Squall and Ellone sat in the transporter on their way to the Presidential Palace. Squall felt like he was about to meet Laguna for the first time.

The first time Squall met him he was just the leader of Esthar. Now he was Squall's father. Squall had a lot to think about and a real short time to process.

While lost in his thoughts he could hear Ellone giggling. "What are you laughing at?"

She stifled her laugh. "Squall you have not changed a bit. Relax it will be fine. You are going to see an executioner you're going to your father; the same man whose life you looked at and experienced."

Yeah but then he was just another person. Squall thought to himself.

The transporter stopped and they got off. They walked down the long hallway until they got to a huge set of double doors. They two guards on either side looked at them both. "You are free to enter."

The doors opened and they walked in. At the desk sat Laguna. He had on a casual blue shirt and khaki pants and his hair was in a ponytail. He stood up smiling.

"Ellone!" He stretched open hid arms.

"Uncle Laguna!" She said as she ran to him and hugged him.

"My sweet Ellone I'm so glad to see again. And you brought a friend. One of the SeeD students that helped rescue you. Squawk, was it?

Ellone giggled

"No. Its Squall." Squall said flatly.

"Oh I'm so sorry Squall. I'm terrible with names. Forgive me. The least I could do is remember the name of the guy that helped save the world and my precious Ellone. Come here." Laguna said opening his arms again.

Squall walked over to Laguna and Laguna gave him a big hug. "There all better. So what brings you two young kids all the way out to Esthar?"

Squall looked at Ellone. She turned to Laguna.

"Uncle Laguna I have something to tell you."

"Are you alright is there something wrong Elle?"

"I'm fine. It's just… You remember when I was little and I was sent to the orphanage?

"Yeah I remember." Laguna said.

"Well I wasn't sent alone. Raine never had a chance to tell you, because you were gone for so long, that she was pregnant."

Laguna stared in shock. "What? She was pregnant with my… our child?"

Ellone nodded. "Yes, she passed shortly after giving birth to him."

"A boy. You mean to tell me I had a son I never got to see or know?" Laguna asked as tears started filling his eyes.

Squall stood in the background silently as his heart pumped out of his chest.

Seeing her uncle near tears had brought Ellone to tears. "You've already met him." She stepped to the side and motioned to Squall.

Laguna stared at Squall for what seemed to be forever. "You're my son?"

Squall nodded. "I just found out myself. I never had parents so the idea of looking for them never crossed my mind."

Laguna walked to his desk chair and sat down. "I can't believe this. Raine I never even knew. Had I known I would've…"

Ellone stopped him. "No uncle it was no one fault. You were needed where you were. One thing I've learned is, you can't change the past but you can work toward a better future. It's no coincidence that things happened this way. We were all brought together in the end and that's what matters."

Tears now ran down both Ellone and Laguna's face.

Squall felt himself tearing up but held back the tears.

Laguna stood up and walked to Squall. "You have Raine, you're mother's, eyes. God I can't believe how you look so much like her." Laguna said as he hugged Squall again.

For the first time since before he came to the Garden, Squall cried. So much emotions and thoughts that were built up came pouring out.

After they all got their emotions under control they all sat down to drinks and conversed.

"Well I stayed at the orphanage till I was about seven years then I was enrolled in the Garden. That was where I learned all I know; fighting skills, para-magic and how to use Guardian Forces. I became a SeeD some months back and then the leader of the Garden when Ultimecia came into the picture."

"Well it seems we have a lot in common, being thrust into the leadership role when it's the last thing on your mind; having people relying on you when you are used to relying on yourself. Then you are deemed responsible for whatever goes wrong even when it is beyond your control."

Squall just stared Laguna. He had never spoken to anyone about his feelings toward being a leader. All this time it seemed like no one under stood what it meant to be in my position. And here he has experienced everything I'm going through.

"Don't worry Squall it does get better. Sometimes life has a way of forcing us to change even when we don't want to. For example, I wasn't so cool when I was younger. I even had problems talking to the ladies." He laughed to himself.

"Yeah like when you tried to talk to Julia." Squall said.

Laguna looked at Squall. "How could you possibly even know that? No one else would know that."

Ellone raised her hand guiltily. "Um I think I'm responsible for that uncle Laguna. When I was trying to figure out if I could change the past I sometimes sent Squall and his friend's consciousness back into your past."

Laguna looked horrified. "Could they see everything? Did they see when me and Raine…"

"Oh no!" Ellone interrupted. "No I never sent them back to really private moments. Just important moments that helped me understand what happened when I was younger."

Laguna looked embarrassed. "Oh okay, that's good. What else have you seen?"

Squall smiled. "Well I saw when you tried to be a movie star and ended up fighting a real dragon."

Laguna laughed. "As you can see that dream was very short lived. And to this day I still don't know how that dragon just showed up. It was the craziest thing."

"I saw when you, Ward and Kiros escaped the Esthar soldiers and Ward lost his voice."

"Yeah, I felt horrible when I found out. I felt responsible for Ward's injury. But after I escaped I was injured so badly and I ended up in Winhil where Raine took care of me."

Squall thought back to those memories of Raine. "Yeah I remember seeing her too. She seemed tough but loving."

Laguna laughed. "She was definitely tough, especially on me."

"And and she was really loving to me." Ellone said.

"Maybe some of her toughness rubbed off on me." Squall said.

There was an awkward moment of silence.

"Did you ever regret not being with Julia?" Squall asked.

Laguna shook his head. "Not really. I had the biggest crush on her but my life was too unstable. But she moved on shortly after and married a general from Galbadia."

"General Caraway?" Squall asked.

Laguna thought for a moment. "Yeah that's him. You know him?"

Squall nodded. "Yeah I'm dating his daughter Rinoa. She's the current sorceress. That's mainly the reason we came here to Esthar; to help her gain control of her new powers."

Laguna chuckled. "So Julia had a child too? Can you imagine her daughter and my son together?"

"Fate has a way of making everything work out in the end. Just look at us. We spent half of our lives away from each other not really knowing about one another only to be together now." Ellone said.

Squall nodded. "I agree. Fate brought us back together now it's up to us to stay together."

"So how long will you all be staying?" Laguna inquired.

"Well we were only here for as long Rinoa needed to be here. We hadn't planned on staying." Squall said.

"Do you think you guys could stay for a day?" Laguna asked.

Squall nodded. "I don't think it would be a problem."

Laguna smiled. "Great that gives me time to gather my things."

Ellone raised her eyebrows. "Uncle what are you talking about?"

"I'm going with you guys, duh. After all that talk about fate and staying together, what did you think I was going to do, stay here?"

"But what about Esthar? You can't leave them leaderless." Ellone said.

Laguna scoffed. "There no real threats anymore and Esthar is thriving now. I'll leave it in the well and capable hands of Kiros and Ward. They'll understand the need of my departure. So it looks like I'll be tagging along."

"But won't you be bored. I mean going from the leader of an entire city to being unemployed is a dramatic change." Ellone said with worry in her voice.

Laguna scratched his head. "Ha. You know I did not think about that."

A light bulb went off in Squall's head. "How would you feel about being the leader of a Garden?"

Ellone and Laguna both looked at Squall confused.

"When Matron, I mean Edea, was possessed by Ultimecia, she dismissed the former leader of Galbadia Garden. Then she alone controlled the Garden. They are leaderless now. It's perfect. And who knows, you may even be able to move back to Winhil again."

Laguna smiled. "I like how you think son."

Ellone smiled too. "That would be wonderful. Galbadia is only one train ride away from Balamb."

"And if all else fails our Garden moves." Squall said smirking.

"You know what guys? This is the start of a very promising future."