Chapter 12

Dreaming(?);

The Centra Excavation site.

Upon dissmounting the Train at the 'East academy' station, Squall led the group across Galbadia's 'Monterosa' Plateau. The plateau was seperated from the rest of Galbadia by a large canyon wall.

Squall, Zell, Rinoa, Quistis and Selphie all truged along the 'Yaulny' Canyon, until they reached an opening. In between the canyon walls, was a forest.

"This is it." Quitis informed Squall.

The group entered the forest causiously, one by one. Selphie was the last to enter. Something about the forest seemed strangely familiar to her, but she couldn't quite place her finger on it.

"We're not too far from Galbadia Garden now!" Quistis annonced.

They all stoped a moment to rest.

"Heeey, I was just thinking..." Selphie began. "There might be some bad news from the Galbadian government." Selphie raised her voice in an excited tone. "What if we get caught and then get broadcast to the whole world...!?"

Zell, who had been silent the whole trip, walked over to Selphie and spoke angrily, shaking his fists.

"Whatever happens, happens! Now come on! Let's just keep going!" he yelled.

Zell lowered his voice now, trying to calm down.

"I- I'm worried about Balamb Garden." he said. Zell droped his head, and spoke sadly. "If anything happens to Garden, it's all my fault. I'm the one who said we were all from Garden..."

Zell walked over to Squall. While he couldn't erase what he had done, Zell wanted to be assured that Garden would be safe. Any kind words would help. The guilt, increased by the uncertainty of what could happen, was almost too much for Zell to take.

"You think the president will retaliate on Garden?" he asked Squall, longing for an optomistic reply.

Squall turned his face away from Zell. He didn't know what to say. The thought that Garden might be attacked was unpleasent, but Squall had to assume the worst.

"Can't get our hopes up..." he reminded himself.

"Maybe." he replied.

Zell hung his head again.

"...Figures..."

Then, a thought came to him. He grabbed Squall's jacket, shaking him as he spoke.

"B-B-But, we have a whole bunch of SeeDs at Balmab Garden!" Zell pleaded. "They wouldn't lose to the Galbadian army, would they?"

"What does he want me to say? 'Everything's going to be ok'? 'Don't worry'? ...I'm not gonna get everyone's hopes up, just because Zell wants to feel better..."

"Depends how strong the army is." Squall replied plainly.

Zell let go of him.

"I know, but..." His voice trailed off. It was no use trying to get encouragement from Squall. Zell just became more worried.

Sudennly, Rinoa, who had been listening a few yards away, couldn't stand Squall's attitude anymore.

"Oh, you're just a great leader, aren't you..." she began, sarcastically. She walked over to Squall, placed her hands on her knees and looked up at him.

"Do you actually have fun acting so callous towards your comrades?" Rinoa asked with irritation.

"...Not again." thought Squall. How often was she going to get mad with him?

"Zell wants your support." she continued.

"I knew it was gonna be something like that..."

Rinoa placed her hands on her hips, frusterated.

"Any kind of encouragement will make..."

Squall thought to himself as she spoke.

"That's just to ease your mind. Am I the only one who thinks that? No. I'm sure Seifer..."

Rinoa raised her voice, innterupting Squall's thoughts.

"Don't you ever worry about or even think about the well-being of your comrades!?'

"I don't belive in relying on others." Squall thought coldly.

He just stood there as Rinoa spoke. She was trying to get through to him, but he didn't respond. It was frusterating.

"Don't you understand!?" she pleaded angrily.

"...Whatever." Squall thought. He didn't want to hear anymore of this.

"Are you listening, Squall?" Rinoa asked. She saw Squall roll his eyes and became even more irritated.

Squall was about to walk away and ignore Rinoa's comments, but an odd sensation rushed over Squall, weakening his body.

"...What the!?" he thought. He could hear and feel ringing in his ears, and he started to become drousy.

"...This sensation..."'

Squall put his hand to his forehead, and started swaying back and forth until be started to fall.

Rinoa backed away as Squall fell over, unconcious. She gasped.

"What happened to him?!"

Quistis began swaying back and forth sleepilly as well.

"..Unnnhh..." She fell over.

Selphie put her hand to her forehead, her eyes glazed over. She spoke in a drousy voice.

"...M-Me, too..." she said. Selphie then plopped down on the grass and began to sleep.

Zell and Rinoa looked on at them as they laid on the forest floor, 'sleeping'. Rinoa was scared.

"What's going on!?" she asked in a frightened voice.

Zell squatted down, examining Selphie.

"I think..." he began. "they went to the 'dream world'."

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Squall found himself staring over a cliff, looking at what appeared to be an excavation facility below. Once again, he found himself unable to control his speech or movements. Squall hoped that this wasn't what he thought it was, but he realized that he was again 'inside' Laguna Loire. He heard two voices speaking behind him.

"Kiros, you sure this is the place?" a heavy voice sounded.

"Positive." the other replied.

"I Don't wanna be patrolling the wrong place, like last time." the heavy voice said. Squall recognized it.

"Ward... Right...?" Squall thought. "And the other is Kiros..."

Sudennly, 'Squall' turned around to face the two men.

"Ahhh, sorry... This ain't the place." Laguna said apologetically.

Ward and Kiros shook their heads. They thought he was joking.

"This is it," Kiros assured him. "Let's go commander."

"It is...?" Laguna thought.

He pulled a piece of paper from his uniform paocket, and compared it with what he saw down below.

"We're in the right spot but I..."

"I brought the wrong map." Laguna admitted.

"Great... I have to listen to this moron's thoughts again..." Squall thought sarcastically.

Ward and Kiros put their hands on their heads with irritation.

"Here we go again..." Ward thought.

"What on earth...!?" Quistis attempted to speak. She awoke from her sudden 'faint' to find herself unable to control her movements. Not only that, but she had somehow 'transformed' into a tall, heavy-set man.

"I... This... What happened? How did I get here?! Where am I...?" Quistis' thoughts raced. She had no idea what was going on, or where eveybody else was. All she could see was the two Galbadian soldiers in front of her.

"Somehow, I have a bad feeling about this..." one of the soldiers said. It was Laguna. "Seriously, I have a BAAAD feeling...! There's somthin' fishy goin' on here! You know what the old folks say... 'The unfamiliar always happens'..."

Selphie had found herself 'inside' Kiros again. She was surprised, but she drew some comfort from the fact that Squall and Quistis were probably going through the same thing 'inside' Laguna and Ward. She saw both of them pass out before she had.

"We all 'dreamt' the same thing before... So they must be having the same expirience." she thought. "But...Oh no! Poor Quistis....She doesn't have any idea what's going on! ...Not that any of us really do, anyway..."

"You mean... 'unexpected', right?" 'Selphie' said. It was Kiros talking.

Ward chimed in.

"You only got the 'un' part right."

"What am I saying...?! I can't control myself at all... Is it me? What's happening?!" Quistis was confused, but she tried to remain calm. This was such a strange expirience. She hoped that she was dreaming, but it seemed so real.

"Aah, shut up!" Laguna replied."Stop your clamorin' and make sure all your gear's equipped. Now let's move out!" he ordered.

They all started running down the path along the cliff's edge. They brushed by numerous ferns and other jungle plants as they ran down.

They reached the bottem to find a large mining structure. It was lined with metal walkways, and Conveyer belts carrying heaps of earth on them.

"But seriously... This place sure is strange..." Laguna voiced his concern again. He noted a large pile of stones .

"What the heck is this big pile of rocks? You think these are natural rocks for carving tombstones...?"

Kiros rolled his eyes.

"Who knows... or cares?"

"Speaking of strange..." Ward began. "Why have you been running around so strange?" he asked Laguna.

Laguna had been running with his back hunched over. Ward found it odd.

"Strange...? What do you mean strange? ... Just bein' cautious. That's the basic rule of thu..."

A sharp noise in the distance interuppted him.

"...Hey?"

A silver-suited figure ran towards the group.

"Looks like we've got company... Estar soldiers." Laguna warned. "Still wearin' those flashy uniforms...."

Sudennly, another Estarian soldier appeared behind them. They were suronded.

"Laguna...!!!!" Ward yelled.

Two more silver-suited Estarians joined.

"Don't be such a weenie!" Laguna laughed. But he then turned around and saw how many they were up agaisnt.

"What the...!?

The first soldier lunged at them, Laguna noticed, and shot at him with his machine gun. Luckily, the soldier was attacking at close range. If he hadn't been, the bullets from Laguna's gun wouldn't have even pirced the strong Estarian uniform.

That soldier fell easily. But the other three stood poised to attack.

"Wasn't our mission just to patrol...?" Kiros asked nervously.

"Why does it have to turn out like this..." Ward thought aloud.

"Seriously...! I wasn't expecting this at all!" Laguna agreed.

The soldiers ran towards them.

Kiros ran at one soldier with his wristblades. They were called 'Katal'. He had a difficult time cutting through the uniform, esspcially when the soldier was fighting back.

Ward kept on swinging his harpoon and tossing it at the Estar soldiers. Soon, all of the Estar soldiers had been killed.

Laguna, Kiros, and Ward dusted themselves off. Laguna looked at the bodies of the Estar soldiers and sighed.

"This is not what I had planned for my life..." he thought sadly.

"What?! You're a soldier... what'd you expect...?" Squall thought.

They all heard a rumbling sound. Ward thought it might be more soldiers.

"There's more coming...?" he said.

"There's no end to this!" Kiros yelled.

"Better make a run for it!" Laguna called to his friends.

They ran along the metal walkway until they reached a ladder leading down to a cavern below. Laguna looked down.

Beneath the metal walk was what appeared to be an ice cavern. The cave's walls were a icy, transparent blue color.

The Estar Soldiers were aparently mineing for something down there.

"I wonder what on earth would they find here...?" Laguna Thought.

"Hmmm..." Squall thought to himself. "That makes two of us..."

Quistis had calmed down at this point. She was before struggleing to speak, or move. But she began to accept that there was no way out of this odd situation right now.

"I hope this is a dream..." she thought.

Laguna, Ward and Kiros climbed down the ladder and into the cave. They saw metal pillars, and bits and pieces of machinery all over the place.

"Those Estar soldiers sure did a number on this place..." Ward thought. "Whatever it is, anyway..."

Quistis had to gather up all of her strength to not 'freak-out' now. Hearing his thoughts and being inside this man's body was becoming just too wierd.

The trio walk along the floor of the cave. Laguna was searching around, picking up bits and pices of small, metal objects, examining them with interest.

"Com'on, Laguna. Let's keep movin'..." Ward urged, looking back nervously.

As they tuned a corner, the group saw three hatches in the ground. They walked across the doors carefully.

As Laguna stepped on the second door pannel, he heard a noise.

*Creak!*

"...?!"

Laguna bent down to look.

"(Hey! The latch on this door is loose...)" He whispered to himself. "...I know!" He said excitedly. "If we use this... Some stubborn Estar fool won't be able to come after us!"

Kiros eyed Laguna strangly.

"What the heck are you up to?' he asked.

"Somethin' stupid again, I bet." Ward chimmed in.

Laghuna started with his 'Mr. cool' routine. He spoke in a cocky voice.

"You guys... You're gonna regret sayin' that. They say, 'One who makes fun of a genius will end up cryin' in the end.'."

"Kiros looked puzzled. Laguna was always misquoting stuff. It was horrible, esspecially for such a talented writer like Laguna, and Kiros could never figure out where he was 'quoting' it from.

"...So who's the genius...?" Ward mocked.

"Erghhhhhh! Just shut up!" Laguna yelled, losing his compusure. "ANYWAY! The lever for this hatch is broken." he started agin. "So if we just loosen it a bit more..."

Kiros understood now.

"When they come after us from that side and..."

"YES!" Laguna exclaimed. "Youuu guessed it! They'll walk over it without expecting a thing! Then, all of a sudden, WHOOPS!... And down they go."

Laguna smiled with pride,

"I have to admit... I really am a genius."

"Hah!" Ward laughed. "...Like the Estar soldiers are really gonna fall for this trap."

"HEY! They might..." Selphie thought, defending Laguna. She liked him.

"We won't know until we try!" Laguna argued. "And those who never try will never know! So... I'm gonna do it!"

He realized something though.

"Uhhh... Just remeber, if we tamper with the lever, we won't be able to make it back to the other side... It'd be idiotic to fall for our own trap..." he warned.

Laguna walked over to the lever on the groud.

"So here goes... You guys, stand back."

Laguna put his fingers around the lever and twisted it loose. The door was just barely hanging on now.

"There!" Laguna said. "Lets go!"

"That'll buy us some time..." he thought.

They ran further down the cavern and looked around. For an ice cavern, there sure was a lot of structure invovled. It didn't seem quite natural.

"...Weird." thought Laguna. The cave wasn't really even that cold. Though the walls looked sort of like ice, they felt more like smooth stone, or even glass.

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An Estar soldier sudennly spotted the Galbadians from a distance. He ran towards Laguna, Kiros and Ward, but stopped right on the door that Laguna had loosened. He fell quickly.

"Aaaaaaggghhh...!"

Laguna and the others were too far down the cave to hear the soldier plummit. Laguna just hoped that his 'plan' had worked.

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As they moved deeper into the cavern, they turned a corner and passed by a large boulder. Moving even further up, they saw another one, unmoved on the floor of the cave. Behind this boulder was a switch on the ground.

"The heck's this?" Laguna asked. "A blue and red switch, and two fuses...?"

Laguna looked at the device, perplexed.

Kiros rolled his eyes again.

"A detonator...? You know."

"Ohhhhh. I get it." Laguna replied. "The short blue fuse is for that boulder... and the long red fuse is for the boulder further down?"

Ward saw a look in Laguna's eyes that he didn't like.

"Hey man! Are you crazy!?" he yelled. "You don't even know how powerful that thing will be!"

Laguna just shrugged his shoulders.

"Ahh, I bet it's not all that. The detonator's right here, so as long as we stay behind it, we'll be all right."

"Well... I guess so..."

"Lets see..." Laguna began, already tampering with the device. He looked at the two switches and decided to try the red one.

"I'm gonna try this red one first..." Laguna informed them. "The bomb blast won't reach us here. Just stay put."

Laguna flipped the switch up. A loud boom rang throughout the cave. The boulder further down intensified the sound as it started rolling down the cavern.

*--------------------------PLACE MARKER---------------------*

(Sick of reading right now? Take a break, and find your spot right here when you come back to the story!)

"W-W-W-WHAT??!!" Laguna exclaimed over the noise and rumbling of the boulder.

"That was... awfully loud." Kiros said, taking his hands off of his ears.

"Lucky we were here..." Ward agreed.

"That's what I told you before!" Laguna said. "You should always check how powerful the thing could be..."

Ward interupted him.

"Wasn't that... me, who said that?" he said, folding his arms.

Laguna scratched his head nervously.

"...Uh...Ah...Hm.... Anyway, we're all still alive, right!?"

Ward and Kiros liked being around Laguna, he was fun. But he could be so dense sometimes. He often acted really immature.

"Okay!" Laguna said. "Let's give the other one a try. I'll bet this will really put a cramp in those soldiers style..."

Laguna bent down again to flip the blue switch. He flipped it, and heard it start ticking.

"It's gonna blow! Run for it!!!"

The trio ran further down the cave quickly. Even Ward's heavy body ran faster than Kiros' or Laguna's.

Upon reaching a safe distance they waited for the blast. Nothing. Only a *click*.

"What happened...?" Laguna thought.

"That was... awfully quiet." Kiors said, walking back down to the boulder.

"I was expecting a blast of somesort." Ward said.

The boulder started rolling down slowly. It had only taken a small detonation to move it.

"See! I told you! I told you it wan't all that powerful!" Laguna chidded.

Ward and Kiros shot knowing galnces at each other and began following Laguna down the cavern again. As they did, Laguna found something else to interest him. A little metal bit attached to a large rock, lodged in the wall.

"Hey what's this...?" Laguna said pressing on the device.

The boulder sudennly shook and fell down into a deep hole. The rumbling scared Ward and Kiros.

"Geez... You have to go around touching everything like a little kid, don't you?" Ward lectured him.

"Chill out a little, will ya...?" Kiros agreed.

"WHATEVER MAN!" Laguna yelled. "Thanks to ME, those Estar soldiers and that rock are history. It's like killing two pigs with one stone. I am just so awsome... Genius, I tell you..."

"Pigs?" Ward said.

"Don't you mean... birds?" Kiros corrected.

Laguna just ignored them and kept moving down the cave. He was still running with his back hunched over, thinking that he would avoid being seen that way.

"I'm not just messing around... I'm sabatoging... uh... whatever it is they're doing down here..." Laguna thought.

They came into an area of the 'ice' cave that was no longer the bright tranparent blue that the rest of the cavern was. The far end was a stunning pink and orange reflection, leading into a green coloring. It was beautiful.

"Holy... " Laguna began. He couldn't finish his words. The sight was too much to describe.

"That sure is pretty..." Kiros said quietly.

Squall, Quistis and Selphie didn't know what to think. They watched in awe through Laguna, Ward, and Kiros' eyes at the spectacular colors.

"Let's keep movin'!" Laguna finally commanded.

They ran out of the area into another typical part of the cave. If any of this odd place could be called 'typical'.

They entered another portion of the cavern. It housed a staircase leading outside, so they followed it.

Laguna, Kiros, and Ward found themselves staring out into the ocean, on top of a rocky cliff. Before any of them had time to speak, they heard the footsteps of Estar soldiers following.

"Don't tell me..." Laguna whined.

"Of all the worst possible..." Kiros began.

"Predicaments?" Ward guessed.

They watched as what apeared to be two Estar soldiers approached them from the stairs.

"Great... Now we're stuck between a cliff and Estar soldiers..." Kiros thought. "I hope we can make it out of this..."

Laguna looked at the soldiers strangly. They didn't move very naturally.

"Waitaminute...!" Laguna realized. "These aren't normal soldiers..."

Estar soldiers usually wore a shiny silver outfit, marked by multi-colored designs, emblems of Estar. These soldiers matched the appearence of that, except that they were wearing all blue. Even their usually clear eyepices in the mask were a bright blue color.

Laguna recognized this as the mark of a cybernetic-soldier. An Estar cyborg.

"Oh no..."

Kiros looked over at him, and mouthed the word.

"(Cyborgs...!?)"

Laguna nodded, nervously biting his bottem lip.

The psuedo-soldiers began to attack quickly, with incredible precision. Laguna was able to get quite a few shots in, however, and Ward slashed at them with his harpoon. The cyborgs were strong, but not incrediably fast.

"You think we can fight these robots off!?" Kiros yelled at Laguna as he tried to slice through one of the cyborg's arms.

Laguna was about to open his mouth, but the cyborg he was fighting shot at him with it's Axe-bladed gun.

"Arrhh!" Laguna yelled in pain.

The bullet didn't pirce his flesh, but it was lodged in Laguna's uniform pretty well. Part of it might stab into him if he moved the wrong way. Galbadian uniforms had a lot of metal on them, and part of it was ramming right into Laguna's ribs.

Kiros finally jabbed both of his Katal into the cyborg's gut. Wires and circuits were pulled out and the robot began buzzing strangly.

"What's it doing?" Ward asked. He had run the other 'soldier' through with his harpoon. It laid on the ground, impaled and unable to move.

"I don't know..." Kiros backed away.

Sudennly, the cyberbetic soldier ludged out past Laguna, knocking him down, and attacked Ward and Kiros with a swing from it's bladed weapon.

"Uhhhggrrhh..!" Ward and Kiros both cried out as they fell down. The attack had been charged with electrical impulses, and nearly killed them.

The robot fell over and blew out it's circuits. The glowing blue eyes darkened and the hum of it's mechanical innerards died down.

"Shit!" Laguna excalimed, looking at Kiros and Ward.

This is what he was afraid of. When these Estar cyborgs were critically damaged, they had a deeply hidden backup system that unleashed an almost always fatal attack. Laguna hadn't heard of one soldier who'd surived an encounter with these Estar machines.

Ward and Kiros had surrvived, somehow, though. Laguna could see that. But he didn't know how badly they were injured.

"We'll have to start moving... If we stay here then we're all as good as dead, anyway.." he thought

Laguna crawled over to the edge of the cliff.

"Look, the ocean... We're saved!" he exclaimed.

They could still escape.

"Lady luck is on our side! We can escape to Galbadia!!!" Laguna was starting to sound a little overly optomistic.

Kiros looked up. He was barly able to lift his head, but he managed to roll his eyes and speak.

"One would say we've been run down... That's what thery'd normally say..." his voice sounded weak, but Laguna could still hear the familiar sarcasam come through.

Laguna stood up. His uniform was still jabbing into him, and he was worn out. But he managed to keep smileing.

"Don't say that." he teased. "It might come true. Didn't your grandmother tell you that?"

Laguna walked over to Kiros, and squatted down.

"...If you say something bad... It will come true... Yeah, I think she did." Kiros responded.

Ward tried to laugh at this. But something was wrong.

"Ggghh... rrrhhh.."

"What'd you say?" Laguna responded. It sounded like words, but it came out in a gurgle.

"I think... his throat... was injured... He lost... his voice." Kiros slowly explained.

"It... wa...fu.. you..." Ward's babbleing could almost be understood now.

"Say again?" Laguna said.

"If Kiros is right... this might be the last thing Ward ever says... Dammit! This is so horrible..." Laguna thought. "...Whatever! We're going to get out of here..."

Ward looked up at Laguna, half of his face was covered with blood.

"It...was...fun...you...guys..." Ward struggled to speak from his damaged throat.

"La...guna...Ki...ros... It...was...fun..."

Ward felt like death was creeping up on him. He was feeling weaker and weaker as each moment passed, and he was losing blood.

Laguna caught the disturbing meaning in his words. Ward was expecting to die here, but Laguna wouldn't stand for it.

"Ward, that's way uncool. It's not cool to say things like that."

Laguna bent down closer to his friend. He looked at Ward's injurys.

"He's hurt... But they can both make it...." Laguna thought.

"Just for that, you're gettin' the Cuchi-Cuchi treatment!"

Laguna pinched Ward's shoulder hard, but playfully.

"How's that, huh!? Want more!? Well!?"

"......"

Ward couldn't utter another word. His voice was gone now.

Laguna knew that they were both probably in a lot of pain, but as he checked them out, he didn't see anything that would kill them... Unless they stayed here.

Laguna peered over the edge of the cliff to get a better look. What he saw surprised him.

"WHOA!!!" he excalimed. "Check it out, a boat! We're gettin' on!" he commanded.

"A...vessel... They'd..normally...call...it..."Kiros joked, weakly.

"Boat, vessel, whatever. We're going back to Galbadia!" Laguna demanded

Seeing that neither of them could really move just yet, Laguna decided to 'help them out'.

He grabbed Kiros by the arm, and helped him up. Then he tossed him over the edge, into the cold water below.

Next, he grabbed Ward by the arm,.

"Umph! Boy Ward.... You're a bit too heavy for me to carrry..." Laguna thought.

But he tossed Ward over the edge all the same

He looked down and saw that they were safely floating above the water.

"You guys... sure have guts." Laguna yelled down. "You know how high this cliff is...!?"

Laguna was going to try climbing down instead of just jumping. He was a little afraid of hights. But as he was crawling over the edge, he slipped.

"Oh sh...! Oh no! NO WAY!!!"

He screamed all the way down.

"Dammit!" Squall thought. "This idiot is gonna get himself..."

Everything went blank. Squall didn't hear Laguna's thoughts any more.

"What?! Did he..." Squall paused. He didn't know what it would mean for him if Laguna had died...

"What happened?"

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In the forest, Zell was pacing back and forth frantically. Quistis Squall, and Selphie still 'slept' on the ground. Rinoa stood there biting her bottem lip.

Zell had explined what he meant by 'dreamworld'. He told Rinoa all about what had happened on the train to Timber. Rinoa didn't know what to think about it, or even if she belived it. But she was getting scared.

"Is this gonna happen to me and Zell, too...?" She wondered.

Sudennly, she looked over at Squall's seemingly lifeless body. He moved.

Rinoa gasped.

Then Quistis and Selphie started moving as well. Soon, all three awoke and stood up.

"Ohh... My head..." Squall thought. His forehead throbbed slightly. He wasn't sure if it was becasue of the 'dream' or if he had just fallen on his head when he passed out.

Zell looked at them with a mixture of happiness, and confusion.

"Was it Laguna again?" Zell quickly asked.

"Sir Laguna's in BIG TROUBLE! I hope he'll be ok...!!!" Selphie replied excitedly.

Quistis, still jolted from the expirience, was puzzled by their familiarity with what had just happened.

"Doesn't seem like the first time for you all. What is this?" she asked.

Squall looked around. He didn't have an answer. None of them did.

"If it were just me, I could tell the others it was only a crazy dream..." Squall thought. He wished that it was only a dream. But he realized it was much more than that, though he didn't know exactly what.

"We'll just be wasting our time trying to figure it." Squall said, trying not to think about this strange expirience.

"Let's keep going."

"Yeah, let's go!" Zell agreed. "I think we're almost there."

Quistis, Selphie and Zell all started down the forest path. Leaving Rinoa and Squall near the entrance.

Rinoa walked over to him slowly and nervously.

"Umm... Squall..." she began. "I think I may have said too much. I'm sorry."

She felt bad about yelling at Squall earlier. Esspecially when he had just gone through that.

"He's the leader here..." she thought. "It's not my place to lecture him... at least not that much..."

Squall simply gestured, signifying that it didn't bother him.

"Forget about it." he thought.

Rinoa seemed to understand. She smiled happily and walked off.

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End chapter 12

I can't belive how close I'm getting to the end of the first disc! I think only about three or four more chapters and then I'll write a whole 'nother 15 or so for the next one!

Hope you Laguna fans are enjoying this. (There are some Laguna fans reading this, right?)

Next time we see Laguna will be on the first part of disk two. So enjoy this now... you won't see Laguna again for a while.

Anywayz, Rinoa's apology sure was sweet, wasn't it? If only Squall hadn't been such a jerk in the first place... At least he doesn't hold a grudge though...

This chapter was kind of lazily done. I've been sick lately and my mind is devoid of most coherent thought and/or creativity. (Plus I'm on a lot of weird medicine and antibiodics so that's not helping me write better... o.O)

okay folks R+R! (I know this chapter kinda sucks... but give it a review anyway... I promise that the next one will be better!)

Next up! Chapter 13; Galbadia Garden.

P.S. Chapter 13 contains a part that I'm gonna have kind of a weird love-hate relationship with... I get really jealous of Seifer at this part, but The entire scene is really dramatic. grrr... *sigh* and bein' half way out of my mind isn't helping this either... oh welll, stay tuned!

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