Laguna knelt silhouetted against the massive window, head bowed, the girl beside him, sunlight streaming over their forms. The choir on the floor below sang with an unearthly beauty, their voices resonating, making the crystal windows in the cathedral vibrate and hum.
Squall felt acutely out of place. He lived a life of blood and death, and didn't belong in this house of worship. Faith and religion had no place in his world. Some SeeDs found that those things helped alleviate the doubt and uncertainty of the mercenary lifestyle, but Squall had never found it within him to believe.
He stepped forward, gingerly, approaching Laguna, unsure if he should interrupt his father's reverie. After a moment, Laguna looked up.
"Hello, Squall," he smiled.
"Hello, Laguna," then, nodding to the girl, "Hello, Sis."
"Hi," she smiled as well.
"Welcome to the Lady of Mercy," Laguna said, rising to his feet. "My renovation of this church was the first project I officially undertook as President of Esthar."
"What did it used to be?" Squall asked.
"Adel's temple to herself," Laguna frowned, his nose wrinkling as he did so.
"I like this more."
"It's much nicer dedicated to your mother than to that... monster," Laguna replied.
"To Raine?" Squall cocked his head.
Laguna gestured expansively, indicating the massive marble sculpture that dominated the upper floor: a beautiful woman, with her arms outstretched, as if offering absolution to the viewer. She had magnificent, intricately carved angel wings, stretching ten feet wide, each feather individually carved. As Squall looked at the woman's face, he recognized her: his mother, Raine, a look of peace and serenity on her countenance.
"My friends from the Shumi village did the sculpture," Laguna explained. "I offered to pay them, but they wouldn't hear of it."
"It's... nice." Squall said.
"It lets me feel close to her," Laguna admitted, watching the statue quietly. "But anyway, what did you want to meet with us about?"
"May we sit?"
Laguna nodded, gesturing to the padded benches off to one side. They sat, Laguna next to Ellone, with Squall on a bench facing them.
"Quistis proposed a plan to me, a way that might let us retake Balamb Garden without getting everyone killed."
"I'll do what I can," Laguna said.
"Me too," Ellone nodded, "but I'm afraid I'm not much use in a fight."
"The problem with any assault on Balamb Garden is that to retake it with any degree of finality, we need to launch a full-scale invasion, and that's not something SeeD is equipped to do right now. Our only other option is to take out General Mallis, and hope everything crumbles without him."
"I can see where that poses some problems," Laguna chimed in.
"Right," Squall nodded. "We only have limited intelligence on how he's maintaining Garden right now, so we can't formulate any kind of plan. Any assassination attempt on him is blind, using only what we used to know about Garden. And I don't know that I'm comfortable risking someone like Irvine against the entirety of Mallis' army in an eyes-closed breach."
"So what's the plan, then?" Laguna asked.
"Well, the best hope for a successful attack is from the inside, but we don't know how he's treating our people in there. We need fresh troops to mount the attack." Squall turned to Ellone.
"That's where you come in."
"Me?" she said.
"Yes," he nodded. "We use your power and send me and two others back to just after Mallis claimed Garden, when things are still chaotic and they're rounding up captives. We strike at him then, cutting the head off The Storm and, hopefully, reviving the people who've been captured."
"Okay," said Ellone, "but I can only use my power on people I know."
"We thought of that," replied Squall. "Remember the time you spent at Balamb Garden, before you went of to hide with Edea's White SeeDs? The plan is to take a list of everyone captured in the attack on Balamb Garden, and have you scan it for people you know well enough to use your power on. Once we find three matches, we're in business."
"There's another problem," she shot back. "We still don't know if I have the power to change the past. I mean, I sent you back with Uncle Laguna, we couldn't change anything."
"But I didn't know what I was supposed to be changing," Squall said. "This time, I'll have a specific purpose, a mission. I'll be going back with the intent to kill Mallis. When you sent me back with Laguna, I was just caught by surprise, and didn't know where I was or what to do."
Laguna started scratching the back of his head in the way that meant he had something particularly uncomfortable to say. Squall turned to him.
"There's... something else... I've sort of been putting off telling you, but I don't think it can wait any longer." Laguna said.
"What is it?"
"After imprisoning Adel in the Sorceress Memorial, the rest of the government didn't exactly fold their hands and walk away from the table. Our resistance movement was met with a certain amount of... resistance."
"And?"
"And the leader of it, as you can guess, was General Varrant – the man you know as General Mallis. He put up a hell of a fight, and I wound up being the one who had to bring him down. Personally."
"Okay. How does this relate to Quistis' plan?"
"Because you were there."
"What?" Squall asked.
"You. 'The faeries.' Ellone using her powers. When I fought and defeated Varrant, you were there. I lost my machine gun, and there was a gunblade nearby, and I picked it up – you picked it up, and we defeated Varrant."
"Oh." Squall said, falling silent for a moment to process this. "Well, I guess we have to do this, then. Ellone will have to send me back to that time, and we'll worry about this plan later."
"Umm... problem. Again." Ellone said. "I can't 'aim' for a day and time. I don't have anywhere near that kind of precision. I can only go based on projections I've already done, and say 'before' this one or 'after' that one. So sending you back to the moment of that fight is an impossibility for me."
"That's okay, Elle," Laguna said, smiling. "It does present some difficulty, though. I mean, if Squall never goes back in time, then I never defeat Varrant, which totally changes the outcome of history. So we need to figure out a way to use your power to send him back."
"I know who we could ask..." Ellone said meekly.
"Absolutely not." Squall said.
"Out of the question." Laguna said.
"No one likes him less than I do," she said. "But he's the only option."
"He's a demented psychopath with a research grant. I should have pulled his funding years ago," Laguna replied.
"Look, if I'm okay with consulting him, we're doing it. And that's that." Ellone stood up and turned to look at Laguna.
"She's stubborn, but I love her anyway," Laguna said, giving his son a lopsided grin.
* *
"Zo... you come for help from ze great Odine!" the diminutive doctor said, strutting around his office.
"Yes or no, Doctor. Can you help us?" Laguna asked, distaste heavy in his voice
"And you, my dear," he said, moving over to Ellone. "My, how you've grown."
Suddenly, Squall had interposed himself between Odine and the deathly pale Ellone, who, despite her bravado and courage, held a deeply rooted fear of the doctor, stemming from his kidnap of and experimentation on her. No one saw Squall move.
"You touch her, you die."
"Oh-ho!" Odine laughed. "I do remember you, young man. And ze girl Rinoa? Doing well, I hope."
Squall's hands clenched into fists.
"Squall," Laguna cautioned, "while I'd love to watch you beat the stuffing out of Odine, right now we need him. Save it."
Squall maintained his position, keeping himself between Odine and Ellone, his jaw set rigidly.
"Now," Odine said, hopping up into the chair behind his desk. "What did you need again?"
"We need a way to focus Ellone's power," Laguna explained, "so she can send Squall back to a specific time and place. You've studied her talent, and we were hoping you could help."
"I zee," the doctor stroked his chin with an obvious theatricality. "I am ze only man in ze world who can help you now. And, ze only way I can help you, iz with zis!"
He turned around to the massive curtained window behind him and pulled the cord, causing the drapes to fall away. Behind the glass sat an enormous contraption with three obvious seats and helmets, countless whirling parts, flashing lights, gears, levers, buttons, and wheels.
"I give you... Junction Machine Ellone!"