Chapter 4
Sifan Leonhart toyed with the straw in his glass of cold coffee while Avatar sat edgily drumming the table with his finger.
"So..." Avatar started, "We managed to get away without squealing about the Ifrit thing...."
"Hmm...yeah..." Sifan said, "Well, it's a good thing none of the White SeeDs came out while Ifrit was doing his thing."
"I am pretty confused..." was all Avatar could say.
"Well...anyway. Quistis was the one who made Relafen leader. Maybe, that's what she wanted him to do. So I guess she has something to do with the guardian force and all that."
"I dunno pal, it's fine with me just as long as we get our butts into those SeeD uniforms..." Avatar said waving to the blonde-haired instructor who made her way towards their table.
"Hi guys..." Quistis said, pulling a chair, "By the look on your faces, I can see both of you are pretty puzzled."
"After what we saw, instructor..." Avatar said, "Who wouldn't be?"
"Here..." Sifan said pushing a sandwich to Quistis as she sat down, "Take a bite and tell us what's going on around here."
Quistis sighed, "Okay...here we go. Well, you've all under the belief that Guardian forces were never in Garden's curriculum. The truth is, they were. Your father used them, I used them and yes, all garden cadets were allowed to do so, 20 years ago."
"Whoa whoa, go easy, instructor. You mean GFs, here in garden?" Avatar said, taken aback.
"Yes..." Quistis said, taking a bite out of the sandwich.
"Then what happened?" Sifan said, "Why did they pull them out?"
"Look, I want you two to be really secretive about this, alright?" Quistis said, leaning forward.
Sifan and Avatar nodded.
"By the time the Ultimecia episode was over, the whole world came to know about guardian forces and their powers. First people didn't think of taking any advantage of these guardian forces. But then, Galbadia's leaders got the idea of conscripting garden cadets and SeeDs for Galbadia's army. Even if garden didn't allow it, they would give almost anything and 'buy' the cadets and SeeDs who were trained with summon magic."
"So that way, they'll have the edge over other armies. Especially Esthar." Avatar said.
"Yes, but Esthar found that out. And well, they did the same thing because President Laguna didn't have control over many things. Soon, everything went chaotic. So the garden committee decided that if nobody was taught summon magic, there wouldn't be any trouble." Quistis said.
Sifan buried his head in his hands, "and today, Relafen pops out Ifrit?"
"I'll explain, Sifan." Quistis said, "For a long time, neither Galbadia nor Esthar troubled garden but they still had their eyes on it. Around two years ago, Esthar's key scientists created a breakthrough in technology. Machinery that trained anyone, even a six-year old, to learn summon magic. Even the best of Galbadia's spies weren't able to get their hands on it. So Galbadia turned to garden again. But we refused to have anything to do with them. Then one day, they made a proposal. An offer, which brought out the greed monster in every garden committee member. They offered to buy the entire garden and also offered every faculty member high positions, social settlements, and earnings three times of what they got from the money out of SeeD missions."
"What kept their hats on?" Avatar asked. "I'd take an offer like that in a jiffy."
"Well, unfortunately, more than two-thirds of the committee were people like you Avatar" Quistis said, "According to the garden rules, however, anything they decided must have at least an 85% vote agreement. Instructor Vallhallan and me are the 16 % that is against the 'selling' of garden to Galbadia's army. In other words Vallhallan and I are the only thing that stands between them and the contract with Galbadia. As you know, Vallhallan and I crossed our 5-year teaching limit long back and the only reason we are here is because of our hundred percent record of SeeD examination passes. A few Garden rules devised long ago protect instructors like us. But they made another rule which said that even one failure under a teacher would allow the committee to dismiss the teacher."
"You mean... if one of your students or Vallhallan's fails the SeeD exam, you guys are out?" Avatar said, irately.
"Yeah...and you guys think the missions they give my batch or Vallhallan's batch are normal?"
"They give your students tough missions so they'll flunk? Then, they can boot you out, bring one of their guys into the committee and get their necessary vote and sell the garden?" Sifan asked.
"Bingo...you're smart, darling." Quistis said winking at Sifan and sipping from her glass, "So...I asked Seifer to teach Relafen a little something to keep you guys, my place, the white SeeDs and this garden safe."
"A la Ifrit." Avatar completed, "I must confess, I like the way you do things instructor."
"All this is giving me a headache." Sifan said, clenching his temple.
"It's Okay darling. I am glad you guys are safe and you're SeeDs now..." Quistis said, "Oh and talking about SeeD. Tonight's the SeeD graduation ball. The official glitterati where you guys turn into real SeeDs."
"Ooh, I am so excited..." Sifan muttered sarcastically.
"I guess you are..." Quistis said smiling, "So who's the lucky girl?"
"Oh please." Sifan mumbled, "That question's for Avatar, not me."
Avatar beamed, "Hey Sifan, remember that brunette I met this morning. We-"
"I am happy for you buddy" Sifan cut in, "Re-al happy."
"Ooh talking of Tania, I have to go meet her. See you, guys. Nice talking to you instructor. Thanks for the lowdown." Avatar said hastily and was soon gone with the wind.
"Geez. A guy wouldn't get his mother down a ladder but when he wants to meet a girl..." Sifan mumbled, sipping his almost empty glass.
"You know, your dad and mom met in a graduation ball." Quistis said, "So did Vallhallan and I."
"Guess it's the most romantic thing that happens in balamb garden, huh?"
"You bet!" She said with a smile on her lips, "Really Sifan, you didn't fix up a partner for tonight?"
"Geez, what's so surprising about that?" Sifan said, running his hand through the locks of his dark brown hair.
"I mean, every girl out there is waiting for you to just look her way today, expectant and bubbling in hope they'll be the one.." Quistis said as she and Sifan rose from the table.
"Aw geez Quistis, gimme a break, will you?" Sifan said on his way to the counter with Quistis.
"Hey this one's on me." She said and placed a few gils on the counter despite Sifan's rambling that he was the rightful one to pay.
They walked through the pathway leading out of the cafeteria. Quistis looked at her watch, "Well, I think I have to meet Vallhallan now."
"Lemme guess. You have something romantic planned like a walk along the golden beach of balamb?"
She smiled, "I guess you can say that. Well, I think some angel will walk into your life the way Rinoa did into Squall's. Anyway, I'll see you around darling..."
After waving goodbye, Sifan slowly made his way to the dormitory.
Even after fifteen years of being married to instructor Vallhallan, Quistis and her husband didn't plan to have a child. For this reason, she often treated Sifan like her own son. Sifan didn't perceive it too much but he always looked upon Quistis as a guide through many things. She and Avatar were two people who made sure Sifan didn't end up cold, withdrawn and lonesome like Squall had been. But some qualities were passed on to Sifan from his father. One of them was Squall's ability to shut his feelings out and also his incapability to materialize his emotions into words. But Sifan never concerned himself with emotions and feelings. At least till that time, he didn't have to.
He opened his room door. Everything was a mess as usual. He threw his gunblade in a corner and fell flat on his bed. He was really tired from all the things that had happened. Nida, the Ragnarok's pilot, had told him on their way back from the ice island a few hours ago, that Squall, Rinoa and everyone else had planned to stay back in Esthar for a valid reason. That day was Laguna's last day of presidency over Esthar. Squall and everyone else planned to give a surprise farewell party. The official stepping-down ceremony was the next morning. They had managed to persuade Laguna to attend the graduation ball in balamb garden to watch his grandson. And when he came back to Esthar, they would surprise him with the festivities. Squall had sent word to Sifan that he had to accompany Laguna back to Esthar along with Quistis, Vallhallan, and Avatar in order to attend the party.
Sifan didn't notice it in the Ragnarok but it occurred to him that Relafen hadn't been invited to the party.
[Well, I guess there was no reason to. But the fact is, Seifer and Relafen might as well be the reason Avatar and me are graduating today, alive and well. Somehow, it really doesn't feel right. Maybe they just forgot. They hardly see Seifer or Relafen ever since they moved into Esthar.]
Sifan watched the fan in his room circle and he slowly closed his eyes, feeling sleepy from the fatigue. He had to go pick his SeeD uniform up from headmaster Ronan in a few minutes but after what Quistis had told him in the cafeteria, he had lost all reverence he had for the 'old goat', as Relafen used to call him. He let the thought of being honored by the goat with the SeeD uniform slip away from his mind and fell asleep.
************
Sifan Leonhart woke up to the sound of Avatar Fenis banging on his dorm door.
"For God's sake, Sifan. OPEN UP!" came the annoyed voice of his friend.
Sifan sleepily rubbed his eyes, got down from his bed and opened the door.
Avatar Fenis looked as striking as ever. The gold and shiny red threads were intertwined beautifully on the bluish velvet material of his SeeD uniform, with his name curio graphed on the pocket in a Lucida handwriting font. He had his ponytail hanging beside his collar in front. If Sifan Leonhart had been a girl, he would have fainted.
Sifan, however yawned, "uh...is it time already?"
Avatar stormed in to the messy room, "For God's sake, Sifan. Where the hell were you? Everybody was there. EVEN Relafen. Geez, you know how it felt when they called out your name in the headmaster's room and you weren't there? Really, they all looked at me sas if I was zee offeeecial guarzian of seeefan leeyunhart."
"Ok ok, so I overslept a bit."
"Yeah and what a time to." Avatar said as Sifan washed his face at the sink, "Anyway, I got you your uniform. God, what's your mom gonna say-"
"Shut up already." Sifan said grabbing his uniform from Avatar. It was the same as Avatar's. Sifan put on the SeeD blazer and a black leather pant and almost walked over to his boots before Avatar caught him by the elbow of his arm, "uh uh, pretty boy, you aint going nowhere dressed so plainly, geez, just look at your hair."
"Give it a break, Avatar, I am just gonna stand in a corner and-"
"Hell, no." Avatar replied, pushing Sifan to the mirror despite his rebellious protests.
************
Sifan Leonhart toyed with the straw in his glass of cold coffee while Avatar sat edgily drumming the table with his finger.
"So..." Avatar started, "We managed to get away without squealing about the Ifrit thing...."
"Hmm...yeah..." Sifan said, "Well, it's a good thing none of the White SeeDs came out while Ifrit was doing his thing."
"I am pretty confused..." was all Avatar could say.
"Well...anyway. Quistis was the one who made Relafen leader. Maybe, that's what she wanted him to do. So I guess she has something to do with the guardian force and all that."
"I dunno pal, it's fine with me just as long as we get our butts into those SeeD uniforms..." Avatar said waving to the blonde-haired instructor who made her way towards their table.
"Hi guys..." Quistis said, pulling a chair, "By the look on your faces, I can see both of you are pretty puzzled."
"After what we saw, instructor..." Avatar said, "Who wouldn't be?"
"Here..." Sifan said pushing a sandwich to Quistis as she sat down, "Take a bite and tell us what's going on around here."
Quistis sighed, "Okay...here we go. Well, you've all under the belief that Guardian forces were never in Garden's curriculum. The truth is, they were. Your father used them, I used them and yes, all garden cadets were allowed to do so, 20 years ago."
"Whoa whoa, go easy, instructor. You mean GFs, here in garden?" Avatar said, taken aback.
"Yes..." Quistis said, taking a bite out of the sandwich.
"Then what happened?" Sifan said, "Why did they pull them out?"
"Look, I want you two to be really secretive about this, alright?" Quistis said, leaning forward.
Sifan and Avatar nodded.
"By the time the Ultimecia episode was over, the whole world came to know about guardian forces and their powers. First people didn't think of taking any advantage of these guardian forces. But then, Galbadia's leaders got the idea of conscripting garden cadets and SeeDs for Galbadia's army. Even if garden didn't allow it, they would give almost anything and 'buy' the cadets and SeeDs who were trained with summon magic."
"So that way, they'll have the edge over other armies. Especially Esthar." Avatar said.
"Yes, but Esthar found that out. And well, they did the same thing because President Laguna didn't have control over many things. Soon, everything went chaotic. So the garden committee decided that if nobody was taught summon magic, there wouldn't be any trouble." Quistis said.
Sifan buried his head in his hands, "and today, Relafen pops out Ifrit?"
"I'll explain, Sifan." Quistis said, "For a long time, neither Galbadia nor Esthar troubled garden but they still had their eyes on it. Around two years ago, Esthar's key scientists created a breakthrough in technology. Machinery that trained anyone, even a six-year old, to learn summon magic. Even the best of Galbadia's spies weren't able to get their hands on it. So Galbadia turned to garden again. But we refused to have anything to do with them. Then one day, they made a proposal. An offer, which brought out the greed monster in every garden committee member. They offered to buy the entire garden and also offered every faculty member high positions, social settlements, and earnings three times of what they got from the money out of SeeD missions."
"What kept their hats on?" Avatar asked. "I'd take an offer like that in a jiffy."
"Well, unfortunately, more than two-thirds of the committee were people like you Avatar" Quistis said, "According to the garden rules, however, anything they decided must have at least an 85% vote agreement. Instructor Vallhallan and me are the 16 % that is against the 'selling' of garden to Galbadia's army. In other words Vallhallan and I are the only thing that stands between them and the contract with Galbadia. As you know, Vallhallan and I crossed our 5-year teaching limit long back and the only reason we are here is because of our hundred percent record of SeeD examination passes. A few Garden rules devised long ago protect instructors like us. But they made another rule which said that even one failure under a teacher would allow the committee to dismiss the teacher."
"You mean... if one of your students or Vallhallan's fails the SeeD exam, you guys are out?" Avatar said, irately.
"Yeah...and you guys think the missions they give my batch or Vallhallan's batch are normal?"
"They give your students tough missions so they'll flunk? Then, they can boot you out, bring one of their guys into the committee and get their necessary vote and sell the garden?" Sifan asked.
"Bingo...you're smart, darling." Quistis said winking at Sifan and sipping from her glass, "So...I asked Seifer to teach Relafen a little something to keep you guys, my place, the white SeeDs and this garden safe."
"A la Ifrit." Avatar completed, "I must confess, I like the way you do things instructor."
"All this is giving me a headache." Sifan said, clenching his temple.
"It's Okay darling. I am glad you guys are safe and you're SeeDs now..." Quistis said, "Oh and talking about SeeD. Tonight's the SeeD graduation ball. The official glitterati where you guys turn into real SeeDs."
"Ooh, I am so excited..." Sifan muttered sarcastically.
"I guess you are..." Quistis said smiling, "So who's the lucky girl?"
"Oh please." Sifan mumbled, "That question's for Avatar, not me."
Avatar beamed, "Hey Sifan, remember that brunette I met this morning. We-"
"I am happy for you buddy" Sifan cut in, "Re-al happy."
"Ooh talking of Tania, I have to go meet her. See you, guys. Nice talking to you instructor. Thanks for the lowdown." Avatar said hastily and was soon gone with the wind.
"Geez. A guy wouldn't get his mother down a ladder but when he wants to meet a girl..." Sifan mumbled, sipping his almost empty glass.
"You know, your dad and mom met in a graduation ball." Quistis said, "So did Vallhallan and I."
"Guess it's the most romantic thing that happens in balamb garden, huh?"
"You bet!" She said with a smile on her lips, "Really Sifan, you didn't fix up a partner for tonight?"
"Geez, what's so surprising about that?" Sifan said, running his hand through the locks of his dark brown hair.
"I mean, every girl out there is waiting for you to just look her way today, expectant and bubbling in hope they'll be the one.." Quistis said as she and Sifan rose from the table.
"Aw geez Quistis, gimme a break, will you?" Sifan said on his way to the counter with Quistis.
"Hey this one's on me." She said and placed a few gils on the counter despite Sifan's rambling that he was the rightful one to pay.
They walked through the pathway leading out of the cafeteria. Quistis looked at her watch, "Well, I think I have to meet Vallhallan now."
"Lemme guess. You have something romantic planned like a walk along the golden beach of balamb?"
She smiled, "I guess you can say that. Well, I think some angel will walk into your life the way Rinoa did into Squall's. Anyway, I'll see you around darling..."
After waving goodbye, Sifan slowly made his way to the dormitory.
Even after fifteen years of being married to instructor Vallhallan, Quistis and her husband didn't plan to have a child. For this reason, she often treated Sifan like her own son. Sifan didn't perceive it too much but he always looked upon Quistis as a guide through many things. She and Avatar were two people who made sure Sifan didn't end up cold, withdrawn and lonesome like Squall had been. But some qualities were passed on to Sifan from his father. One of them was Squall's ability to shut his feelings out and also his incapability to materialize his emotions into words. But Sifan never concerned himself with emotions and feelings. At least till that time, he didn't have to.
He opened his room door. Everything was a mess as usual. He threw his gunblade in a corner and fell flat on his bed. He was really tired from all the things that had happened. Nida, the Ragnarok's pilot, had told him on their way back from the ice island a few hours ago, that Squall, Rinoa and everyone else had planned to stay back in Esthar for a valid reason. That day was Laguna's last day of presidency over Esthar. Squall and everyone else planned to give a surprise farewell party. The official stepping-down ceremony was the next morning. They had managed to persuade Laguna to attend the graduation ball in balamb garden to watch his grandson. And when he came back to Esthar, they would surprise him with the festivities. Squall had sent word to Sifan that he had to accompany Laguna back to Esthar along with Quistis, Vallhallan, and Avatar in order to attend the party.
Sifan didn't notice it in the Ragnarok but it occurred to him that Relafen hadn't been invited to the party.
[Well, I guess there was no reason to. But the fact is, Seifer and Relafen might as well be the reason Avatar and me are graduating today, alive and well. Somehow, it really doesn't feel right. Maybe they just forgot. They hardly see Seifer or Relafen ever since they moved into Esthar.]
Sifan watched the fan in his room circle and he slowly closed his eyes, feeling sleepy from the fatigue. He had to go pick his SeeD uniform up from headmaster Ronan in a few minutes but after what Quistis had told him in the cafeteria, he had lost all reverence he had for the 'old goat', as Relafen used to call him. He let the thought of being honored by the goat with the SeeD uniform slip away from his mind and fell asleep.
************
Sifan Leonhart woke up to the sound of Avatar Fenis banging on his dorm door.
"For God's sake, Sifan. OPEN UP!" came the annoyed voice of his friend.
Sifan sleepily rubbed his eyes, got down from his bed and opened the door.
Avatar Fenis looked as striking as ever. The gold and shiny red threads were intertwined beautifully on the bluish velvet material of his SeeD uniform, with his name curio graphed on the pocket in a Lucida handwriting font. He had his ponytail hanging beside his collar in front. If Sifan Leonhart had been a girl, he would have fainted.
Sifan, however yawned, "uh...is it time already?"
Avatar stormed in to the messy room, "For God's sake, Sifan. Where the hell were you? Everybody was there. EVEN Relafen. Geez, you know how it felt when they called out your name in the headmaster's room and you weren't there? Really, they all looked at me sas if I was zee offeeecial guarzian of seeefan leeyunhart."
"Ok ok, so I overslept a bit."
"Yeah and what a time to." Avatar said as Sifan washed his face at the sink, "Anyway, I got you your uniform. God, what's your mom gonna say-"
"Shut up already." Sifan said grabbing his uniform from Avatar. It was the same as Avatar's. Sifan put on the SeeD blazer and a black leather pant and almost walked over to his boots before Avatar caught him by the elbow of his arm, "uh uh, pretty boy, you aint going nowhere dressed so plainly, geez, just look at your hair."
"Give it a break, Avatar, I am just gonna stand in a corner and-"
"Hell, no." Avatar replied, pushing Sifan to the mirror despite his rebellious protests.
************