A/N: Hey, just wanna say thank you to all my reviwers – you perked me up so much! Thank you. Merci! Danke! Gracias! Grazi! I'm out of languages!

Chapter Twelve

"Quistis…"

The voice was calling her from sleep. From deep, warm, peacefully, pleasantly fuzzy sleep. She ignored it.

"Quisty…"

She frowned slightly. Matron called her Quisty. Matron wouldn't mind if she slept in a bit. Matron was never cross. Except when Seifer picked the peaches off the tree too early and gave himself tummy ache. She pushed her head deeper into her pillow. Her strangely hard, breathing pillow.

"Quis…"

The frown deepened. Quis. Only Seifer called her Quis. Seifer. The enormous breakfast. The double bed. Going to sleep in his arms. Ah. That's where she was. Ok then – safe and warm either way. And being woken up. Had she slept enough? Probably. She opened her eyes slowly, glad of the dim darkness that meant the curtains were still drawn. Warm green eyes greeted her.

"Morning," he grinned.

She smiled back, stretching her arm out slightly. "Good morning," she replied. "What time is it?"

It had to be mid to late afternoon by now, if not evening, but Seifer was too comfortable to care. Part of him was extraordinarily glad that she presented such a poised, polished, not-a-hair-out-of-place exterior to the outside world, because it made the way she looked now all the more wonderful. Hair tousled and messy, falling over her shoulders and across his chest. The razor sharp intelligence that made the blue eyes so cutting was at this moment still dimmed and muzzled by sleep. She looked so much softer. She looked more…liquid. He kissed her. "No idea," he finally answered. Kissing her had felt good, so he did it again, one hand moving into her hair and caressing her face.

Quistis smiled into the kiss. This felt odd, being kissed by a man in bed minus sex, waking up with him with clothes still in the way. It was odd. In a nice way. In a really nice way. It was so relaxed. So she relaxed in turn, and let him kiss her. She let him kiss her for about a minute, before she decided to kiss back. She was surprised at Seifer in fact, since he hadn't even tried to deepen it. Well…looks like I'm a good influence on him…she thought self-satisfactorily. The irony was not lost on her, a few seconds later, as the urge to put more passion into it came from somewhere primal in her. Apparently it had been an exchange of influences.

Deciding not to worry about it, she let the tip of her tongue flicker across his bottom lip and darting into his mouth. She meant to start slowly, but seemingly all she did was break the dam. A low groan, so deep she almost didn't hear it, came from his chest, and then it was his tongue tasting her mouth. She wasn't complaining.

His fingers made their way slowly down from her cheek, along her jaw line and down the column of her neck, while all the while his tongue coaxed hers into matching passion with passion. Somehow the zip of her top was being drawn down gradually, the mechanism caught between forefinger and thumb, allowing the rest of his fingers to trail along after it, leaving tingling paths that Quistis could feel even when they moved on. Finally coming to the end of the zip, Seifer's lips left hers, moving to explore the space between her ear and neck with startling force – he seemed to have abandoned completely the slow stoking of the fire between them in favour of simply pouring petrol on it. Quistis let out a low moan that sounded nothing like her, and for a moment she wondered where it had come from, but then his fingers skimmed up again, heading for a destination she didn't think even Seifer would dare to-

She let out a gasp. Apparently he would.

Palms moved oh-so-lightly over one lace-clad breast, then the other, while somehow Quistis's leg had moved so that she was straddling him, and she shuddered with mingled pleasure and anticipation as their still-clothed pelvises met and ground together lightly. Electricity jolted up and through her, and she found her back arching and her hips pressing against his harder. What on Gaia was happening to her? Why hadn't she stopped this yet? Of course, when one already hardened nipple was caught and squeezed not so gently between forefinger and thumb, she didn't really care. There was a sinfully delicious mouth moving swiftly down her neck and along her collarbones and further down, and sinfully tempting hands playing with her flesh like a child with a new toy. Her mind was screaming at her to stop, to tell him to stop, to not end up doing something that she'd regret later. Those few seconds felt like a knife-edge, torn between retaining rationality and plunging.

It was into that moment that the decision was taken – thankfully – out of Quistis's hands.

The phone rang.

It was Seifer's mobile, his official one as Commander, given to him in case of emergency and never to be turned off. Fortunately for Quistis even Seifer kept it turned on. Despite that was what she wanted to happen, the young instructor still winced at its shrill, shattering noise. She leaned up from Seifer's mouth. "Seifer…" A moan as his teeth found her earlobe.

"Ignore it," he murmured.

"I can't…"

"Sure you can."

It kept ringing, and slowly Seifer's mind was beginning to take over again. Damn that stupid promotion. And damn his conscience – why did he have to choose now to develop a sense of responsibility? He finally picked up.

"What?!" he snarled into the receiver.

Xu's voice answered him. And to be honest, he was never that pleased to hear from Xu anyway – now he could quite cheerfully strangle her. "Commander, we have a situation," she said crisply.

"Better be a hell of a situation, Xu," he spat.

Quistis, looking as though she were coming back to her wits and mortified about her state of half-undress, was coming back to her senses. Though she couldn't deny how good having his hands – and mouth – on her had felt, she knew she hadn't been ready for this yet. She had no doubt that she would be, and probably sooner rather than later, but right now she knew that if they'd continued she would have ended up regretting it in the future. She got up off the bed, zipping up her top and moving quickly toward the bathroom. She had to splash some cold water on her face and try and cool down the flaming red blush fanning across her face. Exhaling and looking at her expression in the mirror, she silently scolded herself. She was not some teenager with rampaging hormones – however rampaging Seifer's might have been. She could control this. She hoped.

By the time she came out of the bathroom, she felt much more composed. Instructor Trepe was back at the reins. She looked at Seifer, who was picking up his coat, slipping into it quickly. It looked as though he, too, had moved past their encounter, or at least now had bigger fish to fry. "C'mon, Trepe, we need to go. Right now."

She blinked. "Why? What's happened?"

He shrugged. "No idea, but Xu called. We have a situation, she didn't go into details." He opened the door, ushering her out. "Let's go."

They double-timed through Trabia Garden, then after a second urgent phonecall from Xu, ran the two hundred yards to B. Garden. As soon as they ran through the turnstiles, the door-guard rang up. A few seconds later, Garden's engines revved and they began to take off. When they arrived on the bridge, Xu launched immediately into the explanation that the expression on Seifer's face demanded.

"We've had a distress signal come in from Galbadia, Commander."

"When?" Seifer demanded.

"Five minutes ago, we're heading there now as fast as we can."

"Good." He turned to Quistis. "Gather two squads, meet by the entrance, get out there as soon as you can." She ran out, and Seifer switched his attention to Nida. "Reduce power from the shields, feed it into the engines, it'll get us there faster. Be ready to divert power back again though as quick as you can once we arrive."

"Yes, sir."

Seifer crossed to the microphone connected to the tanoy that went throughout Garden. "Attention all personnel, this is Commander Almasy. All instructors, classes are suspended for the rest of the day, make sure cadets return at once to their rooms and remain in them. All SeeD personnel, assemble in the cafeteria and standby for further orders." He switched off the P. A. and turned to Xu. "How long until we get there?"

"At this present velocity, another seventeen minutes."

"Nida, make it faster," Seifer ordered, leaving the bridge. Left behind, Nida and Xu exchanged a look, eyebrows raised, both thinking the same thing. Who'd have thought? Seifer Almasy, a competent commander.

--

Earlier that morning in Esthar...

Selphie knocked on the door in front of her, and tugged her boyfriend's sleeve, urging him forward too. "Come on, Irvy, hurry up."

Irvine rubbed his eyes again. "Remind me why we're doing this at three am?" he asked.

Quistis opened the door of her room, already sheathing Hyperion. "To avoid being seen," she answered calmly.

Selphie clapped her hands together. Quietly. "Oh, it's so exciting! We're like real-life SeeDs!"

They both stopped and looked at her. "Selph, we are real-life SeeDs."

She made a dismissive noise. "I know that, but still."

Quistis shot a puzzled look at Irvine, who responded with a half-shrug. He loved her, but he was damned if he knew even half the things that went on inside Selphie's head. The blonde didn't smile, far too tense for that, and instead took point, leading the three of them down the hallway. As SeeDs they were quiet anyway, and the listener would have to have the hearing of a bat to detect them passing – but Quistis moved silently. No sound whatsoever – there was no evidence she was even breathing. An ability born from the fact that if she had heard her, she'd be dead. It was an ability that if this didn't work, Selphie would develop too. Irvine…Irvine would be dead before he needed to learn.

They were creeping through the Esthar Presidential Palace, heading down to the kitchens, where they would be meeting Laguna, who would take them to the government archives. It had to be done in the dead of night, under complete secrecy, or the fact that Laguna would be impeached was a certainty. Privately, Quistis didn't give a damn if he lost his job or not – as long as she saw what was in those files first.

They crept into the kitchen to see Laguna already there, beckoning them from the back. Quistis inwardly cursed Laguna's complete lack of tactical skills. By Hyne, Raine Leonhart must have had a brilliant military mind, since Squall definitely hadn't got his abilities as Commander from his father's side. The kitchen was vast, and empty, and echoed ridiculously, even noiseless footsteps audible from the tiled floor. They may as well have yelled to the entire palace that they were taking a quick rifle through the government's secret files. She shook her head. He's wonderful in so many ways, but the man is not smart.

Laguna looked as though he was having a wonderful time – and thankfully, had brought Kiros and Ward along too. "You made it!" the excited president whispered. "Come on!" It seemed he'd forgotten about his dismay and apprehension of that afternoon. Well, maybe he was reminded of the good old days.

All six of them – not a terribly discreet number, as Kiros pointed out – began to walk through the kitchens until they came to the back entrance, where a transport was waiting for them. Piling into it, it was a ten minute trip to the archives – also using the back entrance, since the front entrance was enormous and also under twenty-four hour guard. Not that the back entrance wasn't, but the backdoor guards were more inclined to accept bribes.

With bribing the door guards and the archivists Laguna had managed to buy them forty five minutes of time inside the archives. Even so, that didn't include going into the restricted section, so they all acted as lookouts as they crept through. Selphie almost let the door to the section slam before Irvine threw his hat into the gap, stopping it closing. By the time he got it back, there was a fairly severe dent in it. Selphie gave a sheepish grin. "Uh, oopsie?"

Irvine glowered and tired to force the material back into shape. "I swear, Sefie, if I didn't love you so much…"

She grinned and kissed him. He still looked slightly disgruntled though, and carried on following Laguna without comment. When the six of them arrived in front of the right section. At the steel reinforced door with its palm reader and retina scanner, Laguna stopped. "Sorry, guys, but this is where Quistis and I go in alone. It's not worth the four of you being arrested for."

Selphie nodded miserably. "Ok…"

"Radio if someone's coming," Laguna said.

Quistis and the president moved forward through the door after Laguna had preformed the security checks, the steel shutting neatly into its frame. Immediately, Ward sighed and shook his head in a resigned way. Kiros turned to Irvine and Selphie. "Tell me this wasn't Laguna's idea. Because if it was, we're screwed."

"Uh, Laguna?" Quistis asked inside the room.

"Hmmm?"

She pointed at the signs that showed very clearly where they'd find file number 88. The small placard on the back of the door was quite clear. File numbers 001 – 100 Left. 101 – 212 Right. "That way."

"I knew that…heh heh…just testing…"

Quistis rolled her eyes and followed him – or more accurately led the way to the correct filing cabinet. Unlike the vast cavernous rooms of the rest of the archives, this room was only about twenty feet wide and long – still plenty of room to store over a hundred filing cabinets, each one six drawers deep. She found the right one and pulled out the drawer, then scanned through the stacks of paper in it. Laguna hovered anxiously. "You know, this really isn't what I had in mind, Quistis…"

She slammed the drawer shut, the file now in her hand. "What did you have in mind, Laguna?" she demanded. "After what I told you this afternoon, did you really think I'd be ok with you just reading it to me?"

In all the time that Quistis Trepe had lived and worked and taught, there had only been two people in the entire world who hadn't dissolved into gibbering wrecks under that look. And unfortunately for Laguna, his name wasn't Squall Leonhart or Seifer Almasy. He nodded weakly. "Alright…"

Quistis nodded and opened the file.

Top-leave security clearance. For the eyes of the head of state only.

Bypassing this, Quistis skimmed down, eyes rapidly devouring every word on the page.

During the reign of the Sorceress Adel, the organisation then known as Section Six, and thereafter Odine Labs, undertook several projects and experiments that, after the overthrowing of Sorceress Adel, were deemed both illegal and immoral. Accordingly, by decree of President Laguna Loire, these operations were halted immediately, but were deemed too sensitive to national security for the details to be released. The seven projects undertaken by Section Six and subsequently disbanded were recorded in detail and placed within this file. They are to be examined only under circumstances of national emergency.

Quistis eagerly bypassed this and flicked through the paper clipped documents. "Well?" Laguna asked.

"Wait," she snapped.

All of them were written by Dr Odine, but there was nothing in any of the first four sets that looked at all familiar to her, but on the fifth set…

"…some cases the subjects were likened to shades and became known amongst my staff somewhat fancifully as 'shadow warriors'," she said, reading aloud. "Ignoring this whimsical and romanticised view, the products of this experiment were extremely adaptive to their purpose – that is to say we had created soldiers of the finest calibre, susceptible only to the highest level magics and, it would appear, the powers of Sorceresses. Bullets and other physical attacks had no effect whatsoever.

In accordance to Sorceress Adel's instructions, thirty five soldiers were modified and drafted into the Shadow Unit, as they became known, and placed directly under Sorceress Adel's command as her personal bodyguards."

"'Bodyguards'?!" Laguna interrupted. "We never had to fight anything like that!"

"No, that's because…listen to this," she replied, skipping down.

"However, after less than six months in service to the Sorceress, the members of the Shadow Unit – despite our best efforts to the contrary – began to display traits of free will. Sorceress Adel refused to allow her servants to have any ideas that ran less than parallel to her own, and ordered the extermination of the Unit. Again, the army was unable to follow her instructions due to the nature of Shadow Unit's matter – the conventional weapons of the soldiers had no effect, as they were designed not to. It was only after personally executing six military officials for reporting this, Sorceress Adel launched a personal campaign to wipe out the remaining members of the Shadow Unit, deeming them too big a threat to her rule."

"Boy, we could have used these guys in the revolution," Laguna put in.

"Laguna, would you please be quiet?!" the blonde woman snapped. "I need to think… It says they were destroyed…but if that's the case then who were the guys we killed…?" She frowned and continued reading.

"The Sorceress's powers – as already stated – did prove effective against the members of the Shadow Unit, and Adel was able to destroy at least twenty of the original thirty five soldiers created, if not all. However, it was at this point in time that the now President Loire's revolutionary force began their actions and Sorceress Adel was forced to suspend her action against the Shadow Unit. Since after President Loire took power in Esthar there was no mention of any remaining members of the Shadow Unit still being active, it has been assumed that Sorceress Adel was successful in her attempts to destroy them. However-"

Here Quistis's voice broke off, her face like thunder as she went to turn the page.

"However?!" Laguna demanded.

"I…I don't know, that's where it cuts off! There are at least three pages missing here!"

"That's not possible! No one else has access to these files!" he replied.

"Well evidently someone does!" she cried, frantically flipping through the rest of the pages. On the last one there were a few words. It couldn't be anything remotely helpful.

"...Shadow Council have sworn that no Sorceress should ever again use them for her own purposes. However, due to the lack of evidence that the Shadow Council exist, this claim was swiftly dismissed. The issue of the Shadow Unit and its creation and actions thereafter is over, have now been confined to the pages of this file."

(A/N: I may have nicked the name 'Shadow Council' from somewhere, but I'm damned if I know where, so sorry to whomever I've stolen it from, and please don't sue me.)

"That's it?" Laguna asked, sounding disbelieving.

Quistis nodded, not listening, re-reading one sentence. "'…sworn that no Sorceress should ever again use them for her own purposes…" she whispered, tears welling in her eyes. "Oh my Hyne. This is it." She looked at Laguna, her hands suddenly trembling and the hot salty drops falling from her eyes. "Laguna," she said, gripping his forearms. "This is it! After all this time, all this time!" With no more warning, she bust into sobs.

Laguna looked completely taken aback at the sudden outpouring of emotion, but patted Quistis on the head awkwardly. "Uh, there there."

"I'm sorry!" she choked out. "I don't normally- I wouldn't- it's just that I've been looking for a way to- for so long, and I-"

He rubbed her back comfortingly. "I know, I know. You don't have to explain." He understood – if anyone could comprehend what it was like to lose your soulmate then he did. And if there'd been a way to bring Raine back then he would have moved heaven and earth to do it. Quistis hadn't moved heaven and earth…instead she'd crossed hell and ripped open time to save Seifer. Laguna wondered if the commander was aware of just how deeply this young woman's pain ran.

Eventually she drew back and wiped her eyes, cursing herself for that weakness. She cleared her throat. "I'm sorry."

"Don't you dare be. You have nothing to apologise for, Quistis," he said. "But you can fix it. That's what you're here for, remember that." He took her face between his hands. "This is not going to happen to you again, you understand me?"

She nodded. "But it did happen, Laguna. He's dead. He's dead, and all I can hope for is to stop it happening to her. Part of me doesn't want to, Laguna. It'll be like giving him to another woman. I don't know how I can bear it."

"You can bear it," he said, "because he'll be alive. You can bear it because even if you never see him again, even if he's loving someone else, even if his children will never be yours – you bear it because he's alive. Because if you love him, any price is worth that. I'd pay that price gladly if I could. Would you?"

She swallowed and nodded slowly. "Yes," she murmured. "I'll pay it." She cleared her throat, her voice getting stronger. "I'll pay it."

He gave an encouraging smile and wiped her cheeks dry of any remaining tears. "Atta girl. Now come on. We need to get out of here."

--

Squall was panicked. Panic wasn't an emotion he experienced often – as a SeeD he kept a cool head at all times, and while at first the responsibility of being Commander had made him uneasy, he'd gotten used to it, and could deal with whatever came at him. No, this panic was the type of utterly helpless kind, the kind when he couldn't do anymore to resolve the situation than he was already doing, and that might not be good enough. This panic he hadn't experienced since the war – and he wasn't panicked as a man, or a SeeD, or a commander.

He was panicked as a Knight.

Up till this point his day had been pretty good; they'd found Cerberus lurking in a hidden passageway, and been able to defeat the GF without too big a problem. After the battle, Rinoa had junctioned the three-headed dog, then had a sudden brainwave about the possible location of Gilgamesh, and gone haring off to the library, saying she'd be back in ten minutes. It had been five minutes after that that all this mess had started.

It had worried him when Seifer and Quistis had told them about the attack on Balamb, but though it hadn't boded well for the future, the attack hadn't been too hard to repel, and Seifer had been pretty much able to repel it without a problem. Now, however, it appeared as though their suspicions about it being a practice run were confirmed. Just not on Balamb Garden. On Galbadia Garden.

He cursed under his breath and slashed down with Lionheart in a swift counterattack against the Behemoth currently trying to eat him. According to Almasy, the attacks on B. Garden were by low-level, easy to repel monsters. The ones currently launching an assault on Galbadia were anything but. He hadn't faced anything like this in years, not since the sorceress war, and at least then he knew what they were fighting. Ultimecia might have been a difficult and deadly foe, but she had an identity.

The Behemoth keeled over, dead, and Squall straightened up, slightly breathless. He was being flanked by two instructors of the faculty – and that was the reason for his panic. Rinoa wasn't by his side. Rinoa was at the other end of this Hyne-forsaken building, and there were about a million monsters between him and her. Every fibre in him was screaming at how not right that was. He was her Knight, he was supposed to be with her and he wasn't, and it was killing him. Whoever it was that had attacked Garden was going to pay if she got hurt.

The entire structure suddenly shuddered and the lights flickered, then went out. Red emergency lighting flared on about two seconds later, but it did not help Squall's mood. He'd never liked Galbadia Garden at the best of times; looking like the walls were drenched in blood (and some of them were) was never a good thing.

The instructor next to him – Sora, was her name? – wiped the sweat from her forehead. "Damn, what the hell's going on here?"

"No idea. But-"

Squall wasn't listening to his two companions; he was already running off to where he knew Rinoa was. The two instructors cursed and sprinted after him, only for all three of them to skid to a halt when the patchy shadows in the hallway began moving. "What the hell?!"

The young commander shook his head. He'd been warned against these things too, and thankfully had stocked himself with enough Firagas to burn the continent of Centra. "Fire spells only. Holy if you have them, nothing else will work," he snapped out as four soldiers formed from the darkness.

"This will," the his other, male, ally snarled. He pissed Squall off – it was like working with Seifer before the war. Squall was keeping a close watch on this guy in future. He raised his gun and fired three shots into the nearest one. And succeeded in creating three new holes in the wall. Squall's icy glare, and the hissing laughter of the Shadows said more than words could.

One of the Shadows lifted its gun and fired; the male SeeD flew backward, bullets lodging in his chest and creating a spray of visceral fluid that fanned out across the corridor. He finally hit the ground, clearly dead.

Squall wasted no time grieving. He lifted his arm and cast the black magic, momentarily wishing that either Quistis was with him – her abilities were second only to Rinoa's, and no doubt she' d be able to dispatch them a lot faster than he could. Still, the magic was effective enough, and the black-clad things dissolved into what looked like wisps of smoke; their machine guns clattering to the floor. Again, Squall was a blur running down the corridor before the others could catch their breath.

It took them more than forty minutes to move along the half-mile breath of G. Garden, and by the time Squall finally got Rinoa in his sights, he was about ready to forget about fucking around with gunblades and just tear the next monster to attack limb from limb. It happened to be three T-Rexaurs; wild ones and so far more dangerous than the ones bred for the training centre. The creatures were immediately followed up by another half a dozen Shadows – and the Firagas had stopped working, as he had feared they would. Learning and adapting denoted extreme intelligence, but coupled with the fact that they were obviously magical and apparently impervious to normal harm…shit.

And he might have been imagining it, but virtually all the Shadows seemed to aiming at him…personally.

When the Firagas had stopped working, he'd had to switch the Flare spells, and he'd run out of those. "Uh, any ideas, sir?" Sora asked nervously.

"You cannot defeat the Shadow Unit," the thing hissed. "We are infinite. You sssssshall never win!"

Squall said nothing, only cast a desperate look at Rinoa, who'd just vanquished a monster of her own, knowing that she'd hear what he wasn't saying. He watched her head jerk back to look at them, her eyes widen in alarm – that was all he saw, because at that moment she cast the biggest and brightest Flare he'd ever seen, and white blocked out his vision. When it cleared, it was to see the woman he loved with a relieved smile on her face, and no Shadows in front of him.

Relief changed instantaneously to alarm when there was movement behind Rinoa. "Rinoa!" Without warning, and with lightning speed, a Shadow reared up and slammed the butt of his gun into the back of her head; she crumpled to the ground immediately.

"Rinoa!"

--

When Quistis got into the pilot's seat of the Ragnorok, and turned on the GPS navigation, it was to find with surprise that Garden wasn't at Trabia. It was in Galbadia. "Huh. They must have finished early." Shrugging, and dismissing it, she set course for Galbadia.

By the time they were half an hours' flight from both Gardens, the smoke was visible like a great grey snake, worming its way across the sky. Quistis felt that same horrible lurch in her stomach, then all the thoughts that came tumbling after it. What if Garden was already destroyed? What if her friends were already dead? What if Seifer was lying in some corner, his face ghost-pale and his precious blood already seeping across the cold floor- She inhaled sharply and shook herself mentally. He was alive. It hadn't happened again. It hadn't. She would know if something had happened to him. She would know without needing to be told. She ignored the little voice in the back of her mind that whispered…you didn't know the first time…

Quistis met herself in the docking bay. "What the hell happened?!" her future-self demanded.

"Galbadia was attacked while Seifer and I were in Trabia-"

"Is he alright?" At her question, Selphie and Irvine both shot her odd looks, but focused on attention on Quistis.

She nodded. "He's fine. The attack was like the one of Balamb a couple of days ago – only the monsters used were much higher level, and there were those Shadow things that you were talking about, Selph-"

The three of them exchanged glances. "Yeah, we learnt more about them. We'll explain later though; was anyone hurt?"

"Four SeeDs were killed, another twelve students and cadets seriously injured, over twenty minor ones, and Rinoa-"

"Is Rin ok?" Selphie interjected.

"Unconscious, but she's fine. Squall's going out of his mind though, as you can imagine-"

"Maybe you should take us there," Irvine said. "We think we've got something he should hear."

Future-Quistis shot him a reproachful look – she was in no hurry to divulge all her secrets just yet, and telling them about the Shadow Unit could lead to just that. "Let's go," she said heavily after a while.

Quistis led the way back into the Infirmary – B. Garden's, since G. Garden's was full – still filling them in. "Seifer's still in G. Garden organising help for the rest of the injured and assessing the damage. It's going to run into the millions to fix it all, and Hyne knows how much more we've got coming."

By the time they got into the infirmary, Quistis had talked herself hoarse answering all the questions that they had. She led them into Exam 7, bypassing Dr Kadowaki, who was too busy to point out that having more than two visitors in the room at any one time was against Garden regulations. Inside, Rinoa was lying on the bed with her face the same colour as the sheets, a heartbeat monitor on and an IV in her arm, but nothing more serious than that. Squall was sitting next to her, one gloved hand holding her limp one, covering his face with the other.

"How is she?" Selphie asked.

"Unconscious," he answered quietly. "The doctor says she's fine, but she won't wake up for another hour or two."

"Are you ok, man?" Irvine asked.

Squall nodded, then exhaled. "It should have been me."

"What do you mean?" Selphie asked.

"I know it seems weird, but I swear all those…those Shadow things? They were all after me, I swear they were. They were trying to kill me."

"They weren't after you," a voice said quietly. "They were after Rinoa."

Squall turned with fire in his steel blue eyes. The brunt of his glare was aimed at future-Quistis, who gazed back at him, looking only a little ashamed of herself. He barely ground the words out. "Explain everything. Now."

A/N: Due unfortunately to an EXTREME excess of sugar I'm hyper, so I will be bouncing around until I get reveiws. So if you don't want me to bounce too high and get wedged in the ceiling, PLEASE review!! As an example of my hyperness I've been re-named - the all-powerful, all-knowing Queen of Pink-fluffy-bubbydom! Sorry, I'm hyper. Ignore me. EXCEPT for the reviewing part!