Rating: R (I tried to keep it lower, but it just wasn't destined to happen - unlike other things [which are responsible for the rating])

Disclaimer: SG characters are (c) MGM (thankie to Morrigan for that :p).  FF8 characters are (c) Squaresoft, original characters are mine – ask nicely and I might let you play with them, s'long's you don't break them...

Warnings: SxS - Yaoi (guyxguy) later - if u don't like, don't read.  Character death.  Maybe angst (I do like to torture my characters sometimes :p), language (prob nothin u aint heard b4, but still...)

~Chapter Four: Signs~

Selphie and Irvine were 'discussing' the issue of the nightly screams from the training centre.  So far every method they had tried to keep people out had failed to result in a night of peace.  Considering things had been going on for nearly two weeks now, nerves were beginning to fray.

"I still think that as long as it's only monsters screaming like that we shouldn't worry."  Selphie glared at Irvine, who refused to be daunted.  Not that many people knew it, but Selphie could be a genuine wildcat if she wanted.

"And what do we do if a student or SeeD gets attacked?"  She demanded.  "We should at least know what's causing the noise."  Irvine chuckled.

"We do know.  Dying monsters.  Besides, if someone's got that much repressed anger, I don't think we should deny them somewhere to take it out on something."  Selphie threw her hands up in disgust.

"I..."  The loud chime of an urgent message arriving cut off whatever she had been about to say.  Irvine leaned forward to silence the alert and retrieve the message.

"We're going to Centra."

"What?  Why?"  Selphie demanded as Ivine hauled her to her feet.  "Has the excavation team found something?"  Irvine refused to answer, dragging the curious Selphie into their shared quarters to get their weapons.

***

(AN: if ur confused this next bit is after the end of chpt 2)

A figure, shrouded in a long grey coat, barely visible in the grey shadows on the edge of the moonlight. 

A figure, standing, head bowed, leaning on a gunblade.

A figure, alive, mocking all the rumours of death.

Seifer.

"Seifer?"

Squall knew, in his gut, that it was indeed Seifer, that somehow he had survived time compression without Fujin and Raijin.  How many nights had he lain awake, hoping that it was so, praying that Seifer was alive.  Were his prayers being answered?  Or had Seifer come back to finish what Ultemecia had started?  Squall wasn't sure what he would do if the latter were true.  No, that was another lie, he did know.  He would let Seifer kill him, through torture, or a clean execution, he didn't care.  Rinoa only kept him alive because she was vulnerable, her powers suppressed by the child she carried, but once it was born she would discard him.

The figure looked up, the moonlight casting deep shadows on his gaunt face.

"I'm not here to fight you Squall."

Squall suppressed a chuckle.  So Seifer could still do it.  Could still reach through the spoken words to grasp the thoughts beyond.  He was thinner, older, more mature, but otherwise no different.  A sudden rush of hope filled Squall.  Who had saved him in time compression?  Everyone thought it was Rinoa, but Squall knew different.  Sure Rinoa had been the one to find him, to bring him back to the flower field, from the Kaskabald desert - he'd been back and had found, against the laws of all probability, gunblade ammunition, his gunblade ammunition - but it hadn't been her that Squall had been thinking of.  He'd given up hope of finding Seifer, his legs collapsing underneath him, but Squall had never given up hope that Seifer lived.

"I'm here to save your ass from Rinoa's child."

Squall frowned at that.  Not to save him from Rinoa, or himself, but from Rinoa's child?  How in Hyne's name did Seifer even know that Rinoa was pregnant?  It suddenly struck him that Seifer had called him Squall, not Leonhart as was his usual manner of addressing him.  "How do you know Rinoa's pregnant?"  Squall found himself almost across the clearing, only a few feet away from a bone-weary Seifer.  It was clear Hyperion was all that was stopping him from collapsing.  It was also clear the blond could barely spare the energy to shrug, but he tried.

"I just know...  Ultemecia...  She was pregnant too..."

Somehow, despite the tremor in Seifer's voice, the words sounded more ominous to Squall than anything he had ever heard.

AN: *celebrates*  finally got around to changing that last line :p Still not brilliant imo... but better than it was :)