Disclaimer: Looks around hopelessly. I still don't own Final Fantasy VIII, the computer, the truck, or Irvine......I still got the cat though.

Right to Fight Round Two

"Nothing's wrong with your folder. We just need to explain some things," Edea answered. "You have to understand what's inside." Selphie looked at Edea's hand that rested on her shoulder with mild confusion.

"What do you mean? What could possibly be in there that's that confusing?" Selphie asked.

"Selphie dear. It's obvious that you've realized that Mirenne Tilmitt was your adoptive guardian." Cid said as he pushed his glasses back to their appropriate position on his nose. She nodded hesitantly.

"She told me I was adopted after we defeated Ultimecia. I asked her," She gave Irvine a quick glance and then looked back to Cid and Edea. For a brief moment, Cid and Edea's moods seemed to brighten.

"She didn't by any chance tell you anything else did she?" Edea asked hopefully.

"No," Selphie answered. "Well wait," Cid and Edea looked up quickly. "She told me that someone just left me on the doorstep of the orphanage one day."

Edea's shoulder's seemed to slump a little. "She told you nothing else?" Selphie shook her head.

"Should she have?"

"No." Cid stated as he leaned on his elbows. "This is a copy of your file that was kept at the orphanage," Cid took the folder from Edea and slid it across the table to Selphie. He watched as she slowly opened it and read quietly.

"It doesn't have any family history. It has medical records and the place where you found me," She stated as she looked up at them. Reading over her shoulder, Irvine shot Edea a confused look. She held up her hand to silence him while Selphie continued looking through the nearly empty folder. "I don't understand why you two were so worried about this," Selphie smiled. "I mean I know that someone abandoned me, but it might not have been because they didn't want me. They might've had no other choice." In her lap Toby reached for the folder but Selphie held it out of his reach as she continued looking through it. At Cid and Edea's silence she paused. "What? Is there something not included in here or something?"

Cid shifted uncomfortably in his seat, but Edea seemed inspired. "You were told that you were just left at the orphanage's front door one day and you're not upset by that?" Edea asked.

"I was at first but the more I thought about it the more I wondered if they had a choice. I mean they might not have been able to take care of me or keep me. And there was also a war going on, so my real parents might've been killed and someone else took me there," Selphie stopped talking at Edea's frown. "What's wrong?"

"Your parents aren't dead," Edea answered softly. Selphie's eyes widened in surprise at her statement.

"What? How are you so sure?" She asked as she pulled Toby a little closer to her chest.

"You said it didn't bother you as much once you thought that maybe your parents had no other choice but to leave you at the orphanage," Cid found his voice and studied Selphie closely. Selphie leaned back against Irvine suddenly feeling a little nervous.

"I guess if they had no other choice," She stated unsurely.

"We didn't," Edea said quietly. Selphie froze at her words.

"What did you say?"

Edea took Cid's hand in her own and closed her eyes. "We're your parents Selphie."

Selphie stared at them in shock. "Are you serious?" At Cid and Edea's expressions she continued. "If I was yours why did you place me in a home?" She scooted over, bringing herself closer to Irvine's side. He carefully wrapped his arms around her and held her closer to him. "Why didn't you want me?"

Selphie was on the verge of tears, and by that point, so was Edea. "Of course we wanted you. You were so precious to us," Edea wiped at her eyes.

"You still are," Cid started talking. "Your mother and I were told that chances were very slim that we'd be able to have a child together. Actually the doctor's words were something along the lines of nearly impossible." Cid squeezed Edea's hand. "We started the orphanage because we wanted children....When you came along, the doctor's were baffled. We didn't care how you came to us we were just overjoyed." Cid was beginning to look as if he were going to cry.

"But you were born in a very dangerous time. The war was still going on and Estharian soldiers were still storming every town and village they came across looking for a little girl with a gift. We weren't sure what gift they were looking for, but they were in the hospital the night you were born," Edea paused. "You were wrapped in a blue blanket and even issued a false birth certificate saying you were a boy to keep the soldiers away from you. We took you back to our house in Centra and managed to keep you hidden from the passing soldiers." Selphie and Irvine sat silently as she talked. "I was always paranoid that someday a soldier would stop by the orphanage and try to take you. And then one day Squall and Ellone were left in my care. I knew instantly that Ellone was the one the soldiers were searching for and I knew I had to hide her. It wasn't long after that, that I came across this dying sorceress. She transferred her powers to me and left me the burden of her craft...For weeks I was afraid to touch you children for fear of what I might accidentally do. And then Cid came home from one of his promotional trips that he was on to try and get funding for a garden, and looked as if he'd seen a ghost." Edea looked slightly more distressed.

"There were suspicions that a sorceress was residing in Centra. It was really a rumor started by a Timber official to try and trick the Estharians into leaving. Regardless, I knew this place would be one of the first searched and I had to get as many of you out as possible," Cid stated as he balled his hands up into a fist. "I sent the ship I had Ellone staying on, along with necessary provisions, to pick up Edea as well. It was clear that Edea was a sorceress, but what we weren't sure about was you Selphie. Your mother used to tell me that she could read your mind and sometimes it was like you were communicating with her. We didn't think you had any powers but we were afraid that they may transfer to you in the same manner your mother received them. For that reason you stayed back on the mainland with me.

"There was a second reason. I was afraid to send you. Everyone knew of Esthar's powerful navy and I was afraid to chance loosing both of you should the ship come under seize." A few tears started to run down Selphie's cheek but she just let them fall. "I was able to get some of the children in homes but not all of them." Cid took hold of Edea's hand again.

Selphie looked confused. "So if I was staying with you, why'd I get placed in a home?"

"This is where it gets complicated," Edea said reassuringly. "Cid and I had agreed to do whatever we had to to protect you. You were different than the other children. You were special."

"By the time I had placed most of you in homes, the agreement I'd made with Norg to fund Balamb Garden was getting sticky. He was trying to control how I managed my finances and once threatened to make me comply with his wishes. I hadn't a clue what that meant but I was able to appease him. I made up my mind that day that you couldn't stay with me, and thanks to Norg, couldn't even keep my name. Felch is your mother's maiden name that I gave to you to help hide you from him. If he'd gotten a hold of you, there's no telling what he might've done. I was dependent on him whether I liked it or not. I was never a really strong fighter, and that would've been the only way I could've escaped his control. So I told him I was going on another promotional tour to try and recruit students to attend Garden, and I made an emergency call to a friend of mine in Trabia."

"Mirenne?" Selphie asked.

"No. But he was her cousin," Cid took on a look of dead seriousness. "He contacted her and had her meet me in Fisherman's Horizon. From there I put you on a train and sent you away with her. You had a fake certificate so the soldiers that guarded the Estharian border wouldn't seize you, and you had a copy of this fake folder."

"Whoa now. Wait a minute," Irvine interrupted. "Ya sent her to Esthar to protect her from Estharians?" Irvine looked dismayed.

Cid nodded. "Let me explain...The Sorceress there wasn't interested in girls living in Esthar. They weren't up to the task they were needed for. Instead, estharian soldiers were scouring the rest of the world. Their attention was focused so intently on the rest of the world that I knew they'd never look right under their own noses. For the moment it was the best place to keep Selphie hid where they'd never see her."

"But she had pigtails. It woulda been obvious she was a girl," Irvine argued. Selphie turned back to Cid to hear his response.

"Not after a haircut Irvine. Now please let me finish," Cid stated. "There was never really a clear cut end to the war. The soldiers from Esthar just gradually pulled out and disappeared. It wasn't a few months after I sent you off on that train that Fisherman's Horizon decided to deny Esthar and any other governments use of their rails. There had been too many innocent casualties there due to clashes between troops and locals. "

"But they don't fight," Selphie interrupted.

"They used to. They made Balamb Garden. They made a lot of war equipment. After that war, they vowed never to do it again. Too much blood had been spilled and so they stopped all of their military campaigns and dissolved what small army they had. They basically handed me Balamb Garden after that. They wanted nothing more to do with it.

"Back to the story though. Mirenne disappeared a few years later. I wasn't sure where she was, not that I could've taken you back. Norg was getting more and more oppressive with every year that passed, but I still wanted to see you. I searched, during my business trips, for you but came up empty. It wasn't until you applied for a transfer here that I finally found you. But then you were so much older, I was afraid you'd have forgotten me. I was also afraid that you'd be mad so I remained silent. I had rushed to call Edea and tell her of my discovery, but she wasn't the same. Keep in mind this was right before the second war started and I wasn't sure what to do. There was so much going on."

Selphie sat in utter shock and stared at the two people in front of her. "You're really my parents." In her tight grasp, Toby wiggled loose and dropped to the floor. She allowed him to go, and then smiled sweetly at the two people before her.

~*~*~*~

The next day...

Irvine stepped slowly down the unfamiliar hall and paused at the door in front of him. Adjusting his hat with an unsteady hand, he knocked a few times and thrust his hand back into his duster pocket.

"Come in," A familiar voice called from inside. He took hold of the knob and was surprised when the door fell open. Standing in the doorway, he looked around the blandly decorated hotel room and paused at the thin form in the window. She seemed to gaze past him and he was half tempted to turn and look for her non-existent distraction. The only noise to pass between them was the unsteady breaths they both seemed to share. He leaned against the door frame with his left shoulder and watched as she pulled her right knee up closer to her chest.

"She cracked my skull," Her unexpected words startled him.

"Be thankful that she didn't have any magic junctioned," Irvine stated bluntly. She remained silent. Irvine shifted his weight around and then leaned on his other shoulder. "Things have changed. We went two different ways a long time ago. Ya can't just come back and expect me to just change everything in my life. I don't even know what it is that ya want." He paused. "I didn't even know where ya were until after I made headlines. Ya just show up out of the blue and expect me to welcome ya with open arms? I can't do that."

"It wasn't like it was easy to find ya," She stated.

"And I'd believe that if I didn't know that ya came back home lookin' for me one day while I was gone. What did ya want that day anyway?"

She shifted her gaze to the floor and crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm not sure," She said softly. "I guess part of me wanted to see how things had changed without me and the other part of me wanted to be with ya again. I really miss ya. I did then, although I didn't want to admit it, and I do now."

Irvine softened a little where he stood and pulled his hat from his head. "Things have changed now. I have a life at Garden with a girl that I love. Not only that, but she loves me and Toby as well. I won't leave her. She's too dear to me."

Nikki looked up at him, emerald eyes tearing up. "But I still love you."

Irvine paled a little at her words and winced. An unnerving awkwardness filled the room. "I'm sorry...but I can't say the same. Maybe at one time I thought I felt the same way, but not now. Not after what we've been through."

The words seemed to pierce through her as she stared up at him. "I see. Ya only thought ya might've felt the same way," Her voice was beginning to get an edge to it.

"Look now, don't be twistin' my words. We were both really young and everything was new to us. But like I said, things changed. I'm very happily engaged and will remain that way until the day I become happily married." Nikki stood up abruptly. "I know about the fight you two had yesterday." Irvine stepped into the room and towards her. She stepped a little closer.

"That was between me and her," Nikki stated as she narrowed her eyes.

"Like hell it is," Irvine's voice sharpened. "Don't you ever touch her ever again. So help me if ya do..."

"Don't you threaten me Irvine Kinneas," Nikki shot back.

"I've never threatened ya before but maybe I should. If you ever touch her again, don't kid yourself into thinkin' that I'll just let it slide. I love her and will do anything it takes to protect her." Nikki seemed stunned at his words.

"You're really serious about this girl ain't ya?" She spoke in disbelief.

Irvine narrowed his eyes. "As serious as I was back when I told ya that there was no way I'd let ya abort my baby."

"So now he's only yours."

"Don't start that shit. Ya didn't want him then, and ya ignored him up until here recently because you thought you could use him to manipulate me. If you were really so worried about him you wouldn't have up and disappeared after he was born," Irvine paced around the room, fighting off the tears that came when he was excessively angry.

"You broke up with me," Her voice sharpened as she watched him.

"Of course I did," He turned back to her. "I couldn't allow myself to be with you. How could I trust ya around him? Ya wanted to kill him!" Irvine shouted.

"Ha!" She pointed her finger. "So you did want me out of the picture."

"You volunteered to leave," Irvine stated.

"And I guess your cute little slut just volunteered to be your full time baby-sitter and bed warmer right?" Nikki grinned sarcastically. Irvine spun around to face her, and in the process, knocked half of her belongings off of the dresser. She jumped a bit and took a step back.

"Don't you ever talk about her in such derogative terms again. I might have liked the company of ladies in the past but I never took advantage of one, nor did I ever have them do anything degrading to their stature. You don't know her, or even me anymore." He paused. "I'm gettin' married in less than a month to quite possibly the sweetest girl I've ever known. Toby's gainin' a real mother that day as well." He took a step towards her. She backed into the bed and sat down on it. "I dare ya to interfere with my family again." She swallowed uneasily but remained silent. He stepped back out into the hall and shot her a quick glance. She stared at the floor as she hugged her knees. He put his hat back on and hurried down the steps at the end of the hall. Swinging the door open, he stepped outside into the heavy rain. He hurried across the parking lot and climbed in his truck. Leaning onto the steering wheel and resting his forehead on his arms he listened to the muffled thunder outside.

"So...how'd it go?"

"She won't be a problem anymore," Irvine answered. "Hard to believe I used to really care about her." He wiped at his eyes.

"Some people just change. Too bad its not always for the better, ya know?" Raijin looked at him sympathetically.

"Yeah. But I got Selphie and Toby and that's all that matters," Irvine responded as he put the truck into gear and gave it a little gas.

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element6- Yes she most definitely did......and if you think about it....it was a pregnant woman that threw the last punch. That has to sting.

aratcorien - Selphie didn't use magic because she wasn't anticipating a fight so she had no magic on her. She didn't even have a GF junctioned. She was shopping. You really like pushy girl don't you. I'll have to give her a good name.... Irvine and Selphie related!? What's with you and Barrett!? No no no no *whines* Selphie is not related to Irvine or Nikki. *shudders*

Speaking of Barrett....where is she? Barrett! You promised to review! *drops to the floor and cries. Stops crying when Dante comes and wipes away tears.*

ameli stoncius - *sniff* That was so beautiful. *sniff* You're a good muse. One word of advice though....lay off the sugar..and give me back Toby! Without him this story can't continue!

Dark Topaz - I tried but I fell behind.

diamonddust1414 - The fight scene was supposed to be serious and yet in a way a bit humorous. Irvine's poor truck is so full of dents now...Guess I could always give him a new one....

Verdanii - Please make it happen quick..... I really really really tried but this chapter was hard to write based on my limited, or slightly hazed knowledge of how exactly Ellone and Edea ended up on that white SeeD ship.

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Twenty one's finally up! *collapses in chair* This chapter, although it was mostly written because its the end of the last chapter, was a royal pain! I think it came out okay though. Now for the bad news. There's one more chapter after this and then the story is officially over. Two if you want to count the epilogue. Either way its almost over. For any of you that are waiting for the Zejin story to be updated...please remain patient and faithful, it'll be up before the epilogue and then I'll take your votes on which story to start on next.

Please read and review. Each review really means so much to me. *puppy dog eyes*