Squall took charge as they stepped off the lift--he recognized the hall they were in; the default target for the Palace lift. It was possible that Taiga had used some kind of military code to gain access to one of the other destinations--but that was unlikely, given his state of mind and what Squall had to assume security measures were like in the Palace.

In the context of everything else going on, that was a very nice stroke of luck.

"There are only two rooms accessible on this level," Squall said, motioning quickly down the hall. "The Presidential Office and the Reception Room. If--"

Fujin pushed past him, barreling down the hall as if she knew exactly where Taiga would go.

"--we split up...." Squall trailed off, bit back an annoyed curse, and turned to run after her.

Fujin ran to the end of the hall, charging at the pale door so fast that if they hadn't opened, it was likely they would have had to Phoenix Down her before she woke up again. It wasn't until they had that Squall noticed two very important things.

Even when the office was empty, there were generally two armed guards standing outside the door. What they were supposed to be guarding was anyone's guess, but they hadn't been there when they had arrived on the floor.

And to the best of Squall's recollection, even when the President had been in the office, there hadn't been guards there. And it made all too much sense why the distinctive colors of the Esthar Standing Army could be seen on four people within the room.

Fujin rushed in with her shuriken ready to do battle, and before she had a chance to break Hyne knew how many Estharan laws, Squall took the initiative and incapacitated her with a Blind spell.

Fujin pulled up short, shrieking out an enraged half-vocalization. The guards, looking as if they were being beset by a riot mob, were falling back into a position to protect the hitherto-unseen fifth occupant of the room--the Estharan President, Laguna Loire. He had apparently been working on something at his desk, and had stood up when the commotion started up.

No one in the immediate group was paying any attention to the President. All of their attention was focused on Fujin--who looked as if she would be attacking everything, if only she knew where it was--and Taiga, lying in a sprawl of Esthar robes on the ground, not moving.

For a few moments, there was a tense standoff. Then the soldiers, realizing that they might have the upper hand in the situation--if only because the only one who seemed intent on attacking them couldn't see a thing--one of them carefully removed one hand from his weapon and motioned them apart. "Spread out so I can see you," he snapped. "Hands where I can see them! Keep away from your weapons!"

Everyone complied except for Fujin, who kept a white-knuckled grip on her shuriken and looked ready to main anyone who tried to take it away.

The soldier was about to do something else when Laguna stepped carefully around the desk, looking over the scene. "Ah... excuse me," he said, as if not wanting to interrupt the course of anything important. "...what's going on?"

Lu stepped forward--slowly, of course, keeping both hands very visible. "I'm terribly sorry, Mr, President! This man here is a cyborg who's--he's been experiencing some ICI malfunctions so we were to take him to Dr. Ralo's lab, and he--well, sir, I'm not entirely sure what happened--"

Laguna was nodding along with the confused air of someone who had no idea what they were being told but was too polite to interrupt. Eventually Lu ran herself into a wall, and trailed off. Laguna glanced over them all once more.

"Squall," he finally settled on. "Are these your friends?"

To say that Squall was taken aback would have been a fairly serious understatement. "After a fashion," he finally acknowledged.

Laguna nodded, as if he had just made sense of everything. "Let him up," he said, nodding to Taiga.

One of the soldiers glanced back. "Sir," he began, sounding rather pained, "he's down for the count. Stun weapons will do that to you. If you would like me to--"

"YOU HURT FATHER?" Fujin demanded, taking an angry step in the soldier's direction. She couldn't see it happen, but within an instant, all four shotels were trained on her.

"Father?" one of the soldiers demanded. "The devil's got you?"

"Sir," Lu interposed quickly, "this can all be cleared up pretty well with a document that... that we should have. Here. ...Anyev? Do you still have it?"

Fujin glanced back over her shoulder to glare in Lu's general direction--but misestimated the direction somewhat, and ended up glaring Raijin into submission instead. "DROPPED," she growled.

Lu closed her eyes, and silently resigned herself to a lifetime in prison.

Laguna once again looked to Squall for clarification. Squall sighed inwardly--his previous experience in Esthar seemed to be helping him thus far, but Laguna's assumption that he was somehow in control of this debacle as well was beginning to wear on his nerves. "She probably dropped it getting ready for battle," he said, unable to stifle the feeling that he would only be making things worse by saying that. "If you contact the guards by the Palace entrance, they should have found it. If not, you should contact a Dr. Jenn Hadai, who will have information that will explain... some of what our business here is."

Laguna nodded. "You can't explain?"

Squall wished fervently that he wouldn't have to, but concealed it well in front of the chief executive of the largest, most powerful nation on the globe. "If you would like me to make a report, sir--"

"No, no. That's all right." Laguna tucked both hands behind him. "Dr. Ralo, you said?"

Squall nodded.

"I'll have someone contact her and bring her in." Laguna glanced over the group, gaze remaining on Seifer for what seemed to be an uncomfortable amount of time. Then, with a slight shrug, he motioned the soldiers to stand down.

...this had very little effect, given that he was standing behind them.

"You men can go back to your posts," he said, after figuring out what the problem was. All of the soldiers hesitated.

"Sir..." one of them said. "I'm not sure that would be wise, under the circumstances."

Laguna looked around. "Why not? You said he was stunned... right?"

The soldiers exchanged glances. "Sir--"

Laguna shrugged. "Squall? You're not here to attack me or anything, are you?"

Squall snapped into a SeeD salute more-or-less automatically. "No, sir."

"Then I don't see why you need to worry," Laguna concluded, speaking to the soldiers. "We'll be perfectly fine, and they can explain to me what's going on. You can have that thing brought up to me."

The soldiers glanced at each other, glanced at the group by the door, and gave up. Snapping into salutes, they nodded. "Yes, sir!"

Squall waited until the soldiers had left the office, then followed up the Blind with an Esuna. Fujin turned on him, and for a moment Squall was certain that she was going to try to thank him by lobbing the shuriken at his face. Then she forgot about him entirely, dropping to her knees at Taiga's side to check him for injuries.

Laguna cleared his throat. "Well," he said. "I know Squall, and I can see you're Seifer Almasy--welcome to Esthar, by the way. I'm Laguna Loire. And the rest of you?"

-

Laguna's hospitality was certainly unmatched by any other head of state, and completely inexplicable to his guests--Seifer most particularly, given that he had expected to be hauled off for some kind of war crimes tribunal immediately upon identification. And, even though attempting to attack the president doubtlessly had some kind of hefty criminal penalty attached to it, Laguna didn't seem to consider that at all--and, instead, called up medics for Taiga (who spent a considerable time convincing Fujin to let them do their job, as it seemed Fujin wasn't too keen on the idea of more strange Palace staff coming between her and her father--in the end, they just told her to come along) and invited them all for coffee.

After facing what they had been sure would turn into the trial of the century for attempted assassination and being accomplices to desertion and possibly murder and whatever else Taiga had on his record, no one refused.

So, sitting in the reception room, staring warily over cups of steaming Estharan blend--a dark beverage that put regular coffee to shame with its strength and bitterness--and still half-expecting to be surrounded by crack soldiers at any time, the group quietly nominated Lu to tell the story of what they were doing and why. Through all of it, Laguna maintained an understanding silence--nodding at intervals and sipping his coffee with the air of one whose taste buds had been numbed by the stuff long, long ago.

Squall wasn't having a good time, at all. While Lu's story might make for an interesting addendum to his report, he could only imagine what kind of protocols he was breaking. ...the mission had started out as a simple errand--hardly anything but killing time. Find Seifer in Balamb, escort him back to Garden. How it had gone this wrong was a staggering question. The fact that he was sitting in a room with Esthar's president while a woman he didn't know told stories about Fujin's father defied all logical causality.

That, and whenever the issue of parentage came up, Laguna would cast Squall a surreptitious glance that Squall wasn't quite sure he was comfortable with.

When Lu finally seemed to have finished the story, Laguna said nothing for a few moments. Then, finally, setting down his cup of coffee, he nodded decisively. "So, all you really need is to see someone about getting these implants fixed, or whatever," he translated. "And Ralo is who you thought you'd try."

Lu nodded.

"Well," Laguna said, stretching, "I don't think that'll be any problem."

"...oh?" Lu asked, feebly.

Laguna blinked. "I am the president," he said, gesturing offhandedly. "She pretty much has to come if I call her, right?"

"I... would imagine so," Lu agreed, glancing across their group in vain search of anyone else who would tacitly agree how strange this was. "Sir, we really don't mean to be an imposition--"

"It's no problem," Laguna assured, smiling. He leaned forward, hitting a button on the table. "I'm glad I can help out."

The door opened, admitting one of the palace staff. "Sir?"

"There were some guards who were supposed to find a document or something," the President started.

"Yes, sir," the woman said. "Would you like to see that now?"

"Yes, please. Oh--and, about contacting Dr. Ralo--"

"She's in the middle of some touchy calibrations right now, but you've got the first free minute she has. Is that all right, sir?"

Laguna smiled. "Yes, thank you. In the mean time... I think all of these people will be staying here for a few days while we get everything sorted. Could you take care of that?"

"I'll see about getting rooms," the aide said. "Will there be anything else?"

"Not now, thanks." Laguna glanced back. "Unless...?"

Lu hurriedly shook her head. "N-no," she began.

The woman nodded and hurried off. Lu swirled her coffee, quite uncomfortable.

"Sir, I appreciate the lengths you're going to--"

"It's not a problem, really." Laguna glanced at Squall for the fiftieth time--and, for the fiftieth time, Squall returned his glance cooly and professionally and wished that Laguna would just stop. The President quickly glanced away. "...I just hope we can clear all this up."

The door re-opened, and yet another staffer walked in with Hadai's documentation. Laguna took it, flipped it open to the first page, skimmed over it--and flipped it closed. "When's Kiros scheduled to get back?" he asked the aide.

"Later today," the aide replied.

"Have him come see me as soon as he gets in."

"Yes, sir." The aide paused. "...would you like me to call in a medic?"

Laguna didn't make the connection for a moment. "...er, should you?"

"If you'll excuse me from saying...." The man shrugged. "Your guest there appears to be in some amount of pain."

At once, Seifer found himself the subject of any number of stares.

"Oh, yeah," Raijin spoke up. "Seifer broke a few ribs when he got into a fight with Tai--"

Seifer kicked him in the ankle. Raijin jumped, turning to stare at him in surprise.

Laguna nodded. "I... didn't realize that," he said. "Well, you'd better see the doctor, hadn't you?"

Seifer stood up with a great deal of ill grace. "Yeah," he conceded. "Maybe I should."

"If you'll follow me, sir," the aide said, motioning out the door. Seifer glanced back to give Raijin an ugly look, and followed him out.

Laguna checked his watch. "I have a meeting in half an hour I need to get ready for," he apologized, "so I'll have an aide come in and show you around the Palace. Then, I guess I'll see you after I talk to Ralo, okay?"

Lu stood up, paying attention to some obscure bit of formality that Laguna evidently wasn't concerned about at all. "Thank you again. Mr. President."

Laguna waved it off and, with a final glance at Squall, walked out the door.

Lu turned back to the rest of them as soon as he was gone, shaking her head incredulously. "...that went far better than I would have thought possible," she said. Then, looking at Squall, she demanded "How do you know the President?"

Squall felt the familiar pangs of a headache beginning just between his eyes. "...I was hired for a mission by the Esthar government once," he said, making a dismissive gesture with one hand and fighting the urge to crawl under something before she started on some kind of hero-worship.

Lu was staring in a way that Squall found very disconcerting. Eventually, she sat down and shook her head again. "...I really am traveling with quite the crew of celebrities," she said wryly. Glancing at Nida, she added "I don't suppose you're the Regent Duke of Dollet or anything?"

Nida actually glanced behind himself before answering. "...who, me?"

The door opened, and a third aide stepped in. Squall was beginning to wonder how many people were around the Palace just to perform whatever mundane duty Laguna put them to. "Hello," he introduced himself cheerfully. "I'm Hal Rai. If you follow me, I'll show you the guest levels of the Palace...."