In Who's Name? Chapter 19: A Few Steps Closer, a final fantasy viii fanfic

Disclaimer: The characters of FFVIII belong to Squaresoft. This storyline, though, is mine, and is a product of my skill, labour, effort and judgment.

It took me a few hours to write this. It's been a long time since I wrote. Our heroes and heroines are now…a few steps closer to the truth.

Title: In Who's Name?

Part 19: A Few Steps Closer

17:25:36 hours, early evening, Balamb Garden Time

Xu stalked furiously into the cafeteria, searching it with anxious eyes. No Quistis. She glanced at her watch. It read five twenty-six. Xu's eyes narrowed further. Now she was truly worried. Where was Quistis? She hadn't answered her mobile phone, nor had she returned. That old man at the gate said he hadn't seen horse or hide of Quistis since she had left at about ten in the morning. She wasn't in her room and nobody knew where she might be. Xu had found herself saddled with an additional four hours of classes, covering Quistis' lessons. It wasn't like Quistis to break her word without even leaving a message. Xu wondered what Quistis had been doing at Fisherman's Horizon. Perhaps she was looking for something for Selphie's birthday.

A flash of blond hair, tanned skin and silver-gray trenchcoat caught her eye, and Xu grimaced. Seifer Almasy. That good-for-nothing arrogant creep. Xu could think of a hundred other epithets for him, none of them complimentary, and all very rude. She didn't see what Quistis saw in him. What she remembered was Quistis's frustration with him, back in the days when the younger girl had been his instructor. Not a day had gone by without Seifer Almasy trying to force Quistis Trepe into early retirement. Hell, Seifer Almasy had retired quite a few instructors by himself, if he didn't already know. Xu snorted. Yet for reasons best known to Hyne, Quistis never gave up, and when she wasn't busy raging against Almasy, she was telling Xu that Seifer was one of the two most brilliant students Garden had ever accepted, and extolling on his brains and superb fighting skill. Trust Quistis to see what no one else even bothered to mention. Seifer Almasy could be the smartest man in the world, plus the best fighter, but so long as he was an arrogant, self-centred *BLEEP*, he would never amount to much in Xu's eyes.

But as he walked past, Xu found herself opening her mouth.

"Almasy," she barked.

He stopped right by her side, without looking at her. He said nothing.

Xu gritted her teeth. It was very difficult to be civil to someone like him. She sincerely hoped that she was scoring points in the Big Book of Good Deeds up in the sky, or else all this would not be worthwhile! "Have you seen Quistis around?"

"No." He walked on.

Xu grabbed his arm before he was more than a metre away, and her eyes snapped. "Stop right there."

He snatched his arm away from her grip, and his strength startled her. He stared at her in an unfriendly fashion. "What?" he snarled.

"Quistis is missing," Xu said flatly. She stopped, frowning. Why had she said that to Seifer Almasy? Of all people, she was telling him her fears about Quistis? She should be going to the Headmaster, not this—this—

"Missing?"

Xu stared. The man actually sounded…and looked…worried. It was unnatural. "She said she'd be back by three o'clock. She isn't."

Seifer frowned. "That's strange. She doesn't break her word like that."

"She doesn't miss classes either," added Xu.

Seifer's face took on a slightly panicked expression. "She missed her classes?"

"Yes."

Seifer took a deep breath. "Quistis would never do that. She doesn't miss classes. She—she might be in some sort of trouble," he said quietly. "Do you know where she went?"

Xu flicked a strand of hair off her cheek. "The last I spoke to her, she said something about going to—"

"Quistis Trepe and Seifer Almasy, please report to the Commander's office at once."

17:37:39 hours, early evening, Balamb Garden time

Squall was behind his desk, which looked surprisingly tidy. He resembled a statue as usual, albeit one with flesh-coloured tones and that moved from time to time. Rinoa, who was already seated in one of the three chairs facing his desk, wore an extremely nervous and anxious expression, and she kept shooting uncomfortable glances at Squall. When the door to the Commander's office swung open and Seifer strode in, followed by Xu, Rinoa jumped a little, her eyes widening further as she looked at the two people who had entered.

"Where's Quistis?" she demanded hastily, looking from Seifer to Xu, as if one of them was responsible for hiding Quistis somewhere. "Where's Quistis? She's supposed to be here, isn't she?"

Seifer said nothing, but flushed a little. His ex-girlfriend hadn't changed. Sure, she was a little older, and more womanly, and there was an air of determination that was now well tempered by a maturity that he hadn't seen when they had parted all those years ago, but on the whole, she was very little different. He found himself suddenly caught between two things—the old feeling that reminded him that he had been very much attracted to this girl once, and the new feelings regarding a certain stunningly lovely blonde SeeD instructor, on whom he was rapidly developing more than a crush.

Squall cleared his throat, and the sound cut thoughtlessly through Seifer's confusion. "Where's Quistis? Xu—I didn't call for you…"

Xu nodded. "I know, but I had to come. Quistis is missing. I haven't been able to locate her, and she said she would be back by three o' clock for her classes, but she hasn't returned, and she isn't answering her mobile phone either." She hesitated briefly. "She doesn't break her word, and she promised me she would be back by three, so that I wouldn't have to take over all of her classes for today."

"You took over her classes today?" asked Squall.

"I was supposed to help her with two classes," explained Xu. "But she didn't turn up, and I ended up with four classes. Not that I'm complaining, but I'm worried. She called me at about eleven o'clock or so, and asked me to take over her twelve o'clock classes. She said she was going to FH, but she didn't say why."

Seifer stirred and Squall looked at him.

"Do you know where she is?"

"No," answered Seifer shortly. "And no, I did not spirit her away somewhere."

Squall didn't deign to reply. Instead, he glanced at Rinoa. "Rinoa, does this have something to do with…?"

Rinoa got to her feet, very pale. "Y-yes. I—I think so." She took a deep breath. "I think you had all better sit down."

Squall resumed his seat and Xu eased her self into the chair furthest from Seifer, but Seifer himself remained standing. He had a feeling that whatever Rinoa was about to say was going to require that he stand up. He wished he had Hyperion with him; cafeteria rules had demanded, though, that no weapons were allowed, although instructors frequently ignored that rule.

Rinoa fidgeted a little. "Okay," she began shakily, "don't say anything until I'm through, or you'll miss the important parts. I think I know why Quistis went to FH, and I think it has to do with why Seifer ended up here, at Garden, with amnesia." She held up a black floppy disk and turned her eyes on Seifer, looking more and more upset. "Quistis is going to kill me…" she mumbled.

"What do you mean—what have I got to do with that?" demanded Seifer, scowling. "And why will Quistis kill you?"

"Because I'm going to blab, with no regard for anyone," Rinoa informed him unhappily, a tragic look on her face. "You were almost drowned, remember? But Dr. Kadowaki said you had additional injuries, and one of them was a stab wound—"

"I thought I had a broken rib?" exclaimed Seifer.

"That, too." Rinoa wrung her hands. "Don't interrupt, please! The stab wound was self-inflicted, but it missed all your organs, and if Quisty hadn't saved you from the ocean, you'd have bled to death—"

"Quisty saved me?"

Rinoa glared at Seifer. "I said, don't interrupt! Yes, she saved you—didn't anybody tell you?"

"Someone seems to have missed out that vital bit of information, as well as forgetting to tell me that I tried to commit suicide!" snarled Seifer acidly. "Is there anything else I did that I don't know?"

Squall slammed one fist on the desk. "Stop bickering," he ordered sharply. "Rinoa, get to the point. Almasy, shut up. You can ask questions later."

Rinoa held up a disk and started talking very fast. "Quistis wanted to find out if you really did try to kill yourself, but of course you couldn't remember a thing, so she asked Fujin for help, and told me about it, and I promised not to tell anyone, not even you, Squall. Fujin couldn't find out anything, and she didn't notice anything, but she did find this among your belongings, I think—" Rinoa waved the disk—"and she brought it to us. Only Quistis got a look at it, because the day Fujin brought it was the day Ma Dincht's house got firebombed. I just took a look at it, and I broke the passwords to two of the files, and Seifer, it's what's on the disk that means they're after you. They want to kill you, and that's why Ma Dincht got firebombed. Quisty cracked one file that says something about a place at FH and I think she went there…" Her voice trailed off helplessly as she looked at the Commander for support.

"Who wants to kill me and why?" Seifer advanced on Rinoa, eyes flashing. "If it's another of those I-want-to-kill-Ultimecia's-Knight—"

Rinoa swallowed. "It isn't. At least, I don't think so." She looked up at Seifer. "They want to kill you…because you know too much. You've got this disk. And now we can't reach either Fujin or Quisty."

There was a long pause.

"I don't know who they are, Seifer," Rinoa continued, "except that—" she stopped suddenly, turning pale again, looking as if she had just taken a sock to the stomach. "Oh, crap. Squall, is this office secure?"

He gave her a blank look that spoke volumes. Hello, this is the Commander's office. Of course it's secure!!!

Rinoa just shook her head. Quite calmly, her face took on a look of concentration and her eyes flashed once with a queer gleam in them, before her face went blank. Almost at once, her voice sounded in their heads.

They are an Organisation. Who or what, I don't know. But they've infiltrated governments all over the world, with the sole purpose of quietly controlling every country from behind the scenes. It's something even more powerful than Ultimecia—power driven by money and pure greed. This disk has some devastating information on that, including some of the branches of the location of this Organisation. If you had it in your possession, Seifer, I think you know something about the Organisation and I think they tried to kill you. I believe that they've even infiltrated SeeD. Every Garden has been contaminated, maybe up to board level. And Balamb is on the list I found. I don't think this office is secure anymore, Squall…