Esthar was spared from Galbadia's missile attack, thank to its advanced technology. The senseless war had ended and the casualties were big, of course. The city of Dollet suffered greatly because of the fighting and there was a lot of rebuilding to do. The citizens who had lost their family members or friends knew that despite all the sadness they would have to go through, they'd need to make everything like it was before. It would be the only way for them to recover.
There were things that everyone would remember of the war: the miracle of Dollet, when the Esthar forces arrived just in time, destruction of Galbadia Garden, the battle in Centra...
Squall would always remember how he led the attack against the Galbadian forces on their ship and the battle between Ragnarok and Traveller X. Rinoa would always remember the feeling when the president of Galbadia announced that Timber was finally free. But they were both really proud that they had been there and done everything they could, once again.
They were sitting at a café in Timber, watching the first presidential election of Galbadia in more than twenty years. It was a remarkable day and General Caraway was proud to be the other candidate. His opponent was the prime minister but everyone already knew what the result would be.
"The votes have been counted and we have a new president," the announcer said. "The first democratically elected president of Galbadia in twenty-three years is... General Caraway!"
Rinoa was quite excited.
"Thank you," Caraway said and took the mic from the announcer. "This is a great day for Galbadia, this is a great day for democracy, this is a great day for the world!"
The audience started cheering and he had to wait for them to stop.
"Thank you. I wouldn't be here without my daughter, Rinoa. Unfortunately she's not here today but hopefully she's watching this. We have had our differences in the past but she was the one who encouraged me to do this and convinced me that this would be the only way to make this country better..."
Rinoa was starting to blush.
"Come on, Squall. I think it's time to go home."
"Yes. Let's go to Balamb Garden."
When they entered the Garden, Quistis and Xu were at the hallway, looking very happy.
"What's going on?" Squall asked.
"I'm the new headmaster!" Xu said cheerfully.
"What!"
"It's true," Quistis explained. "Today, Cid said that he is going to retire and wants Xu to be his successor."
Headmaster (or the former headmaster) was standing on the bridge, looking at the setting sun. The thirteen years he had spent at the Garden had been great. Of course there had been times when he had felt like giving up. It hadn't been easy when NORG had bossed him around or when they had had to fight Edea. Still, it was easy to forget about the difficulties he had faced when he thought about all the promising students who had become SeeDs and whose dreams had been fulfilled. It was certain that he would really miss those days.
Squall and Rinoa came to the bridge.
"I heard about your plans, sir," Squall said.
Cid laughed. "I'm not the headmaster anymore. You can call me Cid."
"Alright, Cid. Why did you decide to do so?"
"Hahaha. I'm too old for this. I realized that I should leave this Garden to someone younger, who could really make this place better. Besides, I want to be with my wife."
"I see."
"And you're probably wondering why I picked Xu to take over my job. Well, she has been here for a long time and she knows a lot about this place, so it was a natural choice. First I thought that I'd pick you, Squall, but then I thought that you'd hate all the office work this job contains..."
Squall smiled. "Sir, I mean - Cid, you couldn't be more right about that."
Seifer was at his favourite place, the harbor of Balamb, when Raijin and Fujin joined him.
"What are you doing here alone?" Raijin asked.
"Thinking. Cid told me that I proved that I'm a real SeeD. It just makes me wonder... when I screwed up in Dollet, with Squall and Zell with me, what was I thinking? If I had obeyed the orders, maybe they would've let me become a SeeD. One of the reasons why Edea, or Ultimecia - whatever, managed to manipulate me was that I felt so much hatred against the Garden. If I had been a SeeD back then, maybe I wouldn't have become her lap dog."
"You know, thinking about stuff like that just makes you mad. There's no idea in looking backwards; you should live in this moment and not think about your previous actions."
"Hmm... you know what? That's the wisest thing you've said in a long time."
"I hope that was a compliment."
"It was."
It became silent. They all just looked to the horizont but suddenly Fujin pushed Raijin to the ocean. He was furious.
"Why did you do that!"
"It was becoming too serious," Fujin said with a smirk on her face. "We needed something comical."
Seifer was lying on the ground, laughing real hard. "You guys really know how to cheer me up!"
Vincent Gunzler was packing his stuff. He felt that he had been the prime minister long enough and it was time to do something more challenging. That's why he had decided to move to Timber. Its government was desperately in need of an experienced politician and he was sure that he could help them. And it felt really good now when he didn't need to think about his ex-wife anymore.
And Laguna was in his office at Esthar, polishing his machine gun. Seventeen years ago, when they had managed to get rid of Adel, he had thought that he'd never need it again. But life is uncertain and anything could happen. He knew it now.
So they all continued their lives and it means that this story had reached THE END.
Author's note: Man, I can't believe it's finished now. I really loved writing this. When I got this idea in my mind, I knew that it would become something brilliant. And it did (you may disagree, that's just my opinion). However, I'd like to thank everybody who bothered to read this and everybody who reviewed this (not much of them, heh).
The author-
