Chapter Sixteen: More Than Meets the Eye

"Man, I am psyched!" Zell whooped as the group gathered in the same place they had the day prior. "I haven't seen this flick in a long time!"

"You've seen this one before?" Selphie asked, some of his excitement having rubbed off on her.

"You bet!" he replied, throwing a few jabs to rid himself of some nervous energy. "Besides, you can't go wrong with giant fighting robots, amiright Squall?"

"I…wouldn't know," Squall replied, already seated and leaning back on his hands. "Never really thought about it."

"Well, you will after this!" Zell said, pumping a fist.

The others simply exchanged smiles as they joined Squall on the floor, Sally taking her usual place on Zell's lap as Selphie knelt down on a beanbag chair next to Squall.

"I'm not familiar with this movie, chief," James said as he and Dawn snuggled up to each other. "What's it about?"

"Okay, here's the deal…" Zell began. "It's based on an old cartoon about two warring groups of robots; a civil war, I guess you could call it. Anyway, so…" He paused with a thoughtful expression, then shook his head. "Naw, if I tell you any more, I'll end up spoiling a bunch of surprises."

Squall smiled at his friend's about-face, but it quickly faded at the sight of three very familiar figures entering the Quad.

"Is that Seifer?" Zell exclaimed, apparently having seen the same thing.

Selphie narrowed her eyes in the direction he pointed. "It sure looks like it; I'd recognize that grey coat anywhere."

Zell lifted a hand to his forehead as though blocking out the light from above. "How'd he get out of the hoosegow…oh…I see…" he trailed off at the sight of several large figures in SeeD uniforms following the trio. "Looks like HM's keeping an eye on 'em. Good call."

"Is it going to be okay, sir?" James asked, sounding worried. "I mean, he's the one who killed many of our brethren, right?"

"He was under the control of Ultimecia," Squall explained. "He's not going to be as strong as he was then, either; he got a lot of his power from Ultimecia through Matron…Sorceress Edea, that is. Anyway, he's not as powerful as he was back then."

"So he's very killable right now?" Dawn asked, flexing her fingers and wishing she'd brought her weapon with her.

"As you were, SeeD Helsi," Squall ordered in a rare flexing of his authority, mildly shocked at the venom in her tone. "He's under intense observation as well as attending counseling sessions with our physicians. So are the other two, for that matter."

Dawn's jaw visibly tensed but said nothing more as the lights started to dim.

"That was intense!" Selphie breathed as the lights came up again.

"Toldja so," Zell boasted with a cocky grin. "I actually had to see it twice to take it all in!"

"That part where the whole city turned into a battle station was awesome!" she gushed, thrusting a fist into the air. "And when that planet turned into a robot…? Oh…my…gosh!"

"I never would have thought you'd be into giant robots," Sally said awkwardly.

"I'm not, normally," Selphie replied, "but that was just too cool! Besides, it gets me thinking; what if Trabia Garden could've turned into a huge robot?"

"The battle with Galbadia would certainly have turned out differently," Sally giggled.

"It was difficult watching the leader of the Guardians die," James said, his voice notably strained as he remembered the scene. "While I'll admit that I'm unfamiliar with the source material, he still struck me as a…noble character."

"He was," Zell confirmed with a heavy nod. "I watched the old show, and he was boss."

"At least he gave his life to protect others," Squall interjected, surprising the group; in their banter they'd almost forgotten he was there. "If I died tomorrow, that's the way I'd want to go."

Zell instinctively glanced over at Selphie and wasn't surprised to see a look of dismay. "Squall, you don't really want to die, do you?" she asked.

"Not any time soon, no," Squall replied with a chuckle. "I feel like I have a lot to do here before my time is done."

"That's a relief," she breathed as she gazed at him; the others exchanged knowing glances at her words.

"So Puberty Boy and Chicken-Wuss are into cartoons, huh?" a familiar voice chided, and the group looked up to see Seifer heading toward them followed by Raijin and Fujin, who in turn were followed by their 'handlers'. He leaned over to look Squall square in the eye. "Did you cry when Great One died?"

"I teared up a little, yeah," Squall replied as he held the other man's gaze, drawing wide-eyed stares from the rest of the group at his admission. "Did you?"

"You bet your ass I did!" Seifer laughed as he straightened again. "But he died protecting people from the bad guys." He stood a little taller. "If I'm gonna die tomorrow, that's the way I'm gonna go."

It was Squall's turn to be surprised, hearing his own thoughts nearly word-for-word.

"AGREED," Fujin said, apparently seconding the head of their posse.

"We feel the same way, ya know?" Raijin added. "Anything worth fightin' for should be worth dyin' for, ya know?"

Squall nodded thoughtfully as he considered their words; during the second Sorceress War, Seifer and his posse put their lives on the line a number of times. They may have been misguided, Seifer in particular, but they fought wholeheartedly for what they believed in. "For what it's worth, I'm with you on that," he told them.

"Squall…?" Zell was having a hard time with the idea of Squall agreeing with the old Disciplinary Committee on anything. "You hit your head, dude?"

"C'mon, Z, think about it," Squall challenged. "Would you be willing to die to protect someone important to you? Your mom, for example? Or Sally?"

"Abso-frickiin-lutely!" Zell exclaimed as he pumped a fist.

"By the way, Dincht …" Seifer directed his gaze to the martial artist. "Congratulations on getting a girl; didn't know you could do it."

Zell froze mid-pump, causing the girl in his lap to look up at him in concern. He then made a show of twisting his finger in an ear as though to clear it. "Did I hear you right? Did you just say something nice to me?"

"It's your imagination," Seifer snorted, then shifted his gaze to the bouncy-haired girl. "Hey, Tilmitt; take care of Puberty Boy, got it?"

"Could you at least call him 'Squall', please?" Selphie huffed with her fists on her hips. "That's his name, after all."

Seifer studied her briefly before his expression resolved into a smirk as the members of his posse exchanged a glance. "All right, Tilmitt; since you asked so nicely… Take care of Squall, got it?"

"Eh?" Selphie blinked in surprise as Seifer's words sunk in. "Uh, sure… What do you mean?"

Seifer simply scoffed before turning his attention back to his old nemesis, pointing at him as he spoke. "Before this celebration is over, you and I will cross gunblades again."

"Hey…" one of the SeeDs responsible for the trio started before coming to a halt at Seifer's glance.

"Relax, girls," the gray-coated youth said over his shoulder at the detail. "I'm not threatening him; I just want things like they were back…back before all this shit went down." He turned his attention back to Squall. "You won't let me down, will you?"

Squall mulled over the oddly-phrased request. "Sounds good, but I'd rather fight alongside you than against you."

"Are you serious, Squall?" Zell exclaimed, hardly able to believe his ears. "This guy killed-"

"Z!" Squall barked. "I know what he did, and probably better than you."

"Zell, let him talk..." Sally requested as she tugged on the front of his shirt. "Please?"

Even Seifer watched as Zell worked his jaw or several seconds before speaking again. "Fine, I'll shut up…for now. But if there's a fight, I wanna see it."

"Sure thing," Seifer snorted; with that, he turned and headed to one of the many sets of double-doors that opened to the main hall. Of course Fujin and Raijin followed him, with the SeeD detail close behind.

"Well that was weird," Zell remarked as the last of the group disappeared from sight. "That looked like Seifer, but something was different about him."

"Of course," Squall grunted. "He's been through a lot, just like we have."

"Has he shown any guilt over what he did during the war?" Selphie asked.

"He has, but of course I'm not going to go into any detail," Squall calmly replied as he got to his feet; only the Garden headmasters plus Squall were privy to information that would ordinarily be confidential. "I'm gonna go grab a bite to eat; anyone else coming?"

The other looked at each other, surprised by the normally-introverted commander's offer. "S-Sure!" Selphie chirped as she hopped to her feet. "W-We can talk about the movie some more!"

"Pretty sweet, eh?" Zell cackled, his former morose mood dissipating. "Wockwockwockwock…" he grunted, trying to imitate the movie characters' conversion sound effect. "Man, I'd love to hear that in real life!"

"Maybe you will someday," Sally murmured as she snuggled into his arm. "And maybe you'll be the one to make it happen."

"Me?" Zell grunted as they headed out of the Quad and into the main hall. "Sheeyeah, right. Thanks for the vote of confidence Megabyte, but I'm too much of a muscle-head for that!"

"I believe in you," she countered sweetly, her eyes sparkling as she gazed up into his face.

As Zell stammered out his response to her starry-eyed admiration Selphie and Squall exchanged a glance, and he shook his head while she giggled quietly.

"She could never get into pistols, and I never could get into machine guns," James explained as the group sat around the meal table; as usual, he and Dawn sat side-by-side, their shoulders nearly touching as they ate, while Zell sat next to his girl with the shin of one leg tucked behind her calf. Squall and Selphie, however, sat across from each other…which was understandable, all things considered. "I'd keep trying to hold her weapon in one hand, and she nearly blew one of her fingers off trying to hold one of my revolvers with two hands." His expression resolved into an uncharacteristically impish grin as he got up from his seat and moved to stand behind his girlfriend. "It works out, though," he said, extending his arms forward on either side of his love as though wielding his revolvers while she posed with an imaginary machine gun and a grin of her own. "We've got each other covered."

"James…" Selphie giggled.

"Ho ho ho!" Zell cackled before looking over at his sweetheart. "Hey, Sally; c'mere. I wanna try something."

"Oh, no you don't, Chief Dincht!" Sally giggled, her face nearly aflame as she leaned away from his eager hands. "I know what you're thinking, and the answer is 'later'!"

"Aw, Salamander, I just wanted to…" he trailed off as he finally processed her full sentence. "Oh. Okay. Later's good," he conceded with a wiggle of his eyebrows, drawing another giggle from his perpetually-shy girlfriend.

"So, who's going to tomorrow night's dance?" Selphie suddenly piped up.

"I'll pass, thanks," Squall replied immediately with a raised hand. "You know I can't stand large…groups…" He trailed off as his gaze settled on Sally, reminding him that he would be presenting her with her SeeD promotion certification; her quick thinking at the second-floor near-disaster impressed Headmaster Cid as well, who easily signed off on her promotion. "Never mind; I have to be there."

"Commander responsibilities, sir?" James asked.

"Yup," he grunted. "Not that I mind, now that I remember why."

Selphie gave her friend a sympathetic smile as she reached out to pat his arm. "Well, thank you for putting yourself out there like that, Squall. It's just for a couple of hours, so…" Her eyes lost focus as an idea came to mind. "Hey, if it'd help, I could dance with you!"

"Say what?" Squall wasn't sure he'd heard her correctly.

"Are you serious, Sylph?" Zell cackled. "You know he's got two left feet, right?"

"No, he doesn't!" Selphie protested, her expression shifting to a frown almost instantly. "Sure, he was rough around the edges at first, but he's a quick learner!"

As the two went back-and-forth about their friend's feet, Squall thought back to his own graduation party…and his first meeting with Rinoa…

"You're the best-looking guy here…"

"Dance with me?"

He remembered it as though it had happened yesterday; Rinoa's coy glances as she tried to sweet-talk him into dancing with her, her raven-colored hair swaying with her movements, the feel of her body in his hands… He had to bite his lip to hold back the tears, the pain of…happier times? More carefree times? "Hey, Selphie; How did you know I was a quick learner?" he asked, partly out of curiosity and partly to distract himself from the painful memories.

"Huh?" Selphie's face was already pinkish due to her debate with the martial artist, but Squall's out-of-the-blue question sent her straight to scarlet. "I…I just happened to see Rinoa talking with you, and your dance afterward!"

"I thought you were recruiting for the Garden Festival?" Sally said with genuine perplexity.

"I…I was!" Selphie nearly yelled. "It's just that… Well, he was so nice to me early on, helping me get around Garden – Balamb Garden, I mean – and he was so much fun to fight alongside during our field Exam, that…" She trailed off, her expression unreadable.

As she tried to explain herself, Sally and Dawn exchanged a nod; they would be talking with the chief, and very soon.