Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or places in this story. I do own all the OC's though.

Phase XXIV

Liar, Liar

Esthar City/Underground Holding Cells

November 14th, 2009. 1946 hrs

As the darkness dissipated, Selphie gathered her senses and stirred out of oblivion. First, she felt cold and wet which explained why she was shivering. Then she felt the hardness of the floor under her with its rugged surface pressing against her back. Selphie inhaled and coughed taking dust into her nose and mouth. Her face still stung and parts of her body were sore.

What...happened?

With curious eyes, she peered around in the darkness of the room. Walls made of steel, floors made from concrete, this small room felt like it was closing in on her.

Her mind played back the last thing she remembered. We just got to Esthar. There were soldiers who made us hand over our weapons and one…

Wait!

Selphie whipped around, hands feeling the ground searching for him. "Squall!?"

Nothing. No reply.

She inhaled sharply, concern growing as it donned on her that she was alone. Her mind jumped to horrifying conclusions to explain his absence.

Fear swallowed her whole.

No! He can't be!

Selphie sprang off the floor, her fist pounded wildly against the door of her cell. "Hey! Where's Squall!? What'd you do with him!?"

Nobody on the other side of the door replied, and Selphie began to wonder if she was left to die in here.

"Are you listein'!? Get the me fuck outta here!" She screamed.

"Please!" She begged after a few moments of silence, her voice tired and raw, "Please..."

A hiss of the hydraulics in the door's hinges released its seemingly airtight lock. When it flew open, an angry soldier came storming in and roughly grabbed her by the arm. His gun pressed against her neck.

"Ztupid girl! I vill kill you now, if you don't keep quiet!"

"Where's Squall?" She asked, quieter this time.

"You're boyfriend iz none of your concern now." He shoved her to the floor, having enough of her already before stalking back out of the cell. The door slid shut, leaving Selphie to calm her rattled nerves.

Selphie sat in the darkness, curling into a ball, and prayed.

Please be okay, Squall.

Deling City/Galbadia - Cesar's Office in UA HQ

1322 hrs - GAT

His indigo eyes curiously inspected the room he was in. It was dark in here. No windows or natural sunlight. There was a table with a map and pinpoints marking various areas of interest on one side of the room. On the desk sat a series of monitors and files. Irvine sat on the desktop, picking up the metallic statue of Odin and turning it in his hands.

"Put that down." Cesar said firmly, striding into the room. Irvine started, jumping into the seat next to him.

As Cesar settled in, he wondered what Martine had even seen in the man. He picked him up outside a strip club of all places and didn't seem to have a professional bone in his body.

"Ya said ya gotta job for me?" Irvine asked him.

"Ye," Cesar replied, pulling a folder out of the pile next to him. Passing it to Irvine, he sat back and watched him skim through the pages.

"Are ya fuckin' kiddin' me!?" Irvine snapped at him.

Cesar raised a brow, leaning furthering into his chair.

"Why me?"

He inhaled sharply, "A friend o' mine said yer quite the marksman."

"I am, what of it?" Irvine narrowed his eyes, "Who's this friend o' yers?"

"Martine." Cesar shrugged and leaned forwards. "Told me yer one of Leonhart's guys. Ya trained for this kinda shit."

"Ya want me to kill her?" Irvine gaped, feeling sick to his stomach.

"Not kill her." Cesar corrected him, "Rinoa Heartilly frequents the Carlou lounge. We just need ya to talk to her, get whatever ya can outta her. She don't know we enlisted ya."

Irvine smirked, "Ya pick me up at a ladies club, and now yer hirin' me full time?"

Cesar returned the smirk.

"When do I start?"

Esthar City/Somewhere Else in the Underground Bomb Shelter

2022 hrs - EST

Just like when he went out, the colours were bright and smeared together. Squall tried to recollect what happened. Maybe this was the result of one of Zell's 'nights out' again. He must have had too much to drink and blacked out, this could just be a bad hang over.

The party must have been that bad. Squall thought, hoping wherever he was would be his own bed in Dollet.

Blinking a few times, grogginess and nausea made it hard to concentrate. A searing pain on the back of his head and stiff muscles welcomed his conscious into the land of the living.

Squall knew something was terribly wrong now. He felt drugged, but this couldn't have been a bad trip. He wasn't one to practice illegal substances anyway.

A sudden force slapped him across the face, cracking his neck to the side. Copper tasting liquid filled his mouth, his heart beat wildly in his chest. Another hit, and this time he fell forward.

Wait-

Squall tried to move his arms, but they were bound behind his back as a steel backrest dug into his biceps.

I'm...sitting in a chair? I-I can't move!

Eyes refocusing, he found three men standing before him. One wore a white gown that resembled a trench coat, one wore an Esthari blue uniform. Squall recognized the last one, the same squad leader from before.

"Oh, he'z finally awake!"

"Where…is…" Squall's lips had trouble forming words, blood dripping down his chin. "Where's…Selphie?"

"No worry about." The squad leader said in broken English. "My men taking care of girl."

The one dressed like a doctor stepped forwards holding a syringe with a green liquid in it. Squall flinched away from him, eyeing the needle he brought closer to his face.

What...the fuck is goin' on here!?

"Thiz vill hurt for one moment." The doctor told him as he jabbed the needle into Squall's neck. "Thiz formula iz to make zure you tell uz za truth."

This wasn't the first time Squall had been interrogated. He thought back to the D-District prison when Seifer electrocuted him senseless. Squall had heard that Esthar had superior tools to interrogate their enemy, but not this.

The veins in his neck and face burned, he gagged as his throat tightened up, and his heart rate accelerated. It took a few moments for him to calm down, for his senses to settle. When they did, his mind went blank.

"Who are you?" The leader asked.

"Squall Leonhart." He answered without hesitation, his mouth speaking before he could stop it.

"The girl?"

"Selphie Tilmitt. I already told you that."

"Who iz zhe?"

"She's a SeeD." Maybe telling them that wasn't such a good idea.

"You?"

"Me, too." He almost cut the man off, anxious to get the words out.

The leader exchanged a look with his subordinate before asking, "Why you in Ezthar?"

"My...father." Squall replied, staring at the floor, leaning back against the seat. "I was worried about him. About my family."

"Who iz your father?"

"Laguna Loire." He said and waited. The leader didn't do anything at first, but after a few moments he dealt Squall another backhand. He coughed out blood, and it splattered all over his sweat soaked grey t-shirt.

"Liar!" He shouted, "He had no son!"

"...I'm not lying." Squall growled.

"Who iz your mother, boy?"

"Raine Leonhart." Squall stated, but was sure the men had never heard of her. "Laguna Loire married...a women from Galbadia before coming here. He came to Esthar to find Ellone...my sister, who Adel wanted as a successor..."

Sis' name made the soldiers turn to the doctor the in question, who just shrugged it off, "He zpeakz the truth. My drug doez not fail."

The leader scowled, agitated with this exchange, and gave the order to his subordinate. "I vant him gone. Back to Cellz!"

Squall felt his wrists unbind from the locking device behind the chair. He felt someone push him forward, too tired to fight back and fell to the floor. The soldier dragged him along towards the holding cells.

The hissing of the door rose Selphie from her half slumber when Squall was thrown in. Collapsing to the ground, he breathed deep, feeling the after effects of the drug they gave him. The door shut again, leaving Selphie to take in the state he was in.

She turned him over, resting his head into her lap. Squall was sweating, pale, and sickly. Dried blood crusted in the stubble on his chin, and his grey shirt had specks of red all over the front.

"What the hell did you do to him!?" She screamed at the door to the cell.

He sipped at the bitter amber liquid, gulping down more than he would have liked at once. Irvine pounded the glass against the wooden counter, eyeing other patrons in the room. It was all fat truckers and unattractive MILFs tonight. No pretty ladies to be seen, well not at this dive anyway. Not this far out of the city core.

A hand clapped onto his shoulder, and his reflexes kicked in. Irvine grabbed it, spinning around and slamming the man's temple against the counter hard. One hand bound their wrists together behind their back. The other on the trigger of the Exeter pushing into the guy's cheek.

"W-whoa, s-s-s-ir!" He panicked, dark eyes on the gun.

"Fuck, Watts!" Irvine snapped, backing away. That's when he noticed all the unwanted attention from the other patrons in the room. The usual commotion of the night stopped, eyes curiously watching for Irvine's next move.

Rage burned in Irvine's chest, turning his heel to walk to the exit. Once outside, he heard the door open again, and Watts tumble out after him.

"Wait up, sir!"

Irvine sighed, figuring he'd give him ten seconds to tell him what he wanted before he dipped. "What now?"

He said, "I got some info ya might find useful."

Irvine raised a brow, turning to him with piqued interest, "Regardin' what?"

"Rinoa, sir."

"Why would ya gimme any info on her?"

"I'm an informant, sir."

Irvine eyed him skeptically, "N' what makes ya think I should trust ya. Ya tried to kill me in the ladies club."

He looked sheepish, "Sorry 'bout that, sir. I was followin' orders is all."

"Ya still runnin' with Rin?"

"That's tha thing, sir. I know why Rinoa's doin' all this. Why she's really pointin' this war on Squall."

"Go on..."

"Seifer was the reason why she left Garden. He told her that SeeD was tryin' to control her and her powers. Squall was given orders to make sure she never left. Rinoa found out and...y'know."

"Figured as much, but why go after SeeD now? We're done. We ain't operational." Irvine commented.

"That's the reason why she went after President Loire in Esthar. He was housin' SeeDs there. They knew of what was goin' on outside the Hex Shield. They were all gonna plan a rebellion to kill her. They had guys in Timber who were gonna start things off."

He was aware of Timber's current state now after reading through the reports Cesar gave him. "When Caraway found out, he sent in troops to wipe the city clean. Now its happenin' in Esthar."

"Esthar, eh?" Irvine rose a brow.

Watts nodded, "Rinoa's still convinced SeeDs survived the attack. They're 'exterminating' 'em, and then they're gonna torch the city."

"Shit!" Irvine shouted, "Does Lamont know this?"

"Lamont knows everything, sir, but he's not interested in Esthar right now." Watts explained, "He thinks another attack is bein' planned."

"Where?"

"FH, sir."

Irvine ran a hand across his jaw, taking this in. He took a deep breath, and then continued to walk out into the parking lot of the dive bar and into the street.

Been gone for a few months, and Rinoa's on some kinda killin' spree? He remembered Rinoa back when they first met. She was kind, passionate, and cared about freeing the people. Now all she wanted to do was free herself and gain control. Her odd behaviour spurred up a series of shocking questions.

Could her powers be doin' this? She gonna turn out like Adel or worse...?

He didn't wanna think about that, but he did have one question.

"Hey, Watts. Where's Sei-"

His sentence cut off when he realized he was standing alone in the parking lot again. Watts was nowhere in sight.

The orange creature emerged from the shadows of the interrogation room. He sniffed the ground with interest until the top of his head hit the leg of a steel chair. He squeaked in surprise, rubbing the aching spot with his oversized paw. His eyes caught sight of a trail leading out of the room. The trail was red, droplets dotting the path.

He blinked, moving closer to inspect it. The closer he got, the more a familiar face flashed in his mind. He nudged it with his nose, feeling the wetness of the red liquid. It hadn't dried yet, and it smelt good.

His little tongue peeked out from his mouth, licking the floor eagerly. The Moomba jumped back in utter shock, and then crouched down quickly to lick it one more time just in case.

The name popped into his mind, and his little heart began to panic. He followed the trail out of the room and into the corridor. His small voice squeaked out the same word, the only one he knew how to say in 'human talk'.

"LAGUNA! LAGUNA! LAGUNA!"

Her lips left a pink imprint of the glass, her brown eyes gazed and admired the live band playing in the lounge. The gentle melody of the piano brought her back to fond memories as a child. Her mother had her on her knee explaining the difference between a black to a white key.

Rinoa smiled.

If only life was always that easy.

"Is this seat taken?" She heard someone say from behind her. Rinoa turned to find the familiar face of an old comrade smiling mischievously at her. Not surprisingly, her guards started to get up from their tables around them, but she waved them off. He was no threat to her.

"Irvine Kinneas." Rinoa smiled, "What a surprise!"

Irvine hugged her shorter frame tightly and backed off to get a good look at her. "Wow, ya look..."

She raised a brow.

"Amazing!"

She laughed, gesturing to the seat next to her at the rooftop bar, "No, this seat isn't taken."

Irvine shifted forward on his stool, ordering a scotch on the rocks. "What brings you to Deling?"

He smiled, "Ya know. Been on the road a few years. Sometimes I like to come back to familiar parts is all."

Rinoa rested her chin on her fist, "Oh yeah? Where?"

Irvine tried to recollect, but was sure to select his words wisely. "Trabia."

"Trabia? It's freezing up there!" She replied, "I don't know what's so appealing about that place!"

"I don't discriminate." He replied with a chuckle. "Went to watch the northern lights. Camped out in the Bika Snowfield for a couple 'a months with some locals. Good times."

"I'm sure it was." Rinoa smiled. "Never took you to be the hippy type."

"More out there than war and ladies." Irvine took his drink from the bartender and nodded. "I mean, I still get the ladies, I just have exotic tastes now. Expanded my horizons n' all."

"And now your back in Deling." Rinoa raised a brow. "You miss women with more class?"

Irvine looked her up and down, admiring the royal blue dress that dipped low on her cleavage. "Home sick I suppose." He took a sip of his drink. "How 'bout ya? How have ya been since..."

Rinoa smiled, "Since I left Garden? Good. Good!"

She looked too happy after the events in recent months. Was this some kind of act?

Irvine cast his eyes around, noticing the five guys dressed in suits watching his every move. "Who're yer friends? They here for the scotch, too?"

Rinoa scoffed, "Don't mind them. They're just looking out for me."

"How come? Daddy sick 'em on ya?" He figured he'd bring Caraway into this. Reports as well as the news recently were all about the late president. Despite Irvine's obliviousness of recent events, that kind of news was hard to ignore.

Rinoa's face was devoid of any emotion, "No, he's dead."

"I'm sorry ta hear that." Irvine replied, "Heard it was a fire."

"Yeah, they broke into the mansion and torched it." She explained, "He was asleep when it happened."

Irvine knew the answer, but he was still curious. "Who's they? Did they find the guy?"

Rinoa blinked, surprised that Irvine was that oblivious. She supposed her broadcast didn't get as far as Trabia, "You didn't hear? Squall did it."

Irvine prided himself in his acting skills. He took a few classes as a cadet, never thinking that it would do him any good, but this was one of those times. "Really!? What the fuck is wrong with him? Why would he do that!?"

"I don't know. They still haven't caught him. He was last seen here in Deling a few weeks ago. I guess he's not over the break up."

Irvine knew that was bullshit, but didn't call her on it. He had been in contact with Squall since Garden shut down. Squall had ample time to get over her, and from as far as Irvine could see, he was better off.

"Have you been in contact with him?" Rinoa asked.

Irvine shook his head, "Ya know how he is, loner n' all."

Rinoa nodded.

Irvine sighed, "To torch a whole mansion? He couldn't have done that alone."

"He didn't. He's running with the wrong people. People who wanna harm me and my family. Irvine, these are bad people. They wanna overthrow Galbadia. They wanna take it over." She explained, leaning into his so that nobody else could hear.

The resistance. The same people she ran with once upon a time ago.

"Who are they?" He asked her, again, wanting to get her to say it.

"They call themselves the Underground Association. They've been building an army. They're recruiting ex-SeeDs, and they're here in Galbadia."

His heart stopped, so he turned to take a larger gulp of his scotch almost thankful for the instant burn. It masked the utter shock he was experiencing.

She knew. Rinoa knew why he was here.

Irvine quickly ran through his options for an escape plan. He could kill her, but those guys were still staring. He could run, but that would give him away. So he did what he did best. Change the subject.

He leaned in closer to her, his face inches away. "How 'bout we get outta here. Somewhere private. Ya can tell yer guys they're not invited."

Rinoa smirked, turning to her own drink, "Always the charmer, Kinneas. I'm flattered, really." Her brown eyes held amusement in them, "But I don't think Seifer would appreciate that."

He raised his brows, "I don't see 'em anywhere."

"He's away on business."

Buisness, eh? Is that what they call knight's doin' the dirty work these days?

"Oh well, tell him I says hello."

"Miss Heartilly." A man said from behind them, it was one of her guards. "We must take our leave."

"It was nice talking to you, Irvine." Rinoa gushed, "We should do this again sometime!"

He tipped his hat and smiled. "Will do, princess."

As she left the rooftop, Irvine finished his drink.

Over my dead body.

Cesar sighed, rubbing his face. Eyes red and tired as they scanned the lastest report in his hand. The military was starting a citywide sweep for resistence members under orders from Heartilly. The death count came in just under an hour ago. They had lost 125 members since noon, and this just got to his desk now.

They didnt have much time left, and he needed to make a call.

"Lamont!" His head snapped up from his paper work to find that dumbass cowboy rushing into his office.

"The hell?"

Irvine was furious. "Ya gotta mole makin' holes in yer organization!"

"The fuck do ya mean!?" He stood up behind his desk.

"Watts, man." Irvine retorted, "Whatever yer payin' him, Rinoa's payin' double, triple even! That guys like a walkin' auction! He's spewin' info ta both sides!"

"How do ya know that!?"

"I went to Carlou. She knew I was with ya guys!" Irvine exclaimed, sinking into the chair across from him.

Word travels fast in Deling, no doubt, and shit just got more complicaing.

"Lemme deal with him, but first," Cesar pulled out another folder and handed it to him.

Irvine groaned, "Another mission? Look, I did what ya said!"

Cesar's dark eyes locked straight into his. "I need ya to go to FH. Ya gonna meet with two of my guys. Shits gonna start goin' down there, and we dont got much time."

Irvine glared at him, flipping the folder over and reading the two names printed on the mission brief. His heart stopped for the fourth time that night when he saw the second name.

Skyros Angelus.

Zell Dincht.

Deling City/Galbadia - Rinoa's Suite

November 15th, 2009. 0645 hrs - GAT

Rinoa woke up the next morning with a package brought to her by one of her men. She put her coffee down next to her on the dark mohgany desk and opened it.

More photographs.

This time they were of a man she could hardly recognize between the battered face of briuses and blood.

Watts.

First Zone, now Watts.

Rinoa threw it across the room, the photos and envelope scattered all over the floor. She threw her coffee and slid everything off her desk screaming.

Her men tried to remain composed as fear for their lives set in.

Rinoa exhaled, her powers radiating from her body. She stalked towards the window overlooking the city just as the sun began to come up. It fought through dense cloud cover and smog.

Kill all SeeDs. Kill all Resistance members.

"This means war." She announced.

A/N: Man! Two posts in a week! I'm on some kind of roll now. If you haven't read it, I did a story called "What is SeeD?" told by character who may or may not be a future character in the series. When I mean future, he wont be around for a WHILE. The idea popped into my head, and I couldn't stop thinking about it. Take a read if you got the time!

So, Irvine, Watts, and Rinoa got some screen time in this one! It was pretty cool getting to write other characters in this story as I'm primarily always writing Squall and Selphie's story arc. From now to the end, I pretty much have them all planned out. I actually have the rest of the story planned out. It's just from this point on I'm actually writing and posting rather than already having it written, editing, and posting. Posts may be a bit more infrequent for that. I'm also doing a bit of artwork here and there for this story. Way more to come after this story is finished or when we're closer to the end.

You may also see things like EST and GAT in the times. Thats just for timezone purposes.

EST - Esthar Time

GAT - Galbadian Time

Just thought to point that out.

Anyways, thanks for all the awesome reviews, and...

HAPPY READING! Read and Review! I reply to all signed reviews!