**A Rising Threat and Sleepless Nights pt.1**



"Commander Leonheart?" Nida knocked on the door to his 'office'.

Squall looked up briefly from the papers strewn in front of him before casting his eyes back down upon what he was doing. "What's with the formality Nida? Commander is just fine when you address me, Squall is even better." He mumbled, a little distracted. There was enough paper work involved with running a Garden to last a lifetime. Squall had never really realized how busy Cid must have been. He looked up again when he noted that Nida was still motionless in the doorway. He motioned for her to enter the room. "What is it? Not anymore requests for our forces I hope, we're swamped enough as it is. Let everybody bug Galbadia or hell, even Trabia for a while."

"No sir." Nida replied as she placed a manila envelope on Squall's desk before collapsing in one of the chairs. "Take a look at these, taken a few days ago, a week at most."

Squall sighed and flipped through the photos. He furrowed his brow. "Esthar ships."

Nida nodded her head. "Lots of them."

"And I should be concerned because?" Squall raised and eyebrow, not really understanding the whole point of this intrusion.

Nida sighed. "Look at the location, about a mile or so East of Galbadia, hidden away by a side of a canyon." She raised an eyebrow in return. "You don't find that a little suspicious?"

"Slow down Nida. We don't even know why Esthar ships have mobilized. There hasn't been any conflict as of late." Squall leaned back in his chair thoughtfully. "Galbadia and Esthar haven't exactly been the best of friends, even during times of peace, they've always sort of been at odds. Maybe these Esthar forces are trying to cross through Galbadian territory without stirring up anything. Better yet, there could be a chance that this is a friendly mission for them."

Now it was Nida's turn to raise an eyebrow. "A friendly mission, from Esthar to Galbadia?"

Sqall just shrugged. "It's not that far fetched." He sighed and paced looked at the pictures once more. "Any word from Elle-President Loire?"

"I'm sure she would have sent word, had there been any breakdown in relations." He stifled a yawn and stretched out his arms. "If no aggressive acts have been carried out by either party, we can't do much. Keep me updated though, this could turn out to be nothing at best, but something tells me both sides have some roll yet to play in something a little more volatile. Agreed?"

"Yessir!" Nida nodded her head and saluted Squall respectively before gathering up the photos and tucking them under her arm. "I know it's probably nothing, but I just wanted to be cautious."

"No matter Nida, caution is best, it's when you let your guard down that the world descends into utter chaos." He smiled slightly and returned to his work after she left, still plagued with thoughts about the lack of communication from Esthar. It was a little unsettling, he had to admit.

Meanwhile, Irvine sat lazily on the dock in Balamb with his fishing pole in hand. He hadn't caught anything in his life on the rare occasion he attempted to fish and there was little to no hope that his luck would change anytime soon. Still, Irvine figured he was long overdue for at least one fish; no matter how puny it might turn out to be.

"S'up?" A voice sounded from beside Irvine, almost making him jump out of his skin.

Irvine looked over his shoulder. "Is it not blatantly obvious that I'm fishing Zell?"

"Hmm, a little touchy aren't we?" Zell asked, flopping himself down on the dock too and dipping his feet in the water. "No rest for the wicked huh?"

Irvine raised an eyebrow and looked at him out of the corner of his eye. "What?"

"Still running on no sleep."

"Oh yeah, that." Irvine sighed and cast his fishing line into the water for about the millionth time that day. "I can handle it."

Zell shook his head. "Yeah well, we haven't got that much time off left. I'm just looking out for you Kinneas. Wouldn't want you to be asleep on your feet during a mission, your aim's bad enough as it is." He joked, seeing if he could get a response out of Irvine. Zell welcomed a whack over the head with the fishing rod in Irvine's hand in this point. Just anything to let him know his friend was at least somewhat of himself.

Irvine just scoffed. "Watch it Dincht."

"What is up with you man? You don't sleep, you hardly talk to any of us anymore and no offense but you look like shit warmed over." Zell was starting to get more and more concerned about Irvine with every passing day and he finally voiced what a lot of people had been thinking.

Irvine rolled his eyes. "If you must know, I'll tell you then."

"I must."

"Dreams." Irvine's voice remained monotone as he looked out over the water, not even paying attention to his fishing rod now. "Nightmares really."

Zell furrowed his brow. "It might help if you could be a little more specific. I mean 'dreams' doesn't really help me figure out what's eating you."

"Zell.." Irvine sighed and got up. Everytime he so much as brought up the dreams, the image of the dark haired girls face burned in his mind, almost painfully. "I really don't want to talk about it alright. This was a bad idea."

"What? No, you can't just half tell me what's bugging you!" Zell got up too. "Look, Selphie's gonna be home in a few hours and she'll bug the living hell out of me unless you start acting like your normal skirt chasing self."

Irvine laughed a little; the first sign of life he had shown all week.

"So either tell me what's up, or at least act like the good ol' Irvine we used to know for my sake." Zell patted Irvine on the shoulder. "I swear if you don't I'll sick Selph on you and you can deal with her for a while! Oh and don't forget, Rinoa and Quisty are coming for a visit too.all three girls at once, trying to figure out what in Hyne's name is wrong with you. Think about it!"

"A fate worse than death!" Irvine quipped.

"Exactly." Zell laughed before holding a hand in front of his eyes to block the sun. "Hey! Galbadian ship! Must be Quisty!"

It had been a while since any Galbadian ship had docked at Balamb. It was kind of eerie seeing it come to a slow halt in the harbor. At least Zell seemed to think so; it was so reminiscent of the days when Balamb was under threat of being burned to the ground. Of course as soon as Quistis' slender figure immerged from the ship the memories were dashed.

"Zell! Irvy!" Quistis called out to them, almost ecstatically as she half ran down the platform of the ship, trying her best not to fall flat on her face.

Both men embraced the instructor, who seemed to be slightly more fragile and underweight than before. Zell kissed her on the cheek. "It's been a while hasn't it? Just wait, in a couple hours this will all be a full blown reunion!"

Quistis cast her eyes downward, still unable to stop thinking about Seifer since Rinoa had brought him up the other day. "Almost."

Zell groaned. "Oh come on, so HE isn't here, so what?"

Quistis shrugged and tried to act like she didn't miss him and that being back in Balamb wasn't just a little painful for her.

"Looks like you've brought reinforcements." Irvine laughed when he saw the class full of cadets still standing on the ship's deck.

"Oh! Right!" Quistis laughed and turned to face her cadets. "Slipped my mind for a second." She whistled sharply, drawing all of their attention to herself. "Alright! All of you get off that ship, you've got two hours to kill in town. We meet back at Balamb Garden, which is to your right at 14:00 hours on the dot!"

Irvine watched the students all pile out of the ship, some looking a little worse for wear, while Quistis and Zell chattered on. He laughed to himself as he noted the fact that Galbadia was still exporting some fine looking women. Watching one cadet after another pass him by, Irvine's heart almost jumped out of his chest when he saw the last cadet to disembark the ship. "It's her!" He muttered under his breath. The inky black hair, the milky skin his was the girl from his dream, he was sure of it now. She raised her sky grey eyes locking them with his ones of cerulean. A vague flicker of recognition passed through her face before she looked away and ran a few steps to catch up with her friends, not giving Irvine another look.

He trailed her all the way to the corner. Contemplating following her, Irvine's heart raced. Who was this girl? Is Galbadia Garden how he recognized her? He had to find out who she was. He had to warn her, but warn her of what? There was still no more clarity to his dream, but he knew he had to warn her; that was imperative.

(a/n: sorry about the slow update, computer troubles are a bitch *lol*)