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CHAPTER ONE

ENEMY OR FRIEND?

Fisherman's Horizon, a peace loving community located along the transcontinental railroad in the middle of the ocean and the philosophy here is that you can solve any problem by talking about it and without resorting to violence. It is also the biggest supplier of both sea food and skilled mechanical laborers. Mayor Dobe is in charge here and likes to try to keep out anyone who would cause trouble. At least he always has done his best. But in the last several weeks he has had his hands full what with Balamb Garden crashing into the side of FH(locals call Fisherman's Horizon by its nickname FH so that they don't spend half of the day saying it's name.) And then shortly after that Galbadian soldiers trying to burn the city down in order to locate Ellone Loire to hand her over to sorceress Edea.

But now he isn't sure how he feel about the philosophy of FH anymore, mostly due to the fact that Squall Leonhart and his friends had to use force in order to save his life and most likely everyone in town. His wife Flo wasn't much help because she hadn't seen what had transpired on the steps of the old train station when he tried to reason with the Galbadian commander. Fortunately though it looked like things would return to normal soon thanks to the efforts of both SeeD and the country of Esther. Having defeated the sorceress and returning Time back to normal had put life pretty much back to normal for FH.

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Sitting on the docks and fishing is a big pastime for a lot of people in FH because its always quiet and peaceful. At least it normally is.

"Man, why isn't anything biting dammit?" yelled a man sitting at the end of the docks who was apparently having some very bad luck at trying to catch a fish. In fact his pole was taped together because he had broken it in a fit of rage the previous day.

"Its cause ya gotta have talent, ya know."

"Oh shut the hell up Raijin!" replied Seifer.

"I just trying to be helpful, ya know. "

Seifer who was getting very pissed off at the incredible luck Raijin was having decided he couldn't take it any longer and simply asked, "Fujin, would you do the honors here?"

"PLEASURE" "MINE" And with that the white haired girl with an eye patch snuck up behind the big dark skinned buffoon (also known as Raijin) and kicked him square in the rear end sending him tumbling into the water for the second time in two days.

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BALAMB GARDEN

CURRENT LOCATION: ESTHER COASTLINE

BAM!BAM!BAM!BAM!

Laying in bed I wondered if I ignored whomever was knocking if they would go away or if they would keep pounding. It felt like I had only been asleep for two hours or so.

BAM!BAM!BAM!BAM!BAM!BAM!

"Nope, I guess not." I mumbled to myself. Sitting up I looked over at my clock and realized why I was so tired. I really had only slept for two hours.

"Yo, Squall, get up we have to meet Headmaster Cid up on the bridge for a meeting."

"I'm up, Zell! I'm up!" Getting up out of bed I looked around and found a clean set of clothes which I hastily threw on and then unlocked the door for Zell so that he could enter. Once the young martial artist came in I realized that my room was trashed from having Selphie, Quistis, Irvine, Zell and Rinoa over last night after the victory ball.

"Wow, we really made this place a mess last night didn't we."

"Yeah I would say so, Zell." I replied with as much sarcasm as I could muster this early in the morning. "Do you know why the Headmaster called the meeting by any chance?"

"Yup, do ya wanna know?"

"That would be why I asked?" I replied.

"Well, he has a mission for us to go on." Answered Zell and then went strangely quiet.

"And?" I asked, starting to get slightly peeved at the tattooed young man.

"Nope, that's all I know."

"Gee thanks a lot Mr. Know-It-All Zell."

"Okay, come on I'm ready let's go." And with that I grabbed my gunblade and my ammo belts and we headed out the doors to go to the bridge. On the way there I couldn't help but notice how much damage Balamb Garden still had from it's battle with Norg and with Galbadia Garden when Seifer was leading its armies. There's still bullet holes in a lot of the walls and scorch marks from magic spells on a lot of the floors. As we waited for the elevator to reach the third floor I couldn't help but wonder what had happened to Seifer after our last battle with him in the Lunatic Pandora. Was he still alive or was he trapped in Time Compression like I had been. I made a mental note to see if there was any word out about his whereabouts because if he is still out there then he might be plotting revenge against us.

My musings were cut short though as the bell chimed announcing our arrival on the bridge. As I walked in I noticed that the rest of the team was already assembled. Leaning against the wall on the left were Irvine and Selphie, who were quietly talking to Quistis who was standing a little farther down from them by the lift that takes you up to the flight deck and the controls for Garden's pilot. Sitting in front of Cid's desk was Rinoa who was listening to something Cid was telling her. When Cid looked up and saw that everyone was there he stood up and greeted us. " Ah good morning gentlemen glad to see you all here."

At those words all of us who were SeeDs quickly gave the salute and stood at attention. Cid quickly responded "At ease everyone, I have several different things on the agenda for this morning so I will get started immediately. First off, I want to congratulate you all again for a very well done job with stopping Time Compression. It was work befitting of a SeeD. Which brings me to my second part of the agenda, which is to welcome both Irvine Kinneas and Rinoa Heartilly to SeeD. Considering what you all went through I think that they have more than shown they are qualified to join SeeD.

At hearing this Rinoa quickly started jumping up and down and then latched on to my arm so hard that I thought she might pop it right off my shoulder. Irvine on the other hand was much more laid back about it and simply offered a SeeD salute and answered "Thank you sir."

Once I managed to calm Rinoa down Cid was able to continue, "As you know, Esther is still overrun with monsters from the Lunar Cry caused by Adel when she awoke from her Stasis Tube. Esther has asked for SeeD's help in ridding its city of these monsters. There have been reports that a lot of these monsters are attacking in unison and showing more cunning then should be normal for them. Squall, I want you to pick three of your team to investigate this and find out if someone or something is behind this and stop them when you find them." "Whoever you choose will depart this afternoon and head for the Presidential Palace where they will be briefed further by President Laguna Loire."

Meanwhile you and the rest of your team will take the Ragnarok and head for Deling City to find out who is running things over there. Even though Vinzer Deling and Ultimecia are defeated there are still several high ranking officials who sided with Deling in the Second Sorceress War. You need to find out if they pose a threat to SeeD or the Gardens at this time." With that Cid dismissed us and I followed everyone down stairs to the main floor to discuss who was going where.

Quistis turned and looked towards me to see if I had made a decision yet. I think she knew that I hate this part because I always that someone I send somewhere will get hurt or killed. Looking around I decided to send Irvine and Selphie along with Quistis to Esther to investigate the monster problems. That left me with Rinoa and Zell. It made sure that both team had an even balance of power and magic. Once I told everyone where they were headed we got ready to go our separate ways. "Everyone take care of yourself okay."

"You got it Cowboy!" replied Irvine, which caused Selphie to smack him upside the head and to say "Quit trying to act so macho you big doofus."

"Good luck Squall"

"You too Quistis" I replied before heading towards the garage which had recently been converted to leave enough room to hold our ship the 'Ragnarok'.

"Hey Squall do we have time grab some hotdogs from the cafeteria before we take off?" Asked Zell. This of course sent Rinoa into a fit of laughter when she saw the look on my face. Zell quickly took the hint and stated "Never mind just a thought."

"Let's go." As I walked away I couldn't help but turn to look at there receding backs and I suddenly had a horrible feeling that something very bad was about to happen.

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FISHERMAN'S HORIZON

LATER THAT SAME DAY

"Come on you two, Its time to go pay some people a visit at my old home!"

"Ya got it, ya know!"

"AFIRMITIVE!"