The Secret Garden

Based on: Final Fantasy Record Keeper

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy. The OCs featured in this fic belong to various friends. Note that while the characters belong to friends, I am the one writing the fic itself. Thank you to my friends for allowing me to borrow your characters. If you wish to appear, please send me a message and we can work something out.

Notes: This is the sequel to Records of Keeper Canti. It's wibby-wobbly, timey-whimy in its execution. I care not. If you care, shut the fuck up and go away. If you don't like it, don't read it.

Warnings: Cursing, potential OOC, OC x Canon, stupid fluffy romance, sex, angst, self-insert author avatar

FIC START!

Chapter Five

Reconditioning

The man in the center of the grassy area outside the office gave the orders repeatedly. All the first year girls were grouped on one side and the boys were on the other side. His voice was terrible to listen and even more so with an amplifying device. All of the students wore variations of the same uniform she did, though she did not see a single boy in a skirt. The upperclassmen were all together on the grassy area, apart from the first years. Once they were separated, Canti stood with other girls, just nowhere near as sure of herself as few others seemed to be.

"And now, Initiation for the first years!" the man said, and the upperclassmen - save for a few here and there - all gave hoots and hollers. "All of those who enter our Garden have to show where they start combat wise. Part of the curriculum is learning how to fight against enemies from inside and outside our country's barriers. So. Show us what you got, freshmen!"

"Combat?" Canti asked in disbelief, her head slinking to the side. "I've never fought anything before…"

"Me, either," a girl said, standing to her left. "My grandpa doesn't let me fight."

When Canti looked to see who was there, she found the teal-haired girl that passed by her in the school office while she was waiting to see the headmaster. "I've seen you before," she said.

"Mmm, yep," the teal-haired girl said. She was fiddling with her necklace which had a key dangling at the end. She stood almost a full head shorter than Canti, which wasn't very typical of anyone she'd ever met before. "You might not know me, but I know you. You're Cid Highwind's daughter, right? You live right across the street from me. Grandpa Tobul speaks very highly of you and your dad."

"...I'm sorry…" Canti muttered. "I only recognize you from passing. I don't think I've actually met you before." She remembered saying something about a dwarf family living across the street. Was Crystal part dwarf? With hair and skin like that, she found it hard to believe that Crystal was full dwarf.

"Nope, never tried to speak to you. I could tell you had some kinda problems talking to strangers, so I kept my distance. You seem to have an easier time of it now, though. That's good," the girl said, extending her hand to Canti. "My name is Crystal."

"Canti," Canti said, shaking Crystal's hand. "Nice to meet you."

The Initiation progressed with students one by one standing face to face against an opponent made of magic, summoned by the man in the robes that looked like fire. And for most students, one by one, they all fell in one way or another. Most first years only took a single hit before they hit the ground, but a few took more hits than that. One managed to land a blow on the blue apparition, though there was no way to actually hurt it. The procedure went along in the order that the students had lined up, and went of the order boy-girl-boy-girl. Many upperclassmen cheered at this display, laughing at those who fell and cheering at those who managed to make some sort of a stand. Minwu found it incredibly barbaric to torture children like this that had never once fought a day in their lives, and Kain couldn't watch it. Both of them seemed more irritated at the display than anything.

Crystal's turn came, while it was clear she had some natural strength in her body, she was knocked over rather quickly. A few voices came from boys watching on, asking where her supposed dwarf strength was. Canti stood in both fear and annoyance at the fact that once the boy who stepped up was done, it was her turn.

That boy's turn was over before it even began. He didn't even bother mounting a defense. The moment she let the summoner know he was ready, a blow was struck across his stomach and he keeled over in pain.

Canti stepped away from the other first years, pushing her bangs from her face. She knew this was going to hurt, but she had to face it. She saw how brave her Papa Cid was several times. If she was his daughter, then she could try to avoid something before her eventual fall. The summoner looked at her, waiting for the confirmation that he was ready to defend herself, and before she gave it, she let her eyes trace the crowd. So many faces. How could she even try to be brave when she was so afraid of all those people? Especially when she knew so many were going to judge her for it!

Kain shook his head. "Just… just get it over with, cousin…" he said. "I can't…"

"The poor dear looks terrified," Minwu said, crossing his arms. "I would rather we not continue this tradition if at all possible. Garden can judge us all during the tests, and we've had quite enough testing… why all of this in front of everyone?"

Canti nodded to the summoner. She watched the same blue apparition that attacked so many of her classmates coalesce in front of her, taking the form of a human combatant. As it raised its arm, like it was holding a sword in its hand to strike her with, she immediately put her hands out and screamed, "NO!" As the hand came down, it met with a forcefield, clanging off of it.

There was a murmur in the crowd from both her classmates and those onlooking. No first year had ever managed to deflect an attack, apparently. Canti stood with her hands up, even though she had no idea how she did it. Energy flowed through her, familiar energy, though she had no idea why it was familiar, or how.

The man wearing robes that looked like fire reached to over to Canti, seizing her arm. The barrier fell as she was shocked by this, and he pulled her along with her. The rest of the Initiation Ritual continued, while Canti was taken somewhere away from all the other students.

"Sir," he said. "As you said she would. I brought her here."

"Thank you, kupo… Good to see you, Canti. Kupo."

She was completely confused as she found a moogle standing there wearing very ornate blue robes that drug the ground and what she could only describe as a terribly designed three-pointed hat. "I'm sorry? Do I know you?" she asked.

"No, no," the moogle answered calmly, using his tiny little wings to lift himself up off the floor. "I came to see you. Make sure you're doing all right, kupo. There are people who expect great things from you."

"I'm just a girl…" Canti said, shaking her head. She took a step back, her eyes full of fear. "…I don't know why I was able to deflect that attack. I don't understand why Papa Cid even put me in this school!"

"Canti, you are very special… ever since you took the placement test, we have known about many things concerning you, kupo," the moogle continued. "If you have any problems, I want you to report it directly. At home, at school, any problem at all, kupo." He then set himself back down. "Other than that, live however you like. Love, learn, experience. Anything and everything you have ever wanted is available to you, kupo."

Canti clearly wasn't taking this very well. She started to fidget where she was standing, looking down at the floor. Her expression revealed she was distraught and had no idea what was going on. "Papa Cid said he wanted me to go to this school and get a good education," she said, "so I just want to get to that. Please let me…"

"Understood. I won't keep you, kupo," Dr. Mog's big red nose wiggled a few times. "Go down through that hall and you'll be back at the front hall of the Garden. Kupopo. Remember that there are people looking out for you and only wish to see you succeed, Canti." He waved goodbye to her before turning around to leave.

The same weird guy that took her away from the others led her out of the strange place she met the moogle in. He left her in the central hall of the Garden, and boy, was she ever lost. Kain promised to show her around before they were separated for the day, but then the whole Initiation thing happened, and… it took all she had not to just give in and cry where she stood.

"Heeeeey!"

And that's when two pairs of arms glomped around Canti at the same time.

"Why is everyone grabbing me so unexpectedly?!" Canti yelled, pushing whoever they were off of her person. "I'm tired of it being so sudden!"

"Sorry, I totally forgot about you and your hard time with people… I thought maybe because we're friends now that you wouldn't be so scared. I really am sorry." The first voice she heard belonged to Hikari. "…it's just that I was worried about you being taken off like that."

"Did you get in trouble?" the other voice came from the girl she met during the Initiation, Crystal. "Your cousin was super upset seeing you being dragged off like that! Minwu had to carry him to class kicking and screaming, it was pretty bad."

Hikari said, shrugging. "…before they left, Minwu said you had Combat Basics first thing, and since we have that first too, we figured we'd find you and take you with us! Because you seem to be so lost and everything all the time."

"That's the plan," Crystal agreed. "Head to Combat Basics together."

"That is very kind of you both," Canti said bashfully. "Truth is, I'm completely lost. I'm glad I can count on friends to help me. Papa Cid was right about making friends… Thank you."

"Thing is…" Crystal began slowly.

"...so are we," Hikari finished just as slowly.

Canti put her hands on her hips. "Well. That's just wonderful."

Cid hadn't been back at the old hangar in a whole year since he had taken to adopting Canti, and while he missed her terribly, he also knew that the Senate would not support his endeavor of being a stay-at-home dad much longer. Once he got back to his old station and shared a high-five with Setzer Gabbiani, he seemed to feel much more at home again. He lit a cigarette before pulling over an airship engine to start working on it. In case of fluids leaking on his face, he pulled his goggles down over his eyes.

"Yo, Cid!"

"Hey, numbskull," Cid answered back, crawling under the engine while lying back on his wheelie-board, "Ain't heard from you in a dog's age."

"What's it like bein' a dad?"

"Kinda slow, but I like it like that. Get to do all the fun stuff, like watch cartoons and learn to make bunny shaped pancakes."

"You ain't lost your taste for a good ale, have ya?"

"Fuck you, Otto. I ain't going down to the pub after work. Not going back down that path. We talked about this before."

"You used to be real handy in them bar fights."

Cid pulled himself out from under the engine, pulled up his goggles, and gave Otto a real sharp glare. "I also used to be an asshole. Sounds like you still are one. Now get the fuck back to work. I'm not losing my job over you. I got a daughter to support."

"Oh, don't fucking start with me, Cid. You ain't no better than anyone else in this hangar. Just because you go goody-two-shoes and adopt a special needs retard don't mean your shit don't stink," Otto said, turning back to his own work.

Cid immediately stood up, ready to find the nearest sharp object and shove it in Otto's eye, but their nearby coworker and supervisor Setzer stood between them. "Cid, you said it yourself, you can't afford to lose your job. Back down there, dad. Just back to your station." Then he pointed at Otto. "You! I want you on latrine duty the rest of the day!"

"But I have a quota to meet before the end of the week!" Otto shouted at Setzer.

"Then maybe you ought not to have been running your mouth," Setzer said, motioning for him to leave. "Get out of here and let us get some actual work done. Every latrine and portable latrine in the ship-yards and hangars better be spotless by sundown today. And I will inspect."

Otto grumbled as he shoved off to do as he was ordered, flipping Cid off before he left the hangar.

"That guy…" Setzer said with a sigh. "…he got off light. If my wife had heard him saying things like that, there would have been nothing left of him. She does not appreciate people talkin' down about children like that."

"I about killed him," Cid said. "My daughter, she's not an… one of those. She ain't a retard. Just a little awkward."

"I know. She was a joy to be around when I saw her a couple months ago," Setzer said. "C'mon then, it's great to see you back, but we really should get crackin' on these motors."

"Damn straight," Cid agreed. He crawled back under the motor, giving one last thought to his daughter, hoping her first day at school was going better than his first day back to work.