FINAL FANTASY: POINT OF INTERSECTION
Book 1: The Approaching Storm

17

Seifer paced restlessly back and forth, his black leather boots treading upon the fine burgundy carpet so repeatedly that he thought he might leave tracks imprinted within it before too much longer. Perhaps more than anything else, Seifer absolutely hated to be kept waiting. The chronometer on the far wall ticked incessantly like some twisted metronome tapping maddeningly away at his eardrums, and with every step Seifer took, his irritated scowl grew deeper.

Tick, tick, tick…

At least his posse was still with him. Hands clasped firmly behind her back, Fujin stood mutely at attention near the front corner of the modest office, her expression as unreadable as always. She knew as well as he did why Headmaster Cid had called the three of them up here, but if she was at all put off by her superior's unexpected tardiness, she didn't show it.

Raijin, on the other hand, couldn't seem to keep from fidgeting. The dark-skinned bear of a man scratched his head in puzzlement, and his eyes darted around the room almost constantly as though he expected the headmaster to suddenly appear out of nowhere at any moment. Raijin sat down in one of the two plush chairs before the as yet unoccupied polished mahogany desk that dominated the room. Less than a minute later, however, he stood right back up again.

"Would you cut that out?" Seifer growled irritably. "You're starting to piss me off…"

Though by no means an unimposing figure himself, Raijin still winced visibly at Seifer's rebuke. "Oh, uh, sorry! Just nervous, ya know? Dunno what's gonna happen to us and all…"

Seifer had to admit his friend had a point. Although almost three weeks had passed since that disastrous mission in Dollet, he and his posse were still stuck here in Balamb Garden. It was more than a little unnerving, being back within these familiar walls after so long. Seifer had never thought he would actually come back here, and in fact would rather not have done so at all, but Cid had ordered him otherwise after the Dollet disaster. The headmaster had yet to explain why, however.

As though Seifer's thoughts had somehow summoned him, the rumpled and bespeckled founder of Balamb Garden suddenly stepped through the office door, a sheaf of papers tucked under one arm. Cid Kramer, with his typically modest and professorial attire, had always looked to Seifer more like a mild-mannered academic than the beloved and respected leader of a powerful military school.

Seifer was surprised, however, to see that the headmaster had not arrived alone. With him was his wife, Edea, the gentle and elegant former sorceress who had raised Seifer along with Squall and the others as their Matron so long ago. Long, dark hair cascaded down her back like a silken waterfall, and her amber eyes took in Seifer and his friends with a mixture of kindness and regret.

Two years ago, the four of them had brought the entire world to the very brink of destruction.

Although it had been the sorceress Ultimecia who had, in effect, been manipulating all of them for her own ends, Seifer knew it had been his own choice to abandon the Garden to follow her in the first place, just as it had been Fujin's and Raijin's choice to follow him. Privately, he had always regretted having dragged them into the whole thing and getting them involved, but their devotion to him meant more than he would ever care to openly admit. As a wanted man, his friends were few and far between these days.

It was a bit different with Edea, though. Seifer had never spoken to her of those days during the war, of the things they had done together while under Ultimecia's influence. He had been Edea's knight, her right-hand man, and had led her Galbadian forces against those of Garden and SeeD while turning the world upside down in search of the ever-elusive Ellone. Ultimecia had desperately wanted the young woman's powers and would stop at nothing to find her.

Now, two years later, both were free of the mad sorceress' influence, but Seifer at least had found himself not quite as able to move on with his life as he would have hoped. Part of it was that in some areas of the world, he still was very much a wanted man for what he had done during the war. He had never expected Garden to let him off as easily as it had, considering that he had been working toward its destruction while serving Ultimecia's whims, but Cid and Edea had unexpectedly spoken up for him at the tribunal.

Banishment from the Garden had been infinitely preferable to the far more harsh alternative put up by the reinstated headmaster of Galbadia Garden, Martine, who had demanded that Seifer and his two friends be imprisoned in a Galbadian detention facility for the rest of their lives. Fortunately, however, Cid had possessed the overriding authority in that decision since Seifer, Fujin, and Raijin had all been students in his Garden and not Martine's, and according to SeeD regulations, the final say in their fate rested with him and not with his Galbadian counterpart.

Seifer brushed away his thoughts as Cid began to speak. "I apologize for the delay, Seifer. Administrative details, nothing more, but they took longer than I had expected."

"What do you want with me, sir?" Seifer replied brusquely.

"Well, the Dollet incident raises a number of uncomfortable questions," the headmaster explained, "but perhaps the most disturbing is this. How did the Galbadian forces know the exam team's attack plan and coordinates so precisely? How did they know when we would strike? I think, Seifer, you can guess as well as I where those questions lead."

There was only one possible answer, of course, the thought leaving Seifer more than a little uneasy. "You think we have a traitor in our midst."

Sighing heavily, Cid nodded. "Unfortunately, yes. We believe that whoever did this had to have been an established member of SeeD, as no one else would have had the access to decrypt our communications protocols and relay the information to the Galbadians."

"Any idea who it is?" Seifer wondered.

Cid gazed firmly at him from behind his round-rimmed glasses. "That's what we want you to find out."

"Me?" the former student gaped. "Why me?"

It was Edea who answered his question, her graceful voice softly penetrating Seifer's reluctance. "You want a chance to atone for your mistakes, Seifer, do you not? Once, you tried to destroy the Garden, but now we are giving you the opportunity to save it."

In spite of himself, Seifer knew his Matron's reasoning was sound. It still galled him that he had allowed himself to be duped at all, and his ego had never quite recovered from that blow. Once, he had been the head of the Garden's disciplinary committee, but now he and his friends were little more than outcasts. The only thing that kept them out of a Galbadian cell block under Martine's watchful eye was the headmaster's leniency and the tasks he assigned them to perform to earn it.

"You'll be working with Instructor Trepe on this investigation," Cid went on. "She has already been briefed on the situation, and you'll report anything you find directly to her."

Oh, joy… Seifer remembered all too well his verbal scuffles with the snobbish Quistis back when he had still been a student here. She had always seemed to enjoy poking holes in his bravado, much to his extreme annoyance. Was he really going to have to put up with her again?

"Sir," he asked, "is that really necessary? I can handle this on my own."

The headmaster raised an eyebrow. "Is there a problem?"

Seifer nodded. "The instructor and I have never really gotten along, so I don't know how effective putting us together might be. To be honest, I can hardly stand her, sir."

The blond instructor's prissy attitude and uptight demeanor had constantly gotten on his nerves over the years, and the fact that she had been one of his own teachers had made it worse. After all, he'd had to see that cold, pristine face of hers almost every morning in his first class of the day.

"Well, you'll have to find a way," Cid ordered sternly, "because like it or not, Seifer, you're going to be working with her. I suggest you work out your differences as best you can."

"Fine," Seifer shrugged. He'd just have to make sure she understood perfectly who was in charge of things. "Is there anything else I should know about?"

When Cid answered, his voice grew oddly quiet. "There is one other thing. As you know, the Galbadians are holding Rinoa captive for reasons we believe involve her being a sorceress. It follows that they may try to strike again, this time at Edea."

"But she's not a sorceress anymore," Seifer pointed out, not quite sure what the headmaster was getting at.

Edea shook her head, however, in gentle disagreement. "That is not entirely true. The powers I gained from Ultimecia are indeed gone, having passed on to Rinoa, but I am sure you know that the sorceress from the future was not the only one I have received powers from."

It took a moment, but Seifer's eyes widened a little when he finally understood. "You mean…?"

"Ultimecia does not have the ability to manipulate or pass on powers that were never her own to begin with," Edea explained patiently, "and that is true of any sorceress. She was not the first to pass on powers to me, if you remember. When I was very young, I gained the legacy of another sorceress as well, and it is her power that I still possess to this day."

"IMPOSSIBLE," Fujin argued, and Raijin was nodding his head in puzzled agreement. Seifer understood well enough his friends' confusion, for he felt it himself. He didn't doubt Matron's sincerity, but he wondered why she was entrusting him with something that had obviously been kept secret for some time. Who knew what would happen if word leaked out that Edea was still a sorceress?

Seifer folded his arms across his chest pensively. "So why was this never mentioned until now?"

"It was only recently that I discovered that I still had some measure of power," Edea answered softly, "for that first sorceress was, as I understand it, not so strong or practiced in her art as was Ultimecia. As such, what powers I have gained from that other woman are fewer and more difficult to discern."

"What is it you're asking me to do?" Seifer asked expectantly.

Cid sighed and gently laid a hand on his wife's shoulder as he answered. "With a traitor here in the Garden, it's no longer safe for Edea. But if she starts having SeeD guards with her everywhere she goes, that would arouse suspicions and risk exposing the fact that she is still a sorceress."

"I get it," Seifer grunted sourly. "You want us to be Matron's bodyguards, then?"

Edea shook her head mildly. "Not exactly. I do not think it would be wise for all of you to be with me at once, and I do not think it necessary in any case. Just one of you at a time should suffice, and only when I need you. Since I often walk the open halls of the Garden, where many of our students and faculty do the same, I doubt an assassin would act with potential witnesses just around the corner."

"But after hours, there's almost no one around outside the dorms," Seifer reminded her, "so I'm guessing that's when you'd want one of us with you?"

"That is correct," she nodded. "Will you be my protector once again, Seifer?"

The question caught him off guard, and for a moment Seifer couldn't reply, his mouth hanging halfway open as he remembered a similar offer she had made him before, long ago. He had become her knight, but to what end? It had nearly ruined him before, and he had failed to protect her in any case. Why should that play out any differently now?

Seifer shook the disturbing thoughts away and looked again at Edea. "I… don't know. I didn't serve you too well the last time, if you remember."

The elegant woman's response was a sad, sweet smile as she gazed at him understandingly. "Do not linger on what happened in the past. That is done. Perhaps now we can help undo some of the damage we have wrought upon this world together. I trust you."

"But why?" he wondered. "Why don't you have Squall and his buddies looking after you?"

"Squall is under enough strain as it is, with both Rinoa and Ellone missing," she went on, "and the others have duties of their own. And I trust you because I know you wish to move on, to do what you know deep down to be right. I know this because I feel the same way. You can still live out your dream, Seifer."

Seifer sighed wearily, his voice growing uncharacteristically quiet. "That's gone… gone for good. I don't think I care for it anymore…"

Moving out from behind the desk where she had stood by her husband, Edea approached Seifer and gently took his hands in hers. Seifer blinked in surprise at the unexpected contact and the warmth of her fingers clasping his. Her eyes met his, and in them he saw something few had ever shown him. He saw not pity, but empathy and even compassion.

This wasn't the masked woman who had lured him into becoming her servant two years ago and had twisted his dream into something horrible and unrecognizable. This was his Matron, the kind and gentle sorceress who had cared so much for himself and the others back in the orphanage in Centra. Those days seemed to Seifer like another lifetime now, little more than a faded memory, but he remembered well the Edea of those times. It was she who stood before him now, herself again and no longer a puppet of Ultimecia or any other sorceress.

"Will you help me?" Matron asked him softly.

Composing himself, Seifer flashed his typical smirk and nodded. "You've got yourself a knight."

Edea's answering smile was warm as she rejoined Cid behind the desk. "Thank you, Seifer. You may yet have the chance to see your dream again, as it was meant to be."

"We'll see," he shrugged, "but how are you going to explain letting the three of us stay here? We were officially expelled after the war, you know."

"You'll be stated as being on special assignment," Cid answered, "and if you prove yourselves to me and do the best you can in these tasks, I'll see what I can do about getting the three of you reinstated. If that's what you want, that is."

Raijin nearly jumped out of his seat in excitement. "Ya mean we can be in Garden again? That's great, ya know? I mean, I've missed it around here a bit, to tell ya the truth."

"We could… come back?" Fujin asked wonderingly, slipping for a moment out of her typically brusque manner of speech.

Cid nodded. "If you do everything you can to find this traitor and keep Edea out of harm's way. I can't promise anything, though."

As good as it sounded, Seifer wasn't sure whether he wanted it or not. He had received a number of cold stares in the past few weeks since he'd been here and doubted they'd ever completely go away. And then there were other, more serious complications to think about.

"Martine's going to be pissed if that happens," he remarked. "You know he's had it out for us ever since he got Galbadia Garden back."

"Leave him to me," Cid answered firmly. "I'll deal with him when the time comes."

Seifer shrugged indifferently. If the headmaster wanted to deal with that headache, then he'd let him. "Alright, then. Was that it?"

"That's it for now, Seifer. The three of you are dismissed, but report here again tomorrow morning at 0800 so I can give you and Quistis a joint briefing before you officially start your investigation. I have a hunch where to start looking, but I'd like to tell you both at the same time."

Seifer tilted his head in acknowledgement, then turned to his two friends with a broad smirk. "Fujin! Raijin! Looks like the disciplinary committee's back in business!"

Raijin grinned openly, even tapping his foot in a little semi-dance step. Fujin stood as statuesque as ever, but Seifer thought he could make out the faintest edges of smile teasing her lips. He strode confidently out of the office, his posse flanking him on either side, and for the first time since coming back to Balamb Garden, Seifer felt like he was home.