Laguna blinked slowly, as if having high-ranking members of important Estharan commissions walk in on his dinner and swear at him was a perfectly normal occurrence. "Kiros was just telling us about Esthar law--" he began.

"I don't give a care about legality, Mr. President, that's your business. This is science, and I'm saying that the levels on which this problem has compounded itself are so many as to require a Geiller Device to number them!"

No one knew what a Geiller Device was, but no one asked.

"Well, if you could explain--" Laguna began.

"In layman's terms?" Ralo snorted. "The only reason that cyborg you have down there hasn't identified a fatal error and self-destructed is that the ICI component that would identify a fatal error is experiencing a fatal error!"

There were at least three people at the table who were wincing every time Ralo said the words "fatal" or "error," but Ralo didn't seem to care.

"What can you do?" Laguna asked.

"Sir." Ralo was drumming her knuckles on the chair back. "I would like you to guess two things. First, how many experts on cybernetics do you think we have in this country? Second, how long do you think it's been since there's been any Government-funded research going into the cybernetics field? I don't want to give anything away, but I'll give you some hints: we have less than ten and it's been over fifteen years."

Laguna didn't shrink back--and did what might have been the most Presidential thing he had done so far. "I said, what can you do?"

Ralo sucked in breath. "...I can get the two people who know about cybernetics and haven't retired yet on the next transport to the Palace," she said. "I can call in people from the Ministry of Cognitive Sciences, the Ministry of Specialized Programming, and the Ministry of Surgical Medicine. I can have people looking up every technical article about cyborgs ever written."

Laguna nodded. "Do that, then."

Ralo paused. "...do I have the stamp of the President behind it?"

"Of course." Laguna motioned to the chair. "Would you like something to eat?"

"Mr. President, I anticipate it will be at least a day before I want to look at food again."

Laguna smiled charitably. "I know what you mean," he said.

Fujin pushed away from the table. "I want to see father," she said, looking directly to Laguna. Laguna glanced at Ralo.

"It's unlikely at this point that visitors will ruin anything more than it's already been ruined." Ralo beckoned. "Come on."

Lu stood up, as well. "I think I had better--"

"NO." Fujin turned on her, voice more forceful than it needed to be to get the point across. "STAY HERE."

Lu sat down again. "--stay here," she finished. "Dr. Ralo, if I can provide any assistance at all--"

"Naturally, I'll be calling on you to give detailed accounts of your time with the man," Ralo said. "As I'll be calling on everyone else who's been in contact with him. Excuse me, Mr. President."

Laguna nodded, and Ralo swept out of the room--trailing Fujin behind her. Laguna sighed, pushing his plate away.

"Sorry, guys," he apologized, not really speaking to anyone. "...dinner wasn't quite as good as I thought it would be."

-

Evening was uneventful.

Dinner finished in silence, and the aide returned to show them back to the guest levels. Lu commandeered a computer terminal and tried to read up on cybernetics--but there wasn't much information readily available, and even if there had been it would have made little difference. But she was trying to do something--something to make her feel a bit less powerless over the situation.

Seifer and Raijin retired to their rooms, unsure of what their role was to be. It was now clearer than ever before that this quest was Fujin's--they were extraneous, just as she had always intended them to be.

If there was anything Seifer couldn't stand, it was being extraneous.

Eventually, he decided to do something about it, and headed off in search of someone who could direct him to the Infirmary. It didn't occur to him that he might have been being selfish--but even if it had, it was likely that he wouldn't have cared.

He passed Laguna on the way to the lift, and the President nodded at him--rather distractedly. Laguna had been wandering the guest floors aimlessly for quite some time now, and was beginning to wonder if chance encounters really had anything to do with probability and were in fact regulated exclusively by karma. He had been trying to "randomly" bump into Squall for what seemed like an hour, and had met with no success so far. Eventually he had found that Squall was reading something in the Library, and had been walking the hall connecting to it in hope that Squall wasn't going to spend the entire night in there. When Squall actually did walk out of the library, Laguna was so surprised that it actually did seem to be a random meeting. And--in what might or might not be a good thing--it seemed to take Squall rather by surprise, as well.

"Squall!" Laguna had intended to be completely casual, but adrenaline and nervous energy conspired to sabotage him. "I--fancy meeting you here."

Squall nodded, whatever he was thinking pretty well hidden behind the same professional face he always wore. "Sir."

Laguna waved it off. "That's all right--er, call me Laguna. Please." He glanced around. "You know, I wanted to talk to you--"

Squall nodded. Laguna had mentioned something like it before. "If this is about the Ultimecia mission...."

"What? No, it's not." Laguna blinked, making a concerted effort to stop acting like a jumpy adolescent. "...I wanted to talk to you about something, but... I'm not sure that now would be... appropriate. What with everything going on with Fujin's father."

Squall didn't quite know how to respond to that. "...I see."

"Man, though, that sure is something, isn't it?" Laguna scratched the back of his neck. "She comes all the way out here for her father. Not many people would do that, huh?"

Squall was trying to figure out a polite way to escape, and it wasn't going exceptionally well. "I don't imagine so, no."

"Have you seen Ellone recently?" Laguna asked, well aware that if he let an awkward silence descend now Squall would take it as the perfect opportunity to leave.

Squall shook his head. "Not since the Lunatic Pandora."

Laguna nodded. "Oh. Yeah, she went... off... somewhere. Visiting the White SeeDs, I think. Um... it's a pity that she isn't here now. You two could have... talked. Or something."

Squall nodded.

Laguna stalled. "...we should talk sometime," he said. "...after all this blows over."

Squall nodded again. "Yes, sir."

Laguna deflated. "Well," he said. "...good night."

"Good night," Squall returned, and walked off.

Laguna slunk off in the opposite direction, wishing that the confrontation had gone differently in about a thousand ways.

-

Fujin was sitting at the side of Taiga's bed when Seifer walked in, arms resting on the bedside and chin down on her arms. Taiga was sleeping--at least, it looked as if he was sleeping. Seifer didn't know how to read cyborgs, so he didn't know if it was that or something more.

"How's it going?" he asked quietly--there was something about this infirmary that, like all libraries, made one lower one's voice almost unconsciously.

Fujin didn't look up at him. "The ICI doesn't work," she said.

Seifer shook his head. "Meaning?"

Fujin sighed. "Disable ICI. Surgery. Remove."

"Sounds rough."

"Dangerous," Fujin agreed. "...very. But necessary."

Seifer found a chair, and pulled it over. "I'm sorry."

Fujin chuckled humorlessly. "Your fault?"

"I hope not." He sat down. "You worried?"

Fujin nodded.

"...anything I can do to help?"

"Doubtful."

Seifer sat quietly until he could think of something to say. "...at least you know he's in good hands," he said lamely. "...President of Esthar, and all that."

Fujin snorted. "Lucky."

"Friends in high places." Seifer shook his head, trying to sound amused and not bitter. "Good thing Squall saved the world, or Hyne knows how we would have gotten in here."

Fujin glanced over for the first time, staring at him oddly. Seifer was rather taken aback.

"...what?"

"Not the reason," Fujin whispered, and turned back to Taiga. "We got in because he's my father. Loire understands that."

Seifer considered that for a moment. "Well, it's a good thing we had Squall to be our door pass, anyway," he clarified.

"...good thing," Fujin repeated, and Seifer wasn't sure if that meant she agreed. "Quiet, now."

"All right." Seifer leaned back.

And for quite a while, no one spoke at all.