Still don't own any of the Square characters!

CHAPTER TWO

THE MISSION

CARAWAYS MANSION

As he had done every morning for as long as he could remember General Caraway was at his office window bright and early to watch the sun rising over the distant Galbadian coastline. Normally when he did this it would help to get his day off to a good start. Unfortunately today wasn't one of those days. Mainly due to the fact that he had his hands full trying to bring order back to the government and also trying to ferret out anyone who still held allegiance to President Deling even after his death in the hands of the possessed Sorceress Edea. The government and military officials who had been against Deling when he was still alive had put Caraway into a position of temporary leadership until an election could be held to figure out who would be the new president. The problem was the fact that many high up officials, who had been part of Deling's plans, were fighting to take control and many of them were just as bad as the last president.

Also to top it all off there were rumors of revolt by the citizens of Galbadia who were fed up with the government's apparent lack of action.

Ah Rinoa what have I done? Why didn't I see this coming and do something about it? Why didn't I try being your father instead of a general? Why? Why? Why?

Looking at his watch the general realized that his staff would be arriving soon so he pulled himself out of his self induced bout of misery and straightened his uniform. Turning around he walked towards his desk to see if he couldn't try to get some paperwork done before others started to show up.

He also mentally told himself to find Rinoa and try to make up for all the years he had lost.

Outside of the door to his office a man carrying a tray of food walked up and knocked lightly on his door.

Caraway, hearing this stood up and walked briskly over to the door. Opening the door the general found himself face to face with a man wearing a cooks uniform and carrying a silver tray.

"Where's Gregory? He always bring my breakfast."

The man looked up and replied, "Ah, he unfortunately couldn't make it?"

"Why is that, he's never been sick a day in his life?"

Without saying anything else the man pulled the lid off of the tray and instead of food pulled out a gun which he used to shoot the general twice in the chest before he could even react to the weapon.

"That's why!"

Using a small radio that had been in his pocket the man quickly sent out a signal that said, "Stage one complete, now set the charges for one hour and retreat to the rally point in Winhill." "Inform the men in Esthar that Caraway is dead which means they can go for target two."

Clicking off his radio the man turned and walked away whistling some offbeat tune the whole time.

RAGNAROK

CURRENT LOCATION: APPROACHING DELING CITY

TIME: 50 MINUTES LATER

"YO, Squall we're almost within visual range of Deling. Can you come up to the bridge, I'm going to need your help landing?"

"I'm on my way Zell."

"Come on Rinoa it's just about time to disembark"

"Good, because I don't think Angelo can hold his bladder for very much longer."

Turning to Rinoa who was standing next to me on the observation deck of the Ragnarok I replied as best I could to what I hoped was just a joke, and putting my hand up to the scar on my face to try and hide the smile I felt sneaking its way onto my face.

"Whatever."

"Now who's fault is it for leaving their Gysahl tea and grilled Chocobo nuggets sitting right next to a dog whose appetite matches that of a T-Rexaur?"

"Geez sorry" I replied, "I didn't think he was in the room. At least I'm not like Zell because then he would have probably eaten his weight in hotdogs!"

"Oh, you mean Mister, 'I can eat thirty-two hotdogs in one sitting,' Dincht?"

"Ha, I'm surprised I never thought of that one." "Oh well, we had better get up to the bridge before Zell decides to try and land without us. He's still taking lessons from me and Selphie and we haven't gotten that far yet in his training." With that said we turned and walked out to the lift that would carry us up to the bridge.

Once there we strolled forward to where Zell was sitting in the pilots chair. "How long until visual range, Zell?" After a few seconds pause to confirm he turned and exclaimed, "Any second now and it should be showing up."

Walking over to the copilots seat I sat down and did a quick check of all system before flipping on the computer for the landing cycle. Finally I turned to the ship-to-ship radar and checked to make sure that we weren't about to crash into anything. I always hate it when that happens. Oh well what are the chances of that happening twice in three weeks.

"There it is, Squall."

Sure enough there was Deling City right ahead of us. "Zell, I'm taking control so you can release the auto-pilot." Seconds later I heard the computer beep signaling that we were under manual control.

"Oh Hyne, Squall we have a ship on a collision course heading right for us!"

"I see it! I see it!" Directly ahead and less than half a mile away I saw something I found rather hard to believe. It was another Ragnarok!

Rinoa had also noticed this and apparently had the same question running through her head because at the same time as I was attempting to change course before we hit she was yelling something about "I thought this was the only Ragnarok left?"

I only had a few seconds to decide what to do so I did the only thing I could. I slammed down hard on the stick to avoid the other ship which had been steadily climbing the opposite direction the we had been descending. "Zell, Rinoa hold on this is going to be close!!!!!"

WHAM!!!!

BOOM!!!!

"Crap, Squall we're coming in to fast! Pull up. Pull up."

"Hold on!" I realized that the ship had knocked out our thrusters and we were about to hit the ground going a little faster than you normally want to. O.K. make that a lot faster.

Looking over at my friends I realized that Zell was still buckled in so he should be fine but it was then that I realized much to my horror that Rinoa was still standing and when we hit she would get thrown straight forward into the window.

Without even taking a second to think about my own safety I quickly jumped and grabbed her and wrapped myself around her to try to shield her as much as possible by putting myself between her and the window. Unfortunately though, before I had a chance to pull us both to the floor I felt the Ragnarok slam into the ground which caused us to fly forward and slam into the window.

I felt probably the worst pain I had felt in my whole life as I hit but mercifully everything went black after that…..

TO BE CONTINUED………

Authors note: Sorry anyone who is reading this but it's a cliffhanger. I was going to have more in this chapter but I have a lot of things planned for them so it will be its own chapter. I will also have Seifer getting a bigger part. Actually there are going to be three plots which will eventually tie into one and Seifer will be involved in one of them. PLEASE READ AND REVIEW.

Oh yeah the next chapter will probably be up later today or early tomorrow.