He glanced back down at the paper, "It is also phrased oddly. Some of the sentences don't make any sense."
Quistis gave him a quizzical look, "Should I discount it?" She began to fold it as Squall handed it back to her.
He held a palm up, "No…not yet. Keep it for now. I'd like to show this to someone first. He is usually good at deciphering things. I think it might be a code."
Quistis nodded, "You mean Irvine? Very well sir. Shall we get going?" She opened the door up, sidestepping the bedraggled sheets and into the hall.
With an angry toss, Squall threw the sheets back onto his bed before securing his gunblade and stepping out alongside her. They walked in silence for a time along the walkway, Quistis very aware of his temperament and wisely choosing to remain quiet. She had worked with him long enough by now that she knew his inner anger had to calm before he was able to be social again. It was miraculous that Rinoa even got him to open up when they first met. Up to that point, he had just bottled up all his emotions inside, for fear of having to confide in someone that he might get attached to and then lose in battle. It was a vicious cycle for him.
With a ding, the central elevator doors opened and they walked in. He pressed the second floor button and waited patiently for the elevator to move. Balamb Garden was laid out around a circular interior atrium where a primary elevator accessed all floors. One could look out through the glass tubing while traversing floors and view the majestic architecture of the place.
The upper floor was the headmaster's quarters, now Squall's living space ever since Cid left Garden in his care. The mid-levels were dormitories and classrooms while the bottom floor was more of a casual break or resting area complete with benches and a peaceful water pool that circled the main elevator pillar. Multiple entrances let out from the bottom floor to the outdoor gardens where battle training was conducted as well as bridgeways that led to exterior building facilities that housed more dormitories, infirmary, cafeteria, library, parking garage and the monster training ground.
As Squall observed the mingling students below, Quistis pipped up, "Sir?"
He interrupted her calmly as he continued to stare out, "Please Quistis, you can call me Squall."
"Yes si-Squall." She corrected herself with a smile. He may be their commander but he was anything but formal despite his best attempts at being so and the entire faculty and students loved him for it. The only person who couldn't seem to see it was Rinoa. She felt it best not to get in-between them at this present juncture; they did enough damage as a team trying to smash them together as a couple last year. "I did some research on the missing operations you queried about earlier."
He turned his head to the side slightly, interest piqued. "Go on."
The doors opened to the dormitory midlevel, they stepped out, allowing several students on. One of the girls blushed and waved at Squall, he barely noticed her. His thoughts were so distant. Quistis followed up, "Aren't you going to wave back Squall?" She pointed at the expectant students, now bunched together inside the elevator.
"Huh?" He glanced back briefly before making a half-hearted wave. They all giggled before the doors closed and they traveled upwards toward their morning classes. "Why'd I have to do that again?"
Drawing her clipboard tight to her body as she placing her hand on her hip, she scolded him, "Squall, everyone looks up to you. You may not realize it but they desperately want your approval. The least you could do is show that you care."
He uttered a guttural cry of irritation as he looked up at the domed ceiling of the atrium, hoping Hyne would descend down from above and save him from having to explain everything. "Not you too Quistis. Rinoa was saying some quite similar."
"Which makes it doubly true." She said, amused. "Remember Squall, you're not alone in running this place. You have me, Irvine, Selphie, Xu, Nida and Zell. All the burden of Garden shouldn't just rest on your shoulders. If you recall, you personally elected us as your colonels, majors and captains the moment we established the new academy order and began rebuilding. Fall back on us. Rely on us if things get too much. Okay?" She began to extend a hand to place it upon his shoulder, hoping he'd warm up to her. Just what did Rinoa and him fight about this morning?
He shrugged it off as he continued toward Irvine's room, "Finish with the report Colonel Quistis."
"Hmm…well…" She resituated her glass before looking back down at the clipboard, knowing her moment of counsel was over the second he addressed her by the formal title. "Well, the first disappearances of SeeD originated in Esthar about a month ago. Three teams went missing with a fourth team found dead. Another team went missing in Fisherman's Horizon or FH. Two in Dollet and now one in Timber. From the looks of each occurrence, the ground zero point is in Esthar and this anomaly is slowly traveling west. It seems individually located because once it moved to FH and beyond there were no more reports of SeeD disappearing in Esthar."
Squall regarded the odd Trabia contract again, "And now this. Do you think this contract has anything to do with these missing teams?"
She shook her head despondently, "I don't know Squall. We received a telegram early this morning from Esthar detailing more about the missing teams. Zell was to be handling that but I haven't seen him today."
Presently they stood before Irvine's door. Squall rapped on the door lightly and stood back a pace to wait. After a minute he looked at the small door monitor, it did indeed show that the room was occupied. Irvine must still be sleeping! Didn't he know he should be getting ready to train the next batch of sharpshooters? He banged a bit harder on the door but there was still no response. He could hear a faint slapping sound but couldn't exactly make out what it could be.
With a shared look at Quistis, he plugged in his headmaster code and opened the door himself. He stalked down the small hallway towards the end where the bedroom door was wide open, a soft, dim glow filtering down onto the orange tile from the chamber. He would have to give Irvine a stern talking to. This was the fifth time in a span of two weeks he was going to be late to teach classes! He was seriously considering demoting and sacking him from the staff altogether.
He rounded the bend before stopping dead in his tracks as he beheld a rather unexpected sight. Lying with legs spread on his bed was Irvine, his hands caressing the smooth curves of Selphie's rump. She was ramming up and down passionately atop his member down to the balls, creating that faint smacking sound he had heard outside the dorm. Her upturned hair curls bouncing excitedly with each pound. Her moans were reaching a fever pitch as if she could explode at any moment.
His mind could barely comprehend the situation before sputtering out, "What in Hyne's name are you two doing?"
Selphie shrieked at the intrusion as she leaped off Irvine with a slick sound. She rolled herself up in his covers as Irvine lay unashamed on the bed, knowing full and well he was caught. "I was almost there Squall. Why'd you have to go and ruin the moment?" Irvine asked calmly.
Quistis peeked into the room before bursting into laughter, drawing intense color to Selphie's cheeks. "Oh my…"
Irvine grinned stupidly, his brown leather cowboy hat the only piece of clothing on him. "Colonel Trepe! See anything you like?" This drew an affronted smack from Selphie.
"Please Irvine, let's not pretend I want any of that." She couldn't stop tittering. "Are you at least using protection Selphie?"
Ignoring Squall, who still seemed to be finding his voice as his face was contorting into a vast array of conflicting emotions, Selphie turned to Quistis before blushing. "Yes, of course we are!"
"There's a good girl." She brought the clipboard back up to her breast before turning to Squall. "I see nothing wrong here. I suggest we allow Irvine to get dressed immediately and to allow Selphie the privacy of his bathroom before she heads out to work on the jets. What do you think?"
His voice crashed back into his throat, "Irvine! You are a teacher and supposedly a positive example for the students! Many of them are underage and well below your level of attraction! You should know better than present this as an acceptable form of behavior to them!"
"Oh come on chief…don't say that you haven't snuck off during school hours for some personal 'headmaster' time with Rinoa." Selphie jabbed, winking at Quistis as Squall's face went crimson.
"That was on the weekend and that is beside the point here!" Squall hollered.
"I could stand to hear some more about this." Irvine motioned Selphie to carry on.
"Shut it Irvine!" Squall commanded before grabbing the protesting Selphie by the arm and promptly ushering her into the bathroom before pitching her orange and tan jump suit in a heap on the floor. "Get dressed Selphie and report to the garage for mission briefing. Ensure one of the Humvees is ready to go."
Selphie's eyes went to Quistis, "So….no jet maintenance? Are we going somewhere?"
Quistis returned a lost look to her before mouthing, "I have no idea."
Ignoring the small side conversation as he shut the door, Squall flung Irvine's cowhide breeches at him, smacking his squarely in the face. "Get dressed! We have a lady present."
"Ouch! Geez, fine, fine, I'm getting dressed!" He began putting on the leggings as he appealed to Quistis, "What's gotten into him? Rinoa and him have another fight?"
"Stop talking about my relationships please." Squall pinched the bridge of his nose as he closed his eyes. He needed to calm down before he lashed out at someone. He felt he was under a lot of strain lately and he couldn't exactly explain why he wasn't handling it well. It didn't seem like anything exactly taxing, so why was he feeling so much stress at being commander? Once Irvine was finished with his pants, he didn't wait for him to put on a shirt before handing him the Trabia contract.
"What's this?" Irvine asked as he perused the document.
"We think it is in code." Quistis clarified as she nodded to Selphie, now fully dressed and quietly sneaking past them in case she attract Squall's ire again. She turned around sticking her tongue out at the backside of Squall's head before quickly dashing out into the hallway.
"I can see that." Irvine noted immediately as his eyes darted from word grouping to grouping, one hand pushing his long, brown locks back behind his ears. "This does look like it's from Trabia Garden but the paragraphs are all mixed up. The first letter of each paragraph is the first half of the message; the last letter reading backwards is the second half."
"I don't even understand how you even saw that." Squall commented. Despite Irvine's perpetual lust for Selphie and women in general, he couldn't deny Irvine's talent as both a gifted sniper and cryptographic expert. After a period of calm he pressured, "So what does it say?"
Irvine looked up with a grave look on his face, "Nothing good. An unknown enemy faction had just attacked the local town of Trabia and it appears all the inhabitants there have been killed. They are enroute to the Garden as of this message."
Quistis gasped, "Those poor people. We just helped establish their town just this year!"
Squall's eyes bulged as he rounded on Quistis, "How long ago did we receive this message?"
She thought for a moment, "About two hours ago, why?"
"There might still be time to get there and stop whatever is happening. Irvine, as much as I'd hate to say this but meet Selphie in the garage and prep the vehicle for traveling. We'll pick up Zell from the cafeteria, since he's most likely there, and meet you."
"So great Commander Squall is finally venturing out into the sunlight? Heading back into the field!?" Irvine clapped his hands against his thighs as he stood up suddenly, "It's about time! I was wondering when I'd be able to see those awesome gunblade skills of yours again!"
Squall couldn't help but reveal a smirk before hiding it, "Whatever. Just suit up and meet us at the garage."
As they were leaving, Quistis stopped briefly at the bedchamber door, "Irvine, do be careful with Selphie. Don't toy with her heart. She loves you, you know that?"
A look of disquiet spread as he stopped in tying his long hair into a ponytail, "I know ma'am. I'm slightly hurt that you'd think I'd abuse her trust in me."
"I don't but I'm just reminding. That's all." With a lingering smile, she trailed out after Squall.
"I don't know why you keep indulging their behavior Quistis." Squall murmured as they got back on the elevator, him politely keeping the door open for her as she caught up to him.
"For the same reason we all try to encourage you and Rinoa." She chuckled.
He looked over at her peeved, "And why's that?"
"That's something for you to figure out!" As the doors opened on the ground floor, she dashed out into the atrium before Squall could get a word in. She began making a beeline toward the garage before swiveling around, "I've got a few things I'd like to see to first but I'll also meet you at the garage, ok?"
Closing shut his open mouth Squall bowed his head as he headed off in the direction of the cafeteria. Surely Zell was stuffing his face full of hot dogs again. Those things were unhealthy. He couldn't understand how Zell kept his fighting figure with the amount of hot dogs he stuffed away each meal. Either way, it was the best place he could think of to find him.
Squall raised a hand to shade his eyes as he stepped out into the midmorning sun. The heat of summer had just begun to pick up and it was going to be a rather sweltering day. There was a flurry of activity in the quad as groups of cadets walked to and fro, each one carrying decorations or some sort of craft for the upcoming event. Squall had only been partially interested in it but did little to investigate what it was about; something about the first annual sorceress elimination celebration. The general mood of the students could best be described as festive.
Many of the students smiled at him as he made a direct course for the cafeteria, some stopped and stared while others waved. How long had it been since he left the central facility? Had it really been so long that people were surprised he actually existed? He had to duck low at one point as two oblivious girls were holding some pole streamers between them, unaware he was about to get caught up in it. Despite the stress of the past few months, he felt somehow relieved to be outside among the budding SeeD cadets again. Some part of him missed the training and longed to be back out in the force, he had had enough of being cooped up inside his ivory tower. Maybe Rinoa and Quistis were right.
He strolled into the cafeteria, taking in the sights of the empty tables and several students slowly filing out after a well eaten breakfast. He furrowed his brow as the familiar visage and voice of Zell was nowhere to be found. A call from the food line and a waving hand beckoned him over. Xu was already waiting for her breakfast of oatmeal and fruit. He stepped in line beside her as they shared a smile, hers resulting in some rather large dimples.
Squall had to admit, Xu had blossomed since the previous year; she was just beginning to let her jet black hair down, having it almost touch the small of her back. Her eyes had that alluring slant that most of her kin from the Trabia continent sported. He noticed that she wore a modified form of the black SeeD outfit, complete with red tie and dual breasted silver mail adornments on either side.
Squall shook his head, "Still preferring to stick with tradition?"
"Of course." She stated matter-of-factly. "This is a job we are tasked to do. We should look the part…oh great leader."
He cocked an eyebrow at her as he grabbed a banana and placed it on his tray, "Is that sass I hear in your voice Major?"
"So formal now! I love it when you call me by my title!" Xu beamed.
"Yes, a title we so arbitrarily gave each other." Squall mused, recalling his conversation earlier with Rinoa.
"It doesn't matter." She said smoothly, "It aligns us better to what people are used to with their own country militias and helps provide rank structure to our academy. I think it works better this way and provides a strong base for customs and protocol. You did the right thing in implementing it."
Squall remained silent on the matter. He didn't really feel it warranted a response, not that he could think of one anyway. He just nodded his head as he waited for the food attendant to pour some scrambled hash into his bowl. He turned to her as they moved a few paces down the line. "Hey Xu, have you seen Zell recently? I've been looking for him."
A slight, imperceptible shiver went through Xu as she had to recall Zell from her memory. She didn't really want to think about him at the moment. With some hesitation she responded, "I honestly haven't seen him all morning. We don't actually see each other anymore." She let the topic hang.
Squall was a bit confused, "Were you seeing each other?" He was completely out of touch with his fellow SeeDs.
"Not exactly." The chill in her tone half reminded Squall of himself. Did he used to be so evasive like this? "If you'll excuse me." She nodded politely before heading off towards a table at the far end of the cafeteria where a lone girl was already there patiently waiting for her to join.
Sensing that he wasn't going to be having a breakfast buddy to talk to, not that he had time to enjoy a decent breakfast, Squall placed the tray back down on the line as he picked up the banana and walked out. As he opened it up to take a bite, he spied Nida coordinating the celebration efforts. They were hoisting up a rather raggedly looking life size doll that resembled alarmingly like Ultimecia, right down to the crazy horned, silver hair.
"Hey." Squall greeted as he took a rather generous bite.
Nida jerked involuntarily as Squall sidled up next to him. "Geez Squall! Do you even let people know you're beside them before talking?"
He shrugged as he ignored the question, motioning towards the doll now being strung up against a pole around a pile of sticks and kindling. "What's that? Looks…tasteful."
"I thought so too!" Nida agreed, completely missing the point of Squall's comment. With an excited rake of fingers through his brunette mane which he seriously needed a haircut for, he dove right into the main exhibit. "Rinoa thought it would be a great idea to help unify the student body by gathering around a bonfire as the finale for our first annual Sorceress Liberation day. She even made it herself!"
Squall tilted his head to the side as he scrutinized the rather off-putting doll. This did look like her handiwork. She tried so hard to make things. "This was her idea?"
Nida nodded his head vigorously, "Of course! She said the grubby look signified the hate and rage directed at Ultimecia by the world for what she had done to SeeDs over the millennia."
"I'll bet." Squall mumbled as he finished the last bite. After swallowing, "Hey, have you seen Zell this morning?"
Nida's face brightened, "As a matter of fact, I have! He had just received the telegram from Esthar." His countenance grew serious, "Oddly, he was in a state of distress when he left earlier, said he had to go do something at his mother's."
Squall thanked Nida before throwing the peel into the nearby receptacle. He jogged back into the central atrium, running almost a good half lap to reach the far side where the parking garage was. He sometimes lamented the fact they were restricted back to land and sea based travel as a military fighting force. He had petitioned for Balamb Garden to secure the rights to use the aero jet Ragnarok, a rather remarkable ship that could function even in outer space. President Laguna unfortunately vetoed the proposal stating that it was Esthar by origin and it should return to the country of its manufacture. Besides, all the technicians and spare parts to fix it up were local to Esthar. Squall didn't have the clout to argue with him. Instead, utilizing designs Zell had 'procured,' they were nearing the end of production of their own line of single seat piloted jets.
"Hey Squall! Yoo hoo! Over here!" Selphie's high pitched voice echoed through the garage floor.
Squall turned to see Selphie with a bomber's cap and goggles on, waving frantically at him from up through the gun turret hole. He grinned before waving back, drawing an animated response as she ducked back into the Humvee. The shotgun position was graciously saved for him. Irvine grabbed his hat off Squall's reserved seat as he situated himself behind the wheel. Quistis sat kitty corner behind Squall to the left of Selphie, who was gleefully sitting in the turret seat.
"I'm so excited!" Selphie blurted energetically, "We haven't gone out on a mission together like this in ages! This is going to be so rad!"
"Indeed it is, my little lady!" Irvine gushed as he pulled out of the parking space barely giving Squall enough time to buckle in.
Flouting the ostentatious love birds between them, Quistis got to the heart of the matter. "Was Zell anywhere in Garden?"
Squall shook his head. "He's in Balamb."
"Did he at least do his job and receive the daily telegrams?" Quistis stressed.
"Yes." After a pause, "That's why he left to go to Balamb."
Quistis sat back in thought as she digested the information. What could have caused Zell to just abandon the rest of his duties that day and just bolt off to Balamb? Sure, his mother was there and he had his adoptive family to visit but that didn't explain why he'd suddenly go AWOL when he had previously shown no propensity to do so. Well, he better have some damn good explanation for it then!
Within minutes, they were whipping across the countryside, all windows down and wind whistling through the compartment. Selphie was taking aim and skillfully sniping each of the Grendels and Anacondaurs they encountered alongside the road. Ever since the Lunar Cry occurred a year ago when Ultimecia meticulously planned the revival of Sorceress Adel by forcing her secure coffin orbiting in space back down onto Gaia via the cry, monsters were more of a threat than ever.
It has long been known that the moon was a breeding ground for innumerable monsters whose numbers would never end. Only last year during the second Sorceress War did the third Lunar Cry happen in recorded history. A singular conduit of monsters, traveling from the moon straight down to the planet surface, flooded the land and made many regions unstable and unsuitable for habitation. SeeD and local militia forces were constantly dispatched to defend rural villages and even eliminate major city incursions from these uncontrollable beasts.
The last Lunar Cry was masterminded by Ultimecia, instigated by the crystal pillar encased within a monstrosity of stone and machinery, the Lunatic Pandora. The pillar was excavated by the Estharians nearly a century ago and in recent developments had a mixture of metal and stone construct fashioned around it. It was originally researched by renowned Estharian scientist, Dr. Odine, under commands of Sorceress Adel at the time to be utilized as a weapon. It has since been decommissioned since its role in the previous year's Lunar Cry. It was now slowly being dismantled on the southern Centra continent by President Laguna's orders and in accordance with the freshly minted world peace treaty.
The rattling thundering of the chaingun was beginning to bore a hole into Squall's skull. He could feel a rather nasty headache coming on. Placing a hand on his forehead, he yelled back so he could be heard, "Can you please stop that Selphie?"
After a few moments of ignorance from Selphie, Quistis tapped her thigh lightly to gain her attention. Selphie popped her head back down, moving the goggles up into her hairline as she looked at her. "What?" She shouted.
Quistis gave a sign across the throat to desist in the firing while mouthing very elaborately, "Please stop firing."
"You want them to actually reach us? They already know we're here!" Selphie reasoned stridently, causing Squall to grit his teeth further.
Seeing no avenue of relief down that road of reasoning, Quistis cuffed Irvine's left shoulder, "Yes ma'am?" He called back.
She pointed toward a small wooded road that would lead them straight through to Balamb, anything to get them away from the plains and the roaming monsters. "Take that road please."
Irvine bowed in assent, turning a hard right into the treeline. Selphie shrugged her shoulders as she resumed her incessant firing, bloodying up several groupings of leopard like Toramas, their body length whiskers convulsing in their throes of death. "Woo hoo!" Selphie yelled much to Squall's chagrin.
Her firing blissfully stopped as they broke through into the trees. The whipping sounds of the wind lessened in the dense air of the forest, low enough that they could actually hear each other without raising their voice. Seeing to lighten the mood, Irvine lounged back with one hand on the wheel as he glanced over at Squall, "So Squall buddy, any relationship troubles I can assist you with? I heard you had quite a row with Rinoa this morning."
"You did, did you?" Squall seethed as he swung around to glare at Quistis, suddenly interested in looking out at the trees.
"Don't blame her Squall." Irvine said, attempting to waylay Squall's wrath from Quistis. "Selphie and I were both concerned for you after your actions this morning in my room. We figured you wouldn't normally be opposed to Selphie and me getting together, seeing as we are boyfriend and girlfriend already. We all know you take Rinoa to bed at times, so what's the big deal?"
"Really guys?" Squall scowled, suddenly wanting to be anywhere else than in this Humvee talking about his love life. "That's not the point Irvine. Let's just focus on finding Zell and get on with the mission."
Selphie plopped back into her gunner seat, strangely in tune with the entire conversation with uncanny hearing. "I bet you're going out on this mission to avoid her, aren't you?"
"No…that's not-" Squall faltered.
"It's okay Squall." Quistis comforted, "We're your friends, remember? You're stressed. We can all see that. We all agree that Cid dumping the responsibility of Garden onto you and heading off to be with Matron was rather unfair but you shouldn't take out your aggression on Rinoa."
"You just have to chill out and just go with the flow." Irvine interjected, causing both Quistis and Squall to stare, "You have to stop trying to run everything yourself and learn to let go and let others help." Selphie nodded sagely at his words.
"I have been!" Squall snapped.
Undaunted by his outburst, Quistis placed a palm on his shoulder, gently squeezing it, "Look, we are willing to stand behind you 100% Squall but even we can see that you are micro managing us day to day. If you would just let us take responsibility for our duties and trust that we will perform them and succeed, that will free up more time for you and Rinoa, maybe even help mend whatever rift you two got going on."
Even though he saw the truth in their words, his heart just didn't want to hear them. He was too frustrated and his headache was throbbing. "We're almost there." He muttered, facing back ahead down the road to the small port town of Balamb.
The conversation having died, they drove the rest of the way in silence. Gravel crunched beneath the Humvee wheels as they pulled down the road into town, flanked on both sides by whitewash adobe buildings adorned with stucco designs native to the region. They had just turned up the main road leading to Zell's mother's house when a body came hurtling out of the local bar into the street, causing Irvine to screech to a halt to avoid hitting the man.
"Whoa! What is going on here?" Selphie cried happily as she leapt up onto the seat and aimed her sights into the swinging bar doors.
"Really Selphie?" Squall chided as he stepped out of the vehicle. "Put that away." The gun bore sagged along with her expression.
He had just barely gotten to the entrance when a belligerent, blonde youth in a white, mangy trench coat barreled out, nearly knocking Squall over. "Watch it!" Said the arrogant voice.
"Seifer!" Squall exclaimed, almost as if blaming him for something.
"Oh, it's you." Seifer sniffed disdainfully as he strode past Squall.
"Did you do this?" He gestured towards the battered man moaning on the cobblestone.
"I should think not!" Seifer waved a hand toward the bar, "Your angry chicken-wuss did. Maybe you should interrogate him instead of accusing innocent men of assault."
"What are you doing here then?" Squall grilled intensely.
Although Seifer and Squall departed on amicable terms the last time they saw each other, it still didn't diminish the animosity between them. Throughout SeeD training, Seifer proclaimed Squall as his enduring rival and continued to promote himself as the best gunblade user in Garden. It was during one of these pointless squabbles that both Squall and Seifer gave each other opposing scars down the bridge of their noses.
Since his involvement with Edea, later to have been possessed by Ultimecia, as her knight and ultimately enemy of the free world, he was expelled from the academy and denied all rights and chances of becoming a SeeD. Not that it mattered to him much, the sentence could have been far worse. It was decided that he was not himself and he had been manipulated by the sorceress, it was the only plausible excuse that probably saved his life.
The last Squall had heard of him, he was roaming the world with his posse, Fujin and Raijin; two childhood friends that followed him wherever he went and were truly his only friends. They had little contact with him since. Now with him showing up out of the blue and in a potential dispute with one of their own, Squall was in no mood to get into a battle of wit and words with Seifer.
"Not like I really have to tell you." He calmly regarded Quistis, Irvine and Selphie getting out of the Humvee and slowly coming up to stand behind Squall. "But if you must know, I just recently secured a rather lucrative contract in Esthar that will pay more than whatever you're getting per job." He sneered.
"Mercenary work is SeeD's business." Quistis refuted, arms crossed, a vexed look on her face.
"Ah, but the employer wanted mercenaries who weren't affiliated with any major organization. A rather…covert op." With a gloating chortle, he spun on his heel and pompously strode off. A sudden thought came to him as he turned to leer at Squall, "You might want to put a leash on your dog in there. He might give SeeD a bad name." More laughter as he continued on down the street.
"Ugh! That Seifer." Selphie raged. "Just once I'd like to punch his lights out! You'd think that after we kicked his butt not once, but four times and expelled him from Garden that he'd mellow out!"
"I'd hold him for you while you do that if you'd like." Irvine offered.
"Seriously?" Quistis reprimanded. "Don't encourage her." Irvine raised his arms up clueless as to why he was being rebuked.
Squall flouted them all as he paced into the bar, his eyes taking in the view. Several tables were overturned as scores of bottles were strewn about the place; some broken, others intact. The barkeep was huddled behind the counter, his eyes imploring Squall to resolve the situation. Sitting astride a chair was Zell, his golden spiked hair somewhat wilted this morning as he hunched over a small package on the table wrapped in cloth.
"Zell? Just why in Hyne's name are you abandoning your post in Garden?" Squall started in.
Quistis put a cautionary hand to ward off his fury when she noted the defeated look in Zell's eyes as he turned further away from them. She knelt down to get onto his eye level, "What's going on? Are you okay Zell?"
With a hiccup, his glazed eyes wandered up to hers, "She dumped me Quistis. I poured out my heart to her and she dumped me!" It was clear he was drunk and in no condition to be spun up on the mission.
Trying her best to look empathetic she cajoled, "Who dumped you?"
With a sniffle, he angrily wiped some tears away with the butt of his palm. He hated looking so weak in front of the guys. "Xu. We were hitting it off great for the past few months. I thought we were going places, so I figured I would pop the question and ask her out officially. She turned me away this morning."
"You mean to tell me you ran here all because you got dumped by Xu?" A tone of rising anger in Squall's force drew a look of annoyance from Quistis. Irvine and Selphie prudently stayed out of it, he waltzed over to the barkeep and asked for two sodas for him and Selphie.
"No!" Zell shouted, his voice dropping after the flare-up. "I'm made of stronger stuff." After a moment of stillness and a hiccup, he added, "Although that didn't help."
"What brought you here then?" Quistis urged gently.
"A telegram from Esthar." Zell droned dully. He looked up into the searching eyes of Quistis, "Do you remember Malita? That girl from the library?" Quistis nodded, prompting him to continue. "She was one of my best friends. I might have liked her as something more if it weren't for Xu."
Squall had to resist the urge to tap his foot. Didn't Quistis know that time was of the essence here? The more time they spent babysitting Zell's emotional state, the less chance they had of getting to Trabia Garden and preventing a potential massacre. Irvine was keeping remarkably quiet with Selphie about the whole mission. If she found out it involved her home Garden of Trabia, she probably would have tried to slap sense back into Zell to get this situation resolved immediately.
Ignorant to Squall's internal diatribe, Zell continued to expunge his soul and thoughts onto Quistis, an almost cathartic look on his face as he did so. "She was always there for me when I needed someone to talk to or even to vent. Whenever Seifer did this or that, she would attentively listen while I railed away." He kept steamrolling, now that he was going, he couldn't slow down. "We stopped seeing each other after we graduated. I only saw her recently a few months ago and I gave her my Doomtrain GF. She was so excited. We got to talking like old times. It was a great day."
She smiled at the contented look on Zell's face before it darkened, "And then Seifer came along and insulted her memory as he made fun of me for crying over her. So I fought him and his buddy he was with." Quistis shared a look with Squall, probably the Esthar contact Seifer was talking about. The poor man was probably hobbling away by now.
"Not to eavesdrop, but her memory?" Selphie asked, sipping zealously on her soda, Irvine's arm wrapped around her shoulders.
"Yeah. Quistis, do you remember you asked me to take inventory on all the GFs we have available in the database for the students?" After a nod from Quistis, he expounded, "I noticed that Ixion and Doomtrain had returned back into the database as 'unused.'"
"Unused?" Squall prodded. He wasn't exactly clear what that meant, inventorying GFs was not one of the things he was concerned with while running Garden.
Quistis stepped in for Zell, "It is when a SeeD removes the junction from a GF to rejunction a completely new GF in its place. The unused GF is then available for use again by anyone within Garden."
"At the time, I didn't really think much about it but then I heard the disappearances of several teams in Esthar and I got to realizing that I hadn't heard from her in a while." Squall was surprised Zell was this lucid while heavily imbibed but dared not stop him from explaining his rationale. "There could only be two reasons those GFs returned to our database. They either were dejunctioned in favor of two other GFs or…something happened to her."
"So what's with the bound up cloth?" Irvine pointed out.
Zell waved him off, insisting Squall to open up the bundle. "It's the package that came with the telegram. I can't bear to look at it anymore."
Squall tentatively walked over and began unfolding the blue fabric to reveal a single sai, caked with what was assumed to be Malita's blood.
Chapter Notes: This chapter was incredibly hard to write. I now had to work with beloved and established characters from within the FF8 universe and get players and readers onboard with where I've taken these characters in the past year since the events of the game. This chapter would be the make or break chapter, if readers aren't savvy with the relationships I'm presenting here and where I've taken these characters, the rest of the story isn't going to work. So I planned this chapter out weeks in advance to ensure I had a good through line so that I hit every single major character through Squall's viewpoint and give enough information to the reader to make sense of what was happened both in Balamb Garden and across the world. Hopefully my characterization of each major person is on point! Seeing as all primary characters are 18 years of age and above and the stress of training to fight sorceresses or some imperial Galbadian dictatorship is no longer on the minds of SeeDs, I felt I should address the hormonal and emotional issues each of them are going through. They ARE teenagers after all and to ignore this part of their sexuality and what makes them human wouldn't be realistic. These are children soldiers in all honesty, born and raised in a military environment; these sorts of issues WOULD crop up in an academy like this. My hope is that this chapter brings 'back' your favorite characters and that the reader is eager to see what becomes of them as they ominously head for Trabia Garden.