Like Father, Like Son
by Rikku Chic9
***
(Author's notes: All the same stuff. Except there is both Laguna flashbacks and the actual Laguna scenes which I'll indicate.)
***
"It's alright, babe... shhh..." Laguna gently rubbed Raine's back as she leaned over the toilet coughing up the last of some vomit.
"God, Laguna," She heaved painfully for breath, "why did this happen? Why do you have to leave?"
"Shhh... Don't worry, please. Ellone will be fine. I'm comin' for her, remember?" Laguna stroked her back wanting her to be relieved.
"Why'd they take her...? Laguna... " Raine gagged slightly with her eyes watering.
Laguna was speechless just rubbing her back thinking over everything that'd happened. Ellone was kidnapped right from her bed the night before by the Galbadians. Along with a handful of other children in town the same night. He knew he could have done something, but him and Raine...
"Laguna?" Raine turned groggily.
He stroked some strands of hair from her face. She was a mess. Her hair was in tangles, she was dead pale and dirty from her vomitting, along with her eyes bloodshot and tired. He only frowned knowing how stressed and exhasted she was.
"You'll find her right? She'll be fine, right?" Tears were already rolling down her face.
He didn't want to lie, but it was just against his nature to be the pessimist of a situation. He just smiled the goofy smile he'd always give.
"Ha! Do you doubt me? Of course, she's fine! Especially, since I'm going to save her!" Laguna winked.
Raine gave him a tiny smile getting her spirits back up.
"I knew I could count on you."
***
:::Esthar Palace, present time:::
"I thought I told you to sign for Galbadia's import on Adamantine?!" Laguna pushed aside a pile of papers from his desk a bit irritably.
"President, Sir, the new server, Malcom, believed to have heard that you wanted actual live... Adamantoise... from Galbadia." Ricther held up a giant squirming Adamantoise for true proof.
"You've gotta be kiddin' me," Laguna pulled at some of his graying hair in frustration, "just send 'em back, man..."
"Right away, sir!" Ricther was busy wrestling with the offensive turtle while practically rolling out of Laguna's office.
"It's LAGUNA! Just LAGUNA! Man..." He conked his head against the desk.
Kiros worked his way around the bouting turtle over Ritcher down the hall.
"Malcom screwed up again, I see..." Kiros grinned slyly at Laguna who just shook his fist slowly with his face still flat on his desk.
"I just wanna take a nice, LONG nap." Sadly as soon as he finished the phone rang.
"Yeah?" Laguna lazily pressed the speaker phone on.
"Sir, the Adamantoise got loose in the Shopping District!" An anonymous man spoke over the speaker.
Laguna banged his head against the desk soundly.
"Sir?"
He punched the line off.
"Uh... Laguna?" Kiros only blinked wondering what crossed his friend's crazy mind.
Laguna looked up with a smile which Kiros knew probably wasn't a good sign. At all.
"Oh... Kiros."
"Yes..." The dark-skinned man looked nervous.
Out of nowhere, Laguna whipped out his machine gun grinning insanely making Kiros uneasy.
"If you want the job done right, do it yourself!" Laguna started laughing as he leaped over his desk to the door.
Kiros could only hear the insane laughter of his friend running down the hall with other shouts of "Sir?!", "Are you alright, president?!", "Mr. Loire, what's the matter?!", and some other stuff.
"He never changes," Kiros thought for a moment, "literally."
***
"I'm singin' on the train!"
"Are you finished with your attempt to kill everyone on board, Selphie?!" Zell covered his ears from the tone-deaf 'singing'.
Irvine smiled at the two who began a hilarious argument. Quistis sat across from Squall who only stared at the floor with Ellone seated next to him giving him a concerned look every few seconds.
The only other person in the compartment was a man wearing a light gray cloak who seemed to just mind his own business sitting in the far corner in the back. Irvine would glance at him once in while with curiosity more than suspicion unlike Quistis who glared over in his direction.
Zell finally sat down with Quistis and Selphie took her place beside Irvine.
"Doesn't that guy seem a bit suspicious to you?" Quistis mumbled under her breath to Zell.
"... He's just sittin' there, Quisty." Zell raised an eyebrow.
"Well, why'd he insist on this compartment when there was an empty one down the hall?" Quistis pushed.
"Man, Quist, just lighten up!" Zell threw an arm around the former instructor smiling.
Quistis still felt uneasy even with Zell's attempt at comforting her.
***
:::Esthar Palace, present time:::
"Honey! I'm home!" Laguna pranced inside his office.
Kiros and Ward only sweat dropped at the sight of Laguna. He looked more like he just came back from the Second Sorceress War.
"Have fun?" Kiros smiled eyes closed.
"It was about time I got off my butt, but now I've got everyone all, 'President, you could have been hurt! Even killed! What were you thinking, sir?!' It goes on like that for a while. 'Even killed?' Heh... if only they knew." Laguna tossed his machine gun aside.
'Gregory came with a letter for you, Laguna.' Ward spoke mentally at Laguna.
"Shoot." Laguna threw off his shirt.
'It's from your son.'
Laguna stopped in mid-pose.
Ward took out the letter holding it out to Laguna.
Laguna turned slowly staring at the letter.
"A LETTER FROM MY LITTLE SQUALLY!!!" Laguna grabbed the letter excited.
When he opened it he just appeared to glance at the paper when he lowered it.
"What's up?" Kiros opened his palm.
"It's from Ellone about Squall."
Kiros and Ward looked at each other already having the feeling about what was exactly written on the paper.
"Time, huh?" Kiros gave a worried expression.
'So, it's that... Isn't it?' Ward thought at Laguna.
"It's too early, though!" Laguna smacked his forehead.
"Today's just full of surprises, right man?" Kiros smiled.
"You knew this whole time, didn't you?" Laguna glanced at Kiros.
"What are you talkin' about?"
"You sent them a letter to come yesterday and didn't even tell me?!"
"Hey, well you found out anyway. Peekin' into my mind, now?" Kiros shrugged.
Suddenly a female secretary walked in the door.
"Sir, the Adamantoise problem's fixed a... MR. LOIRE???!!!"
Laguna and everyone remembered that he had no shirt on and was a bit of a mess altogether. He only smiled dumbly at her.
"Opps..."
***
:::Flashback:::
Laguna, Kiros, and Ward kept running far down the forest panicking.
"Who the hell were those guys, Laguna?!" Kiros huffed.
"How should I know?!" They kept running for their lives.
Before they could make it past a line of trees, three men who were cloaked in black fell in front of them. Laguna halted quickly while Kiros stumbled slightly with Ward.
"Why did you run from us before?" The tallest one with blood red hair questioned.
"You wanna know? Reason number one: you came at us in attack, and two: you didn't exactly strike me as friendly, Rufus!" Kiros and Ward seemed a bit worried at Laguna's laid back counter.
"That's poor judgement, fledgling." The one named Rufus spoke.
"It's Laguna to you guys!" Laguna looked irritated.
"Yes, Laguna. That's your name, correct? Hmmm... that bitch Ciara's last and only one..."
Before he could finish, Laguna stepped up looking displeased.
"Sorry, but no one calls Cia that, pal."
"Challenging tone."
Laguna tossed aside his machine gun crouching into a fighting stance.
"Then bring it on, Rufy." He flashed his fangs in a sinister grin.
"As you wish." Rufus grinned back and in a blur of black and red rushed at Laguna.
Laguna merely rolled onto his back, grabbed Rufus by his shoulders when he arrived, and threw him far past some trees. He flipped himself up quickly dashing to where the red-haired vampire flew.
"Well, well... You two feel left out? Don't worry. We'll play with you." One of the other vampires spoke.
Kiros and Ward only looked at each other shrugging.
"If you insist." Kiros looked at Ward who nodded.
The black haired vampire only huffed.
"Just 'cause Ward and I aren't vamps, like you guys or our Laguna man, doesn't mean we haven't got our own little smooth moves." Kiros brushed away a long thin hair.
"Confident sounding for a mortal." The vampire added.
"Why thank you." Kiros smiled.
"That cocky attitude of yours is going to kill you here and now. So you'll remember the one who sent you to death, my name is Keir." The black haired vampire drew out a metal rod.
"So, you know which mortal killed YOU, name's Kiros." Kiros flung out his katal ready.
"Fool!" Keir charged Kiros beginning their battle.
Ward and the equally silent vampire left just looked at each other.
"Do you really want to fight?" The long white haired vampire asked looking slightly tired.
'You mean...' Ward went mentally silent afraid the vamp was scanning his thoughts.
"No. I just came with them because I wanted to get a chance to speak with your friend. The vampire. Ciara's fledgling." He still looked lazy.
'Laguna?'
"Yes."
Ward and him were cut off by Rufus slamming against a tree in their clearing. He slid down glaring at Laguna who stood at the opposite end with his blue jacket obviously missing and his white shirt dirty with tears here and there. Rufus was still in tact, but seemed to get the message.
"I don't have the time for this." Rufus whispered.
"Oh, but we've got all the time in the world! It's not like we're gonna die anytime soon!" Laguna answered.
Rufus beared his fangs frustrated.
"COME ON! WE'RE LEAVING!" He threw back his head and shouted.
Keir seemed to appear out of nowhere grasping his right arm with a look of pain. Ward barely turned, but the unnamed vampire had disappeared. When he looked back at Laguna with the others, they appeared to have vanished as well.
"Man! Some work out!" Laguna put his hand behind his head rubbing his hair.
Kiros stumbled out of a bush cracking up.
"I got him! I got that bastard back good!" He was stumbling as he walked.
'Looks like he had fun.' Ward shook his head smiling at Laguna.
Laguna spotted where his jacket had been thrown off, but noticed Kiros right away.
"Hey, man what's with your neck?" Laguna prodded.
Kiros rubbed his neck.
"Oh, that moron bit me."
Laguna and Ward looked at him surprisingly then at each other.
"You gonna be alright?" Laguna waved his hand.
"Yeah, yeah! Tahaha! I got him! Tehehe..."
"If he says so." Laguna shrugged and went off to retrieve his jacket.
'Wonder who that one vamp was...' Ward watched Laguna walk off.
***
:::Continental train, present time:::
"Hey, what's the deal?!" Zell was tossed back against the compartment wall.
"Where is he?!" A angry looking red haired man demanded the group.
"What are you talkin' about?!" Zell shouted back and now Quistis was helping him up.
"The Loire fledgling's child! Where is he?!" The man yelled.
Ellone gripped Squall's shoulder harder in fear knowing well who they were talking about. The gray cloaked man in the corner had appeared to have fallen asleep even with all the shouting.
"We don't know who you're talking about!" Selphie stood close to Irvine who had his hand on the Exeter under his tan trench coat.
"Sure you don't that's why he's hiding behind the Ellone girl." Everyone looked worried now and Squall cursed himself for leaving his Lionheart in the storage part in the back of the train.
"Now shall we get down to business..."
He was cut off for the second time in his life by the man who'd 'apparently' been asleep who was know holding out a long imposing looking silver blade under the red haired man's neck.
"Long time no see, Rufus."
"You..." Rufus spat in disgust.
The gray cloaked man threw off his hood revealing his long white hair which stooped a while past his shoulders, a bit longer than Laguna's. He had deep blue eyes which highlighted the smile on his pale face that had two blue paint strips on his left cheek.
"Trying again? This time we'll take you down for good meaning you won't come back." The white haired man kept his blade steady.
He glanced at the group who all glared back. He caught Squall in his look only exchanged his hard look. He looked back at the traitor then the group one last time.
"You're spared for now, but next time you won't have the brat to save you." With that he disappeared down the hall and seemed to just vanish from the train altogether.
Everyone stood in silence.
"Who the hell was that?!" Zell shouted.
"Rufus. He's trying to begin the Blood Eclipse, again," The white haired man sighed putting away his blade, "that's why he's at north point for it to start, your Balamb Garden. Though that's of secondary importance at the moment, just for now."
"...What in the hell did you just say?!" Zell looked just as confused.
"...Uhh... Long story..." The white haired man hilted his sword.
"Before we continue, you're a vampire am I correct?" Quistis shot at him.
"...Correct."
"Had a feeling." Quistis raised her hands up.
Everyone else didn't look as calm. Ellone ran up to him with a happy expression on her face, though, surprising them all.
"Uncle Alex! I was wondering where you were! Uncle Kiros said you'd be watching us in his letter yesterday!" Ellone hugged Alex.
"You know him?!" Zell twitched.
"He's one of Uncle Laguna's friends!" Ellone answered.
"Pleasure to meet Master Loire's close relations. My name is Alexander, but as Ellone's already revealed, you can just call me Alex," Alex bowed slightly, "and his son."
Squall blinked at him.
"Looks like I found you, Squall Leonhart."
A voice came over the intercom interrupting them.
"We have reached Great Salt Lake and Esthar's loading stations. Please depart from the passenger loading compartments."
"Looks like we've all made it to our destination. May we all leave." Alex strolled out.
"You heard the vamp man!" Zell walked out with Selphie and Irvine close behind.
Quistis looked back at Ellone and Squall who were standing now, then she departed.
Once Ellone and Squall got outside, everyone gaped at the city in front of them.
"Hey ho, let's go." Squall whispered smiling.
***
(Author's notes: I know that's pretty confusing, but I'll explain it all later. That vampire being called Rufus is just a coincidence. To be continued!)
by Rikku Chic9
***
(Author's notes: All the same stuff. Except there is both Laguna flashbacks and the actual Laguna scenes which I'll indicate.)
***
"It's alright, babe... shhh..." Laguna gently rubbed Raine's back as she leaned over the toilet coughing up the last of some vomit.
"God, Laguna," She heaved painfully for breath, "why did this happen? Why do you have to leave?"
"Shhh... Don't worry, please. Ellone will be fine. I'm comin' for her, remember?" Laguna stroked her back wanting her to be relieved.
"Why'd they take her...? Laguna... " Raine gagged slightly with her eyes watering.
Laguna was speechless just rubbing her back thinking over everything that'd happened. Ellone was kidnapped right from her bed the night before by the Galbadians. Along with a handful of other children in town the same night. He knew he could have done something, but him and Raine...
"Laguna?" Raine turned groggily.
He stroked some strands of hair from her face. She was a mess. Her hair was in tangles, she was dead pale and dirty from her vomitting, along with her eyes bloodshot and tired. He only frowned knowing how stressed and exhasted she was.
"You'll find her right? She'll be fine, right?" Tears were already rolling down her face.
He didn't want to lie, but it was just against his nature to be the pessimist of a situation. He just smiled the goofy smile he'd always give.
"Ha! Do you doubt me? Of course, she's fine! Especially, since I'm going to save her!" Laguna winked.
Raine gave him a tiny smile getting her spirits back up.
"I knew I could count on you."
***
:::Esthar Palace, present time:::
"I thought I told you to sign for Galbadia's import on Adamantine?!" Laguna pushed aside a pile of papers from his desk a bit irritably.
"President, Sir, the new server, Malcom, believed to have heard that you wanted actual live... Adamantoise... from Galbadia." Ricther held up a giant squirming Adamantoise for true proof.
"You've gotta be kiddin' me," Laguna pulled at some of his graying hair in frustration, "just send 'em back, man..."
"Right away, sir!" Ricther was busy wrestling with the offensive turtle while practically rolling out of Laguna's office.
"It's LAGUNA! Just LAGUNA! Man..." He conked his head against the desk.
Kiros worked his way around the bouting turtle over Ritcher down the hall.
"Malcom screwed up again, I see..." Kiros grinned slyly at Laguna who just shook his fist slowly with his face still flat on his desk.
"I just wanna take a nice, LONG nap." Sadly as soon as he finished the phone rang.
"Yeah?" Laguna lazily pressed the speaker phone on.
"Sir, the Adamantoise got loose in the Shopping District!" An anonymous man spoke over the speaker.
Laguna banged his head against the desk soundly.
"Sir?"
He punched the line off.
"Uh... Laguna?" Kiros only blinked wondering what crossed his friend's crazy mind.
Laguna looked up with a smile which Kiros knew probably wasn't a good sign. At all.
"Oh... Kiros."
"Yes..." The dark-skinned man looked nervous.
Out of nowhere, Laguna whipped out his machine gun grinning insanely making Kiros uneasy.
"If you want the job done right, do it yourself!" Laguna started laughing as he leaped over his desk to the door.
Kiros could only hear the insane laughter of his friend running down the hall with other shouts of "Sir?!", "Are you alright, president?!", "Mr. Loire, what's the matter?!", and some other stuff.
"He never changes," Kiros thought for a moment, "literally."
***
"I'm singin' on the train!"
"Are you finished with your attempt to kill everyone on board, Selphie?!" Zell covered his ears from the tone-deaf 'singing'.
Irvine smiled at the two who began a hilarious argument. Quistis sat across from Squall who only stared at the floor with Ellone seated next to him giving him a concerned look every few seconds.
The only other person in the compartment was a man wearing a light gray cloak who seemed to just mind his own business sitting in the far corner in the back. Irvine would glance at him once in while with curiosity more than suspicion unlike Quistis who glared over in his direction.
Zell finally sat down with Quistis and Selphie took her place beside Irvine.
"Doesn't that guy seem a bit suspicious to you?" Quistis mumbled under her breath to Zell.
"... He's just sittin' there, Quisty." Zell raised an eyebrow.
"Well, why'd he insist on this compartment when there was an empty one down the hall?" Quistis pushed.
"Man, Quist, just lighten up!" Zell threw an arm around the former instructor smiling.
Quistis still felt uneasy even with Zell's attempt at comforting her.
***
:::Esthar Palace, present time:::
"Honey! I'm home!" Laguna pranced inside his office.
Kiros and Ward only sweat dropped at the sight of Laguna. He looked more like he just came back from the Second Sorceress War.
"Have fun?" Kiros smiled eyes closed.
"It was about time I got off my butt, but now I've got everyone all, 'President, you could have been hurt! Even killed! What were you thinking, sir?!' It goes on like that for a while. 'Even killed?' Heh... if only they knew." Laguna tossed his machine gun aside.
'Gregory came with a letter for you, Laguna.' Ward spoke mentally at Laguna.
"Shoot." Laguna threw off his shirt.
'It's from your son.'
Laguna stopped in mid-pose.
Ward took out the letter holding it out to Laguna.
Laguna turned slowly staring at the letter.
"A LETTER FROM MY LITTLE SQUALLY!!!" Laguna grabbed the letter excited.
When he opened it he just appeared to glance at the paper when he lowered it.
"What's up?" Kiros opened his palm.
"It's from Ellone about Squall."
Kiros and Ward looked at each other already having the feeling about what was exactly written on the paper.
"Time, huh?" Kiros gave a worried expression.
'So, it's that... Isn't it?' Ward thought at Laguna.
"It's too early, though!" Laguna smacked his forehead.
"Today's just full of surprises, right man?" Kiros smiled.
"You knew this whole time, didn't you?" Laguna glanced at Kiros.
"What are you talkin' about?"
"You sent them a letter to come yesterday and didn't even tell me?!"
"Hey, well you found out anyway. Peekin' into my mind, now?" Kiros shrugged.
Suddenly a female secretary walked in the door.
"Sir, the Adamantoise problem's fixed a... MR. LOIRE???!!!"
Laguna and everyone remembered that he had no shirt on and was a bit of a mess altogether. He only smiled dumbly at her.
"Opps..."
***
:::Flashback:::
Laguna, Kiros, and Ward kept running far down the forest panicking.
"Who the hell were those guys, Laguna?!" Kiros huffed.
"How should I know?!" They kept running for their lives.
Before they could make it past a line of trees, three men who were cloaked in black fell in front of them. Laguna halted quickly while Kiros stumbled slightly with Ward.
"Why did you run from us before?" The tallest one with blood red hair questioned.
"You wanna know? Reason number one: you came at us in attack, and two: you didn't exactly strike me as friendly, Rufus!" Kiros and Ward seemed a bit worried at Laguna's laid back counter.
"That's poor judgement, fledgling." The one named Rufus spoke.
"It's Laguna to you guys!" Laguna looked irritated.
"Yes, Laguna. That's your name, correct? Hmmm... that bitch Ciara's last and only one..."
Before he could finish, Laguna stepped up looking displeased.
"Sorry, but no one calls Cia that, pal."
"Challenging tone."
Laguna tossed aside his machine gun crouching into a fighting stance.
"Then bring it on, Rufy." He flashed his fangs in a sinister grin.
"As you wish." Rufus grinned back and in a blur of black and red rushed at Laguna.
Laguna merely rolled onto his back, grabbed Rufus by his shoulders when he arrived, and threw him far past some trees. He flipped himself up quickly dashing to where the red-haired vampire flew.
"Well, well... You two feel left out? Don't worry. We'll play with you." One of the other vampires spoke.
Kiros and Ward only looked at each other shrugging.
"If you insist." Kiros looked at Ward who nodded.
The black haired vampire only huffed.
"Just 'cause Ward and I aren't vamps, like you guys or our Laguna man, doesn't mean we haven't got our own little smooth moves." Kiros brushed away a long thin hair.
"Confident sounding for a mortal." The vampire added.
"Why thank you." Kiros smiled.
"That cocky attitude of yours is going to kill you here and now. So you'll remember the one who sent you to death, my name is Keir." The black haired vampire drew out a metal rod.
"So, you know which mortal killed YOU, name's Kiros." Kiros flung out his katal ready.
"Fool!" Keir charged Kiros beginning their battle.
Ward and the equally silent vampire left just looked at each other.
"Do you really want to fight?" The long white haired vampire asked looking slightly tired.
'You mean...' Ward went mentally silent afraid the vamp was scanning his thoughts.
"No. I just came with them because I wanted to get a chance to speak with your friend. The vampire. Ciara's fledgling." He still looked lazy.
'Laguna?'
"Yes."
Ward and him were cut off by Rufus slamming against a tree in their clearing. He slid down glaring at Laguna who stood at the opposite end with his blue jacket obviously missing and his white shirt dirty with tears here and there. Rufus was still in tact, but seemed to get the message.
"I don't have the time for this." Rufus whispered.
"Oh, but we've got all the time in the world! It's not like we're gonna die anytime soon!" Laguna answered.
Rufus beared his fangs frustrated.
"COME ON! WE'RE LEAVING!" He threw back his head and shouted.
Keir seemed to appear out of nowhere grasping his right arm with a look of pain. Ward barely turned, but the unnamed vampire had disappeared. When he looked back at Laguna with the others, they appeared to have vanished as well.
"Man! Some work out!" Laguna put his hand behind his head rubbing his hair.
Kiros stumbled out of a bush cracking up.
"I got him! I got that bastard back good!" He was stumbling as he walked.
'Looks like he had fun.' Ward shook his head smiling at Laguna.
Laguna spotted where his jacket had been thrown off, but noticed Kiros right away.
"Hey, man what's with your neck?" Laguna prodded.
Kiros rubbed his neck.
"Oh, that moron bit me."
Laguna and Ward looked at him surprisingly then at each other.
"You gonna be alright?" Laguna waved his hand.
"Yeah, yeah! Tahaha! I got him! Tehehe..."
"If he says so." Laguna shrugged and went off to retrieve his jacket.
'Wonder who that one vamp was...' Ward watched Laguna walk off.
***
:::Continental train, present time:::
"Hey, what's the deal?!" Zell was tossed back against the compartment wall.
"Where is he?!" A angry looking red haired man demanded the group.
"What are you talkin' about?!" Zell shouted back and now Quistis was helping him up.
"The Loire fledgling's child! Where is he?!" The man yelled.
Ellone gripped Squall's shoulder harder in fear knowing well who they were talking about. The gray cloaked man in the corner had appeared to have fallen asleep even with all the shouting.
"We don't know who you're talking about!" Selphie stood close to Irvine who had his hand on the Exeter under his tan trench coat.
"Sure you don't that's why he's hiding behind the Ellone girl." Everyone looked worried now and Squall cursed himself for leaving his Lionheart in the storage part in the back of the train.
"Now shall we get down to business..."
He was cut off for the second time in his life by the man who'd 'apparently' been asleep who was know holding out a long imposing looking silver blade under the red haired man's neck.
"Long time no see, Rufus."
"You..." Rufus spat in disgust.
The gray cloaked man threw off his hood revealing his long white hair which stooped a while past his shoulders, a bit longer than Laguna's. He had deep blue eyes which highlighted the smile on his pale face that had two blue paint strips on his left cheek.
"Trying again? This time we'll take you down for good meaning you won't come back." The white haired man kept his blade steady.
He glanced at the group who all glared back. He caught Squall in his look only exchanged his hard look. He looked back at the traitor then the group one last time.
"You're spared for now, but next time you won't have the brat to save you." With that he disappeared down the hall and seemed to just vanish from the train altogether.
Everyone stood in silence.
"Who the hell was that?!" Zell shouted.
"Rufus. He's trying to begin the Blood Eclipse, again," The white haired man sighed putting away his blade, "that's why he's at north point for it to start, your Balamb Garden. Though that's of secondary importance at the moment, just for now."
"...What in the hell did you just say?!" Zell looked just as confused.
"...Uhh... Long story..." The white haired man hilted his sword.
"Before we continue, you're a vampire am I correct?" Quistis shot at him.
"...Correct."
"Had a feeling." Quistis raised her hands up.
Everyone else didn't look as calm. Ellone ran up to him with a happy expression on her face, though, surprising them all.
"Uncle Alex! I was wondering where you were! Uncle Kiros said you'd be watching us in his letter yesterday!" Ellone hugged Alex.
"You know him?!" Zell twitched.
"He's one of Uncle Laguna's friends!" Ellone answered.
"Pleasure to meet Master Loire's close relations. My name is Alexander, but as Ellone's already revealed, you can just call me Alex," Alex bowed slightly, "and his son."
Squall blinked at him.
"Looks like I found you, Squall Leonhart."
A voice came over the intercom interrupting them.
"We have reached Great Salt Lake and Esthar's loading stations. Please depart from the passenger loading compartments."
"Looks like we've all made it to our destination. May we all leave." Alex strolled out.
"You heard the vamp man!" Zell walked out with Selphie and Irvine close behind.
Quistis looked back at Ellone and Squall who were standing now, then she departed.
Once Ellone and Squall got outside, everyone gaped at the city in front of them.
"Hey ho, let's go." Squall whispered smiling.
***
(Author's notes: I know that's pretty confusing, but I'll explain it all later. That vampire being called Rufus is just a coincidence. To be continued!)