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 Eight: Footprints in the Snow~
With Irvine and Selphie absent, Martine - left in charge while they were away - had decided that now was his chance to prove he could be a good leader. He counted himself lucky that Irvine had agreed with Cid that evacuating Galbadia Garden, when the Sorceress Ultemecia made her intentions clear, had been the wisest course of action. He also knew that if he screwed up again, he was unlikely to get another chance. But what better way, he wondered, to prove himself, than by solving the current mystery. If he could succeed in discovering who or what was causing the screams at night, then surely his request to be given the position of Headmaster of Esthar Garden - currently in the planning stages of construction - could not be denied.
Martine had reasoned his methods for discovering the cause as follows. Selphie and Irvine were convinced it was a SeeD or student, or some other resident of the Garden, responsible, as they didn't think anyone else was capable of the battle skills required to kill a T-Rexaur so thoroughly. To that end their surveillance had been directed inwards. That this surveillance had seen nothing, whilst the screams continued, suggested to Martine that the cause was from an outside source, entering Garden from the outer perimeter, rather than from inside. Plus, as he knew full well, it wasn't just SeeD who could use magic or fight. So, his plan was twofold. Firstly, he had organised a team of SeeDs with high observation skills to search the ground around the Garden for footprints or chocobo tracks and to mark each one. Secondly he had a team of SeeD technicians installing a surveillance system to watch the outer perimeter.
Several hours later, Martine's logical thinking paid off. The search for tracks in the snow had revealed a set of incoming chocobo tracks which stopped at the rear of the Garden before heading away again. Immediately Martine set a pair of technicians to install a very discrete low-light camera to watch the ground where the tracks had been found. All that remained was to wait, and see what the night brought.
AN: I never really understood what happened with Galbadia Garden. Did all the SeeDs (except, miraculously, those with the key cards) get massacred by Seifer's soldiers and Edea, or were they evacuated? If they were evacuated, why wasn't Balamb Garden stuffed full of SeeDs ready to fight off Seifer's soldiers? If they were massacred, how did a few SeeDs survive? How did Martine survive? And what cleaning products did they use, 'cause I want some... (not for cleaning anything in particular, just to say I've got it...)
