Disclaimer:  I don't own any of the FF8 characters Squaresoft does obviously.  

A/N: I hope you guys enjoy this chapter too and R&R please!

~*~ Chapter 9 ~*~

~*~ Presidential Residence ~*~

            They arrived at Caraway's mansion a little before 2:30.  Quistis could sense Seifer's uneasiness as they walked towards the mansion, but she refrained from asking for the source of his uneasiness.  Quistis presented the silver rose to the guard in the front gate.  The guard quickly led them into the mansion, and into the waiting room.  Quistis looked around the room and remembered when she, Zell, and Selphie were trapped in the exact same room, when she came back to apologized to Rinoa.  Quistis looked around the room; it looked exactly the same it did the last time she was here. 

            Seifer's uneasiness had turned into restlessness, "How long is Caraway going to make us wait?  We've been waiting here for nearly 20 minutes!"

            "Stop exaggerating Seifer, we've only been in here for a couple minutes."  Quistis just rolled her eyes. 

            "Well a couple minutes are 20 minutes for me!" Seifer retorted.  Just as he finished, one of the guards came in, "The General is busy right now and can't greet the both of you right now."

            "Well, so you're going to show us the secret route to the presidential residence?"  Seifer sneered at the guard.

            "Um…no…that information is only known by the general," the guard answered hesitantly.

            "So are we supposed to just sit here and wait for the General to come in?  For all we know that Bast…Caraway is gonna just leave us here to rot!"  Seifer's irritation was growing.

            "Um…I'm sorry sir, but General's orders," the young guard's fear was noticeable, and quickly saluted and walked out of the room to escape the blond man's wrath. 

            Suddenly all the doors and windows slammed closed and locked.  Seifer ran to the door they came in, and saw that the door was locked. 

            "Damn that Bastard!"  He slammed his fist against the door, "and he fucking wonders why his daughter wouldn't fucking talk to him!"  Seifer's anger was apparent, and just as he was about to pull out Hyperion and break down the door.  Quistis, who was observing the whole scene between Seifer and the guard, spoke up.

            "Seifer!"  Her voice was commanding and stopped Seifer in his tracks, and turn to face her.

            "What?  So want to stay in here and rot in this Asshole's mansion?  You can if you want but not me!  I know Caraway always hated me.  Especially ever since he found out that…"

            "I don't care why he hates you Seifer," Quistis coolly interrupted him, "Right now I want you to calm down and listen to me for once."

            "Alright I'm listening," he said reluctantly.

            "Caraway has locked us both in," she said matter-of-fact.

            "No shit."  Seifer scoffed.

            "Well this isn't the first time I've been locked up in this room," she slowly explained.

            "So your point is…?"

            "My point is I know the way out of here, and the underground route to the Presidential Residence," she said slight irritated.

            "So why didn't you say so before?" Seifer asked while glaring at her.

            "Well it looked as if you were bonding with the door, and I didn't want to interrupt the two of you." Quistis replied sarcastically, "Now that you've finally shut up.  Shall we get going?"

            She walked up to the shelves of champagne glasses and picked up a glass.  "Quistis now is not the time to celebrate."  Quistis ignored his comment and continued to walk over to the statue of the standing woman, and place the glass onto her out reached palm.  Immediately after placing the glass on the statues palm, the wall of the statue slid open revealing a stairway leading downward.

            Quistis looked over at Seifer and signaled him to follower her down the dark passage.  After walking in the sewer passageways for a while, Quistis decided to try to break the silence.  "So do you still love Rinoa?"

            "I thought you said you didn't care why Caraway would hate me."

            "I don't.  I was just wondering if you still love her."

            "Why?  Are you wondering if I'm pining Rinoa, like your still pining for Puberty boy?" Seifer sneered.

            The reference of Squall caused a slight tinge of sadness in her heart.  Quistis tried to ignore his last comment, and they both continued to weave through the dark corridors of the sewers in silence.

            "So how do you know the underground route to the Presidential Residence so well?"  This time it was Seifer's turn to attempt to break the silence.

            "Well…while your were sleeping like a baby lat night.  I was studying the Deiling sewers map," she explained.

            "And you memorized everything last night?" he asked skeptically.

            Quistis scoffed, "No, I have the map right here," she threw the piece of paper she was holding at Seifer.  "This should be the place," she stood in front of a rusty ladder that led to the streets above.  Seifer climbed up first and pushed up the lid and revealed the grey sky above.

            When they climbed out of the manhole, all Seifer saw were old wooden crates and a rusty old truck.

            Quistis looked at the crates and the truck, they were exactly like Irvine described.  The crates and truck made a makeshift stairway for them to climb up the Presidential Residence.

            "Um…Trepe.  I don't think the President lives in old wooden box crates."

            She just glared at Seifer and started to climb up the wooden crates, and quickly and gracefully jumped cross the gap between the truck and he building without hesitation.  Seifer obediently followed her.  She then proceeded to climb up the ladder that leads to the Residents rooftop.  Quistis saw a doorway and assumed that must be the place and headed in that direction with Seifer in tow.

            As they both walked into the Presidential Residence, Seifer remembered the last time her was in there.  The time was when he was still Edea's knight.  He remembered the day of the Parade; he stood along Edea's side and was her Knight.  His romantic dream of being the most powerful man and to protect someone he loved came true for that fleeting moment, but all those moments were all lies.  He wasn't the most powerful man, and to protect some one he loved?  He loved matron like a mother, but to find true love?  Seifer felt that was hopeless.  Everyone feared or hated him.  The only person he knew who didn't' fear or hate him was Quistis, but the thought of Quistis loving him seemed implausible to him.  She still had feelings for Squall.  The comment he made earlier hated bothered her, and he knew it.  Seifer felt that his romantic dream was gone two years ago, and decided to put it behind him.

            He continued to follow Quistis into the President's room.  The room was completely different from what Seifer remembered.  The hanging linen curtains that use to hang everywhere were gone, and the room itself was brighter and colorful.  The walls of the room were wallpapered with brocade fabrics of blood red velvet.  Along the walls were beautified paintings and tapestries.  In the center of the room seated the President at his desk, he was quietly chatting with General Caraway.

Just as they were about to approach the President, guards surrounded them. 
"Now what?"  Seifer's irritation had returned.

"Excuse us, but we have an appointment with the president," Quistis calmly spoke up and presented one of the guards the sliver rose and letter that she

received the day before. 

The guard looked over the note.  "Alright, please follow me," he ordered and gestured them to follow him.  "Sir, the SeeDS you've been waiting for are her," after reporting the guard saluted and walked out of the room.

"Welcome, you two must be the Captains that we have been waiting for," the President commented.

"Well we would have arrived earlier, but were a bit locked up,'" Seifer snorted.
            The President looked over at Caraway, "Well now that they are here before us.  I believe they have passed your little test. Eh…General?"

Caraway with a critical eye looked over both Quistis and Seifer.  "I see that SeeD has sent you two very famous people as your guards.  Here you have the famous Quistis Trepe, who was one of the six that defeated Ultimecia, and here you have Seifer Almasy." Caraway scoffed, "if I'm not mistaken he use to be know as the sor…"

"Seifer is our best Gunblade experts aside from Squall Leonheart," Quistis interrupted Caraway.

As the President nodded his head and walked over to greet them, Quistis noticed that he reminded of someone, but she just couldn't quite in pin point who he reminded her of.

"President, you said that everyone was waiting for us.  Does that mean that they squad is already here?"  Quistis asked.

"Yes, they are all here.  Right now they are taking a look at the ballroom the party would be in.  Shall we proceed and meet up with your squad?"  The President made a gesture for them to follow him and Caraway to the ballroom.

The ballroom was very large and beautiful.  The walls were lined with glass windows and doors that lead to a beautiful balcony outside.  The floor was a beautifully polished rose colored marble, and the dome ceiling above looked liked a luminated white rose. 

Quistis looked around, "This is a beautiful ballroom.  Is there a designated area that the bride and groom will be at for most of the party?" she asked the President.

"Not really, most announcements or anything will probably be made on the grand staircase, other then that we want to make the wedding seem normal as possible."

"How normal can a wedding this huge be?" Seifer scoffed under his breath.

"I see. Well if you planning to do that, I guess its best if we have one or two couples keep an eye on them throughout the night." The President nodded at Quistis's suggestion, with Caraway standing by and listening to the exchange.

"Since there are only ten of us and there are plenty of possible entrances for any intruder, I suggest placing some guards to each door, so this would allow us to just focus on the bride, groom, and you, Sir.  While the rest of us are mingling in the crowd trying to find any suspicious activity at the same time, but we still need to find a way to communicate with each other." Quistis continued.

"One step ahead of you, Miss Trepe," the President pulled out a small ear piece and a small microphone, "with this ear piece and microphone, you should be able to communicate with everyone within a mile radius."

"That is very impressive, Sir."

"It's also very easy to use as well.  You just fit this into your ear and the microphone is small enough to be place anywhere under your clothes and not be seen."  He gave Seifer and Quistis each a set of the ear piece and microphone.  "Now I believe everyone in your squad has one, and speaking of the squad there they are."  The President said looking at the general direction of the staircase the SeeDs were descending.

"Well now that we've figured out how our general plan is going to work out.  I'll go and tell everyone else," Quistis excused herself and walked over to the other SeeDs, while Caraway whispered something to the President and left the room.

"She's a very smart girl," the President complemented.

"I know," Seifer answered flatly.

"She looks so much like…," the President murmured to himself.

Seifer was about to question the older man, but the man was lost in his thoughts and Seifer decided to refrain from asking.  Seifer looked up to see Quistis walking back towards them.

As Quistis approached both men, she was surprised to see that Seifer and President Alma looked strikingly alike.  Only the President had darker hair and looked older, with weary eyes that seemed to pass many trials in his life.  His eyes, his eyes were also a captivating green like Seifer.  Quistis was still lost in her thoughts until Seifer tapped her shoulder, "Hey you alright?"

Quistis have him an odd look and proceeded to ask the President, "Sir, I was speaking with the others and they haven't been able to find much about the possible suspect for a saboteur.  I'm guessing this is your doing, Sir?"

"Actually, the President only kept this situation quiet because of me." Another voice came from behind Quistis.

Quistis turned around to find a young man with dark brown hair coming up beside her.  He was dressed in a grey suit; his dark brown hair was combed in place to match his dark brown eyes.  He looked to be a handsome and collected young man.

"Hello, my name is Victor Blaine.  I'm Nora Alma's Fiancé.  You were asking about who the possible suspects are, am I correct?"  Quistis nodded.  "Well I know exactly who does not want this wedding to take place, and that someone is my father."

"Your father?" Quistis thought it odd for a father to be against his own son's wedding.

"Yes, but this reason I'm still unclear about.  He refuses to tell me, but I have a feeling it must be some issues that happened in the past.  I never pressed him for further on the subject, since it always made him angry."

"Well, marrying this girl sure won't make him angry," Seifer added.

"Sir, do you know anything about this," Quistis turned to the President.  The President sighed, "It's a very long story and it happened so long ago, but I would blame him for keeping this grudge against me for so long.  Maybe I'll tell you one day if you kids are still interested, but I don't think now is a good time to stir up old dust.  Now I believe that is about everything we need to go over.  If you need to contact me or anything just go through Caraway, but I'm sure you SeeDs can handle everything by yourselves."  The President then excused himself and left the two SeeDs to return their attention to Victor.

"So how did you meet this Miss Alma," Seifer asked with a smirk.

"I met her while we were studying in Esthar University together."

"Aw how sweet, a college romance.  Too bad your families have a feuding past Romeo." Seifer shook his head, "Of all the women in the world you had to pick Juliet."

Victor chuckled at Seifer's reference, "I guess that's what they call fate.  Well it's getting late, and I have to go and meet Nora soon.  Well nice meeting to the both of you." He shook hands with both Quistis and Seifer and quickly went on his way.

Quistis went to go speak to the squad again, leaving Seifer alone again.  He decided it was best if he followed her and observe what is going on with the rest of the squad.

A/N:  I'm so so so so so so so sorry for the long delay on the update.  I was swamped with midterms, homework, and papers.  It was insane.  It still is!...Well I decided I should update this when I have to time.  Well thanks for all the reviews guys I really appreciate it!