Authors Note: Be prepared to be very confused. This chapter opens a very bizarre can of worms.

Chapter 3

Silent Warning

Squall and Seifer strode into the infirmary with polite nods to Dr. K. not bothering to ask which room Rinoa was in. They'd been there so many times in their respective careers that they practically had VIP passes. Dr. K just smiled at them and pointed to the room just to her left. With another polite nod on their part Squall and Seifer made their way inside, Seifer shutting the door behind them.

Rinoa was reading when they entered, so engrossed that she didn't even look up when the slid closed. Anyone would admit she looked cute like that, knees bent up, book resting against the convenient incline that created, and her eyes moving leisurely from side to side. Seifer hung back a little, leaning against the door with his arms crossed over his chest, as Squall approached the side of the bed without a sound. He stood their for a few moments, looking her over for injures, finding very few, with his usual indifferent look still plastered on his face. Without bothering to look up Rinoa rattled off her list of injuries, "Since you seem so interested I have a mild concussion, two broken ribs, and lots of bruises and scratches. Squall started a little as Rinoa looked up, beaming at him. "You don't think I spent all that time here and picked up nothing do you?" she asked, laying the book down on her bedside table.

Squall tried to glare at her but failed miserably and ended up grinning instead. "I'm glad you're not hurt," he mumbled in her ear and they embraced.

"Me? Nah. It'll take a lot more than an exploding parking lot to do me in!" Rinoa said defiantly. Squall only chuckled a little as he pulled away.

"It appears you've picked up his stubbornness as well," said Seifer slowly pushing away from the wall to meet Rinoa.

"It's kind of hard not to, it's his most prominent trait, other than his silent scowl. That, thankfully, I didn't pick up." Seifer couldn't help but sinker at the truth of that statement. Hopefully, though, he'd be seeing a lot more of Squall's smile than his scowl. A scowl that he was currently shooting at Rinoa, even if it was only half hearted. She simply stuck out her tongue at him as Seifer leaned down to hug her. "I'm glad to see that you two are getting along now. When did you finally get a clue?" Both men looking at her in shocked confusion, neither able to get out a coherent statement at the moment. Rinoa looked back and forth between them and giggled. "Let's just say Quistis's observation also had an effect on me as well."

With a chipper grin Rinoa swung her legs over the side of her bed with the idea of getting herself a glass of water. Unfortunately she was not quite ready for walking yet, after her little misadventure late last night and her legs crumpled under her. She braced herself for the sudden impact of the cold tile floor…but there was none. She opened her eyes and meet stormy blue orbs with her own brown. "And did you pick up your excellent walking skills from Selphie?"

"Oh you!" She pouted and attempted to hit Squall on the arm but failed miserable due to the fact that he still had a good grip on her. She, however, continued to struggle anyway until Squall had returned her to her bed. Even when she was firmly seated on the mattress and Seifer, trying not to laugh, pulled up the sheets around her waist, she continued to pout. That was until Squall leaned in and kissed her on the forehead. He pulled back a small smile still on his face and warned, "Behave yourself princess. Don't need you getting hurt…again."

"Looks like I rubbed off on some people as well," Rinoa said with a small knowing smile. Squall only nodded in response before pulling up a chair to take a seat beside her bed. Seifer followed in suite, taking Rinoa's hand in his.

"Was it really that obvious?" he asked in his usual arrogant tone.

Rinoa bit back a snort of laughter, "Please! That's like asking if Irvine is a virgin!" Rinoa laughter heartily for a good thirty seconds before she realized the two confused looks shot in her direction. "What? You didn't know that? Anyone who brags that much has to be lying."

Squall just shook his head at that statement. "You may be a little too observant for your own good."

"Someone has to be," She replied sticking out her tong once more.

Squall smiled a little at her antics and suddenly became very serious. "Rinoa… what do you remember about this supposed attack?"

Rinoa drew up her knees, wrapping her free arm around them and resting her chin in the indent between them. "Well it all happened very fast. I think it came more from the outside of the parking lot. At first the energy was almost….electric…. But with all the gasoline that didn't last long. Xu got the worst of it I think. From what I heard she's still hasn't regained consciousness…." she trailed off at the end, deeply concerned for her friend.

Squall leaned in and patted Rinoa on the shoulder sympathetically, but without comment. He was worried about his coworker as well, but what she had just told him didn't really add up….

"Knowing our little 'gang' like I do I'm sure we'll all buckle down and save the day, as usual…" came a typically arrogant drawl from Seifer. Squall just shrugged while Rinoa offered a small nod. The dynamics of their little group were truly astounding sometimes. The occupants of that small infirmary room fell into a comfortable reflective silence until…

Paging Squall Leonhart. Squall Leonhart the headmaster is waiting for you. Please report to the third floor office immediately.

Seifer let out a deep, rumbling chuckle. "Looks like Mr. Perfect finally managed to get the headmaster angry," he was about to continue with some comments similar to his first when he noticed the other mercenary glaring at him with a passion. "Hey take it easy there!" he rushed out holding his hands up in a mock surrendered. "Old habits die hard you know." Squall glared at him a moment longer before letting out a little huff the disturbed a few of his bangs.

"You really should get going then," said Rinoa in a happy, but tired tone. Squall glanced up and noted that she looked tired too. The accident, and maybe her political ventures in timber were getting to her. If he had any say in the matter he'd make sure she'd get the vacation she deserved.

"Alright Rin. We'll be back later, you just rest. Rinoa nodded with a muffled yawn she settled back against her sheets. "See you…" she murmured half asleep before they were even out the door.

Squall gave one last, small, smile before the door slid shut behind them. He paused for a few moments, scanning the hallway before turning to the left and taping the entrance codes on the next door. Seifer would have commented on this sudden rebellious streak, but in favor of recent developments he decided to keep his mouth shut. They walking silently into the intensive care room just in toe of each other. There were a few machines bleeping and buzzing around the room, showing various statistics about their current patient and what not. Dr. K was currently working at Xu's left side, and didn't even look up when the two men came in.

"How is she?" Squall asked without bothering for introduction.

"Always get right down to the point don't you? Hehehe. Well, since I know you'll find out one way or another I might as well surrender right now. Especially since you two seem to be friends these days. She was farther from the parking lot's entrance, where we think the explosion came from, but she seems to have taken more of the attack then your little friend next door. She has a pretty nasty concussion and I can't make heads or tails of….some of these readings. She's also got a good amount of broken bones…. She'll live, but it'll be a while before she's up and about again…"

Squall nodded and sympathetically placed his hand over Xu's. Seifer walked up behind him and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. He knew that Xu and Squall were only one rank apart from each other, Xu being just a little bit lower, and they shared many of the same responsibilities. He wasn't sure how close they were as friends, probably something similar to the very early relationship of Quistis and Squall. Xu had a way of understanding people very similar to the famous instructor

"I'll let you know if anything changes Squall, Seifer. But right now I think you'd better get up to the headmasters office before he actually gets angry." Squall looked up and nodded politely before turning to leave. Seifer followed behind with, "Later Dr."

The elevator ride to the third floor was fairly silent. Both Seifer and Squall were too absorbed in their own thoughts for much conversation. The quiet bleep that announced the elevator's arrival at the third floor brought them out of it and the made their way into the main office.

"It's about time," Quistis mused politely from behind her desk in the small room preceding the headmaster's office. After the end of the sorceress war she too had secured a high ranking job. Although most people would frown at the thought of any secretary job, even if it was for the headmaster, being high ranking Quistis did end up with a lot of responsibility. Everyone was well aware of the massive amount of responsibility that came with job of headmaster, but what they didn't know was how cid managed to get it all done and still have time for anything else. Quistis handled at least half on garden business along with Cid. She was practically a partner, and well accommodated for that.

Squall just nodded to her and she rolled her eyes at his predictability. The doors to the main office slid open before them and the two young men were immediately greeted by Cid.

"Glad to see you follow orders so well, Squall. Perhaps Seifer is having an adverse affect on you?" Cid paused for a moment and grinned, "Not that I expected any different. Rinoa is like a sister to you is she not?" Squall nodded and Cid continued immediately afterwards. "Well I guess I'd better get straight to the point. We've been looking into last night's incident since it happened and our findings are rather… disheartening… As far as we can tell the explosion last night as by a massive stray lightning bolt. We believe the immense power of the bolt combined with the fuel we had stored there accounted for all the damage we received," Cid paused and both mercenaries nodded understandingly before he continued, "We wanted to make sure nothing else was affected considering…" he glanced at Squall wondering how to word this, "The delicate nature of your friends power. We wanted to make sure that no one would be in danger because of that power's unpredictability. So, once Rinoa was stabilized we scanned her to get the stats on her power and….. There was nothing there…."

"What?!" said Squall and Seifer in unison, equally shocked.

"I know it's quite startling and I don't even know how to begin to explain it, but her sorceress power seems to have simply fallen off the face of the planet… Even I don't know exactly what this means… The only thing I can tell you is that I haven't seen and negative consequences to this sudden disappearance… It's just so bizarre…"

There was a small silence until Squall said, "Dose this… It doesn't affect Rinoa in any way dose it?"

"No Squall." Said Cid confidently. "Other than the absence of a massive amount of power Rinoa seems perfectly fine."

"Good." Squall let out a relived sigh and walking over to look out Cid's office windows. It was hard trying to digest all this information at once, but Balam's scenery always helped him to focus on things. Rinoa was okay, that was the really important thing… But what happened to her power? It could be dangerous for the whole world if that power fell into the wrong hands… It could even bring another war down on them all. Squall closed his eyes to that thought. He didn't want another war like that. Regular war amongst the countries of the war… he could deal with that. He was a mercenary after all. Fighting other peoples stupid wars for them… but if there was another sorceress involved…. That was an entirely different can of worms….

"Ah, Quistis. Thank you for getting me those damage reports so quickly."

"No problem headmaster. It was an open and shut deal," Quistis replied in her usual cool tone. "If you need anything else I'll be going over the books."

There was the soft taping of Quistis boots following her out and a long moment of silence before the headmaster spoke again. "That woman…. is so confusing…."

That remark was enough to bring Squall fully out of his interior dialogue mode. "What do you mean?"

Cid threw the file Quistis had just handed him onto his desk with an exasperated sigh, "A couple of weeks ago I asked her to reorganize the financial files of garden and when I checked up on her she hadn't made any progress. After I warned her about slacking off I haven't heard a word about it. 'I'll be working on the books' was what she said before when nothing got done. I don't know weather or not to believe her."

Although Squalls usual indifferent expression didn't change his eyes lit up as with understanding as Cid explained. "It's her own form of pride. She doesn't show any sings of fixing her mistake because she wants you to trust her to fix it without seeing the proof. I'd just let her be if I were you."

"Women!" Cid cried in frustration throwing his hands up in the air in melodrama.

"What was that dear?" chimed Edea calmly walking into the room.

"Eh?! Hehehehe! N-nothing darling," Cid barely managed with a guilty look all over his face.

Seifer just rolled his eyes and beckoned Squall to follow him out. Squall nodded and fell into step behind him Cid and Edea's 'discussion' and Quistis's steady typing fading into the background. "Please please don't let this be anything bad…" he thought, " I don't think I could handle another war like the last one… Things were so much easier when I didn't give a damn!" Squall pushed the button to the first floor aggressively then leaned against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest, looking out the glass window in a huff. He continued down his angry train of thought until he felt a secure arm wrap around his shoulders and warm lips brush against his ear.

"Still worried about Rinoa," came Seifer's sympathetic voice in his ear and much to Squalls frustration caused a fairly deep blush on his cheeks. Squall just nodded and turned to lean his head on Seifer's shoulder. It was nice having someone else take the lead for once. "I'm sure she'll be just fine. Like I said if anything dose happen I feel sorry for the people who will suffer at the wrath of the orphanage gang." Squall looked up and Seifer a little surprised. He didn't know Seifer could be openly sentimental about their little group…Then again there were probably a lot of things Squall didn't pick up about his rival during their rivalry, recent friendship, and even more recent… development. Bt he definitely wanted to stick around to find out more.

They walked quietly down the hall to Squalls dormitory. Nothing was really said until after Squall punched in the security code to his room. One second he was two and a half steps into his dorm and the next he was roughly pined against the now closed door. "Sei-mpf!" Squall tried to speak the name of his sudden attacker but was silenced to quickly with a kiss.

Seifer pulled back slowly, just enough to meet Squall eye to eyes before murmuring, "About what happened this morning…" he paused to lick his lips, "I was wondering if you'd mind picking up were we left off?"

Authors Note: That's all for now!