Chapter One:

The Darkness Upon Them

Laguna Loire's footsteps echoed against the floor of Balamb Garden's empty corridors.

That is, what was left of the Garden.

The fountain he remembered from his visit with Ellone which surrounded the walkways of the Garden with crystal-clear water spouting from the fish-shaped statues just below the upper level corridor was now empty. Some of the fish fountains were blasted away, possibly by magical projectiles, and moss had started to grow over the others. The pools were empty, and the porcelain tiles on their bottom were scratched, smouldered with fire and shattered. The elevator which lead to Headmaster Cid's office was broken, and the passage to the Training Centre was caved in.

The floor Laguna walked on was specked with blood. Bodies of SeeDs lay against the railing which separated the pools from the walkway, and some had fallen in. The signs which had directed Balamb's students to areas of the Garden were smashed, and the lights blinked.

What happened here?

Laguna then noticed something familiar. Or, rather, someone.

He was lying on his back, his gunblade beside him, broken in two at the middle. Laguna knelt beside him and felt his pulse. As he suspected, there was none. There was a wound on the left side of the man's chest surrounded with dried, coagulated blood. The man's expression had, even in death, remained cocky and self-assured. He probably didn't know that he was going to die until it happened.

Seifer Almasy.

The infamous knight of the sorceress Edea, who, after Ultimecia's fall, repented and got back to Balamb Garden. As far as Laguna had heard, his Instructor had finally given up on installing some manners into Seifer's head, and declared him a SeeD so that he would finally stop pestering the Instructor.

If Seifer wasn't able to fight off whatever killed him...


The path Laguna followed lead to the Library. The shelves were almost empty, and those books which were still here were thrown to the floor and looking like something had gnawed at them - scavengers of whatever species must have been here before him. In the corridor before the Library Laguna found two more familiar bodies.

She was lying on her face, turned towards the main hall, and there was a sword wound in her back. Laguna didn't need to turn her over to recognise her: the silver hair and royal blue suit were a dead give-away.

Fujin.

Seifer's other accomplice, Raijin, was only a few feet behind her; he too lay on his back, his shredded and broken staff by his side. They must have ran to Seifer's help, but the arrogant idiot must have thought that he could take on the enemy by himself. He proved himself wrong, for the last time.

The Library itself, bizarrely enough, was empty. Laguna didn't find any bodies, just the general havoc and state of decay as in the rest of the Garden. There were, however, some scratch marks in the middle of the room where the bookcases had been pulled away, as if something huge stood there and was dragged away afterwards. Gouge marks, he now noticed, led from the centre of the room all the way to Seifer's body, and then they vanished into thin air.

He went back to the Library, and saw something that he had missed before: another body was in the furthest corner of the room, huddled into a ball as if she had been sleeping when she died. The girl wore a SeeD uniform; the yellow bow was loosened and her head was resting on her knees, her face hidden behind a veil of short, chestnut-coloured hair. A pair of nunchuks that she had been holding in her hand had fallen to the floor and were laying in a heap. The only thing which revealed the girl was dead was the fact that her skin had gotten slightly blue and swollen.

Selphie Tilmitt.

Laguna had met the childish SeeD with a bubbly personality once, and she reminded him of Ellone when she was young so much that his throat clenched looking at Selphie's corpse. He quickly walked out of the Library, but he couldn't get rid of the lump in his throat or the growing feeling of dread rising in his stomach.

What destroyed the Garden? Couldn't Cid stop it? And Squall...

Squall! Laguna ran through Balamb Garden, passed the Cafeteria, the Quad, the Dormitories and the Car Park, but he didn't find Squall - or his body - anywhere. He must have survived the attack, Laguna assured himself. Squall was the most skilled fighter he knew, both in hand-to-hand combat, magic usage and handling the Guardian Forces.

He can't be dead...!

Then Laguna realized there was yet one area he hadn't checked. The Infirmary. Not having any time to waste, he jumped across the railing into the pool and ran across it. With limited difficulty and some cursing because he was in a hurry, he scrambled across the railing on the other side - the time spent at the Galbadian Army had proven useful - and ran towards the Infirmary.

The number of bodies was the largest here and Laguna, literally, had scarcely enough space left to walk. All SeeDs... no sign of any of the attackers, whoever they were.

The door of the Infirmary was half-closed. The motion sensors which would normally trigger the door open weren't working, so Laguna wedged at the door with his weight and pulled it open.

The doctor's room was almost empty. The body of doctor Kadowaki was lying at her desk, face down, blood split all over the desk. Some of it had dripped down to the floor and Laguna only just stopped himself from slipping on it and falling down. In the room where the only hospital bed was, he found two more people.

The man had been sitting on a stool beside the bed, holding the hand of the person who lay on the bed. His spiky blonde hair was ashen and dusty, and his head was standing at an odd angle with the rest of his body. He was wearing his usual clothes, not the SeeD uniform. His face was turned towards Laguna, and he clearly saw the black tattoo on the man's face and his open periwinkle-blue eyes, staring at him.

Zell Dincht.

When he recognised the man, it was clear who the woman on the bed was, even though Laguna had never met her in person. He remembered when he first came with Ellone to Balamb Garden, how the woman on the bed was somehow always busy and couldn't afford the time to get acquainted with Laguna. Her golden hair was let loose and she was lying on the bed dressed in what appeared to be a plum-coloured nightgown. A hand was lying on her chest, and the other one was cradled in Zell's strong one - he had persevered his firm grip even in death. The woman on the bed was deathly pale, and only the ice-cold temperature of her skin told Laguna that she was really dead.

Quistis Trepe.

They were all dead. Squall wasn't here, and Laguna didn't know how he got there. He didn't know how he was going to get out, either. All he remembered was a fight with one of Ultimecia's remaining followers, and how the man had fired some kind of magic at him, and then he found himself here. He felt the massive power of death an d destruction all around him press on, choking him and making him feel claustrophobic. He needed to get some air before the feeling got stronger.

Laguna went to the Quad and sat under a tree. He inhaled the night air deeply, trying to forget their dead faces, the betrayed look in Zell's eyes, Seifer's contemptuous frown and his broken gunblade, Selphie's little body cooped up in a corner, so like Ellone when she was sad or hurt...

Something pricked Laguna's palm as he laid his hand on the grass. He yelled with amazement and picked the item up. It was some kind of a pad or a remote control which contained nothing but a single green button. He pushed it.

The contraption sprung from his reach and fell onto the stones. It whizzed, and Squall's form appeared in thin air, blurry around the edges. He was carrying his gunblade, his clothes were torn in places and the scar on his face was evident against his pale complexion.

"Squall" Laguna yelled. Squall, appearing not to notice Laguna, started speaking.

"This is a recorded message," he said, and Laguna saw that it was a hologram. "Laguna, if you're here and listening, pay attention! I haven't got much time. Ultimecia's alive. Her forces have attacked the Garden and are destroying it as I speak. One of her followers sent you forward in time, attempting to kill you. Listen! You must return to the past and fix this! Save Balamb Garden! The free world depends on it! This Garden is the only remaining one which still defies Ultimecia in her attempts of world domination. Both Galbadia and Trabia Gardens are under her command." Squall's hologram looked around and the image blinked, as if the transmission was feeble. "Go to the past using this device," Squall said. "Go to Timber and find Zell and Irvine, tell them about this! They'll know what to do. Remember, Rinoa mustn't..." At this point, the image buzzed, faded and shut down completely.