Xu continued to go over the SeeD assignments currently active. Cid wanted a full report on how much income was currently coming in, compared to this month's expense report. No matter how she turned the pages, they still glared at her with the same inescapable fact. We are in the red this month. Xu sighed and massaged her temples. Cid isn't going to be happy about this at all.

Xu started working out how she would tell Cid. The nagging feeling that she was preparing her final words in this life just would not go away. So lost was she in her thoughts that when the telephone rang, she jumped half way out of her seat. She quickly scrambled for the telephone and picked it up. "Balamb Garden, this is Xu"

Xu's blood rushed. If this was another person looking for a SeeD contract, she could be saved. "Xu, may I please speak to Squ...... Commander Leonhart?"

Xu could have sworn that the woman's voice was familiar, but she could not place it off the top of her head. The voice sounded in pain and she thought she heard a bit of crying behind it as well. She glanced at Squall's closed office door. "I'm sorry miss, but Commander Leonhart is currently on assignment. Would you like me to forward a message to him?"

The voice came back weak and thready, barely above a whisper "No, thank you." A click was heard on the other end of the receiver, and Xu stared at her telephone. Something was nagging at her but she could not place it. She shrugged and hung up the telephone. It would come to her she knew. She proceeded to continue drafting a message for Cid.

Rinoa hung up her receiver. He is on assignment. Rinoa had no idea what induced her to try to call Squall after 3 years, but she was marginally glad that he was not there in the end. She doubted she could have said anything to him anyway. He probably would have been very busy, buried in his work, and wouldn't have time to talk to me anyway. He never did.

Rinoa glanced at her clock. I'd better get downstairs, Natalie is waiting to rehearse with me. Rinoa stood up and walked out the door to the elevator. Her thoughts turned back to her dream the night before. It seemed so real. She remembered kneeling down in her favorite place in the park and picking up one of the flowers next to the oak tree. Then she caught the pedal which changed to the feather, and then spun to come face to face with Squall.

The elevator chimed and opened. Rinoa stepped inside and hit the lower lobby button, which would take her directly to the back entrance of the lounge. She closed her eyes and leaned against the wall, the images of her dream coming to mind in an instant. She remembered that she smelled the flower in her dream, the aroma coming to like it was real life. The elevator dinged and opened, and she cleared her mind, stepping out into the world. She could not afford to think about this now.

"Rinoa, as much as I don't want to pry, I have to ask you. Why are you always writing such depressing songs?"

Rinoa glanced at Natalie. They had been rehearsing for about four hours, and Rinoa needed a break to drink water. She stared at the music for a moment before responding. "Natalie, its just what I feel in my heart. I can't help it." Rinoa's voice was almost a whisper, and she was fighting back tears.

Natalie stood up from the piano and moved closer to Rinoa, gently enveloping the shorter woman in a light hug. "I think you need to talk about this. It's been eating you for a while now."

"I thought he loved me, Natalie. I was so caught up in my day dream of my perfect world that I missed him drifting away from me. I finally noticed them, but I let myself believe that everything was fine. Then he started spending nights away from me. He claimed he was working, but several nights I went to his office and he wasn't there. One time when he was 'working' I was wandering the halls, when I saw him walk out of his secretary's dorm room, with a smile on his face"

Rinoa sniffled slightly and wiped a tear from her eye. "Finally one day I confronted him, and he was just as uncaring and uncompassionate as ever. He made it clear that his work was more important than me. So I ran."

As she was speaking, Rinoa's legs had lost their strength, and only Natalie's surprisingly strong arms held her from falling to the floor. Rinoa continued, in only a whisper "I just can't stop thinking about him though. He probably hasn't given me a second thought, but after all this time, I still want him."

Natalie slowly lowered the raven haired girl to the floor. This wouldn't be the first time this has happened to a woman. Some men are just heartless pigs. "Rinoa, I can't imagine what you are feeling. Lets take a break. I think we are ready for tomorrow night anyway. I am going to dinner with some friends of mine shortly. Would you like to come?"

Rinoa picked her head up. She had a sudden, strange urge suddenly to go with the tall blond, which she could not understand, almost as if part of her subconcious mind was literally begging her to go for some reason. However, her higher, more logical part of her brain didn't particularly want human companionship at the moment. "No thank you, I need to walk Angelo and then I'm going to go to sleep okay?"

"Okay, but please eat something, you need your strength."

Rinoa only nodded and left towards the backstage elevator. If she had not been so distraught, she would have noticed a little device on the door, a device with a SeeD emblem. She ran onwards into the elevator, and for the second time this week, collapsed on the floor of it and started to cry.

Natalie walked up the stairs and joined Squall and Zell, who were sitting in the lobby reading. Or more precisely, were reading until a few moments ago. Now, Zell was hovering over Squall who had collapsed. Natalie rushed over and helped Zell bring Squall into a sitting position. "What happened?"

Zell's tattooed face was covered with worry "I don't know! We were here reading, and a few minutes ago, he just started crying slightly. I don't think he noticed it, but I did. I asked him if he was alright, and he stood up to snap at me, but then collapsed."

Squall's eyes came into focus and glared at the two blondes. "Could you two stop hovering over me like I'm and invalid?"

He slowly stood up on shaky feet, then straightened himself. Natalie and Zell were right behind him. "Squall, what happened?" Natalie's voice was filled with concern.

"I.... I don't know. I just had a sense of overwhelming... sorrow and abandonment."

Natalie glanced at the magazine which lay open on the table. "Was it something you read? What were you thinking?"

Squall shook his head "I don't know. I cant really remember WHAT was happening, only that I was suddenly overwhelmed by.... grief... and loneliness...."

Natalie and Zell helped Squall onto his feet "Lets get you upstairs. you probably just need to clear your head."

The three slowly proceeded to the elevator. Squall found that had problems walking for the first few moments after standing, almost like his legs refused to obey the commands that his brain was sending. Slowly, though, he regained full control of his motor skills and proceeded to the elevator. Waiting for the elevator to arrive, Squall's vision of the hotel suddenly dissapeared, and he was in the last place and time he expected.

Zell was standing looking around the ballroom at the preparations for Rinoa's birthday party. He was pointing out various things which he had "improved engineering wise." Squall sighed almost inaudiably with boredom. He was just anxious to get the last few weeks of preparations done and see this through to the end.

Xu walked in, wanting to go over a few of the party event schedule. With everything done in the ballroom for the night, Squall decided that they adjourn to one of the dorm rooms to discuss this in more comfort. Xu volunteered her room since Rinoa was in Squalls, and Zell's room was kept in a parenial state of disarray.

A sound foreign to the scene jolted Squall, and he shook his head and blinked. He was back in the hotel lobby. He recognized the sound to be the ding of the elevator arriving. Squall felt utter confusion and shook his head lightly. He was not usually subject to flashbacks. As a soldier he was trained from a very early age to focus his mind and not let it wander. As he walked into the elevator, he took a breath and slowly counted back from ten, a classic way to clear his mind.

The elevator door closed and he paitently waited... as he thought about the excitement and thrill of the whole party. Xu had just finished detailing him the newest revised schedule of events for the party. They had spent two and a half hours going over it, and at multiple points in the discussion, things had turned off topic. Normally he frowned at such a diversion, but he had been so stressed and uptight over the work that had gone on since the New Year's celebration that he wanted to get his mind off it at least for a few minutes.

Now as he paused outside the door staring at it, he invisioned the party as he hoped it would turn out. The surprise, the cake, the presents, and the grand finale of... Squall's mind stopped in its track as he felt something literally brush his mind, like a half known presence. The next instant, he heard a whisper of moment behind him and he spun, but the hallway over to the T intersection was clear of all presence. He frown and briskly walked over to the intersection and looked both ways. The hallway was clear. He shook his head and put the event down as being overstressed.... but this time the feeling that some wrongness did not go away.

"Squall?" Squall snapped his head up and looked at the inside of the elevator again. Natalie and Zell were staring at him with questions written on their face. Natalie's rich voice penetrated the silence "Squall, are you alright?"

Squall shook his head again. "Yea... sorry, my mind was just distracted. What were you saying?"

"I was saying ..."

"... that you are a complete jerk! Not only did you forget my birthday, you made yourself a meeting with THAT MAN instead! You even are going to talk to your estranged father rather than to me today! Not only that, you have been almost completely ignoring me since the New Years! You spend so much time 'in your office, working' that I hardly ever see you anymore! When was the last time we ate dinner together even?!"

Squall's mind only half listened to the verbal abuse that Rinoa was angrily bestowing onto him. This was not the first time she had lost her temper, and Squall knew how to handle that usually. What made this different was that this was her birthday, the day that he, Zell, Irvine, and Xu had spend months preparing, and refining to give her the perfect surprise. Not only was she screaming at him, the schedule that they had so precisely planned and meticulously calculated was already off, and it was not even 9:30 AM yet.

Squall's mind raced for a way to salvage the situation without letting off the whole secret. He had spent years training for battle, and was no stranger on making snap battle decisions that could affect hundreds, or even thousands of lives. Yet the best he had just come up with was 'I forgot.' If Squall was not so busy trying to come up with other ways to salvage this, he would be holding his forehead in his hand cursing his stupidity.

Squall interrupted her. A split second later, he probably realized that was mistake number two. "Rinoa, please, just calm down a moment. I'm really, really, sorry. I just need to finish these meetings and I can get the rest of the day off. I'm the commander and Cid has been telling me to take a vacation, even just for a day. I'm going to do just that. I'll get us reservations at The Golden Chocobo, just like you've been asking me for weeks."

Squall knew that The Golden Chocobo was notorious for being overbooked, but since he already had reservations, he had no worries about getting in. He was about to mentally pat himself on the back for his recovery... when disaster snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. "NO! I don't give a damn about Cid or you taking vacation or getting lunch at a restaurant. I care about the fact that you have been ignoring me for the last two months!" Rinoa's shouts hit new volumes, and he realized he might be in more trouble than he thought. "I don't want to see you again!"

With that Rinoa spun on her heels and stormed from his office, slamming the door behind her. The shelf with his trophies from three concecutive years of The Galbadian Swordsman Competition shook, and next to it, a case containing the Esthar Medal of Honor, received after the Second Sorceress War, fell to the ground and shattered.

Squall let out a breath of relief. She had not used magic. That was a good sign... He could go to her in an hour after she calmed down, instead of spending the rest of the morning in the infirmary. Squall collapsed into his chair, reaching for the phone to call Irvine.... and was caught by Zell and Natalie. Squall blinked in surprise, trying to figure out what was going on. "Squall what's going on?"

Squall was disturbed that he could not even identify who had spoken. "I... just was distracted... sorry. Some bad memories."

Zell's face fell. "About..."

Squall cut him off. "Yes, now just leave me alone. I'm fine."

The elevator dinged and the doors slid open. Squall stormed out of the elevator, with a feeling of rage that he could only half identify. It felt directed at himself more than anything. He stalked to his room and opened the door, and stopped when an arm wrapped itself around his well toned bicep. Turning he looked into Natalie's concerned eyes. "Squall, what's wrong?"

Squall growled "Nothing! Just leave me alone! I'm FINE!"

With that he ripped his arm out of her grasp and stalked into his room. Natalie was right there though. "Squall, please if something is wrong talk to us."

Squall stared at her, his anger redirecting itself towards her and showing clearly in his usually emotionless eyes. "...Whatever"

With that, Squall slammed the door in her face. Natalie looked to Zell and he shook his head. "I'm really worried about him."

Zell nodded once and responded. "So am I."

They turned and walked into her room, speculating about what happened. They were so engrossed that neither heard the light thump from Squall's room, indicating that he had collapsed yet again.

The four stood outside the door of The Prime Rib, one of Galbadia City's most expensive restaurants and their destination for the evening. Couples walked in and out at a lazy pace, all spectacularly dressed, and not the least concerned about the eloquence and splendor of the restaurant in true high class fashion. The building was a well lit two story marble building which gave the impression of being one of the oldest buildings in the city, with a rich history, while in fact being only a few years old. The fountains and statues implied the sophisticated nature of the establishment.

"Man, what are we doing here?" Zell fidgeted with his black suit, which would likely only barely pass the dress code for the restaurant, despite costing over 10,000 gill.

Squall stood in a slightly more elegant gray pinstriped suit, observing the decor of the outside of the restaurant. He faintly heard what he assumed to be a live orchestra playing music which drifted out the door as patrons walked in and out of the restaurant. He glanced over at Zell, who was still fidgeting with his suit. "Zell stop that"

Zell looked at Squall sheepishly, running his hand through his combed over hair which lacked his trademark spiked bangs, and passed onto the border of civility, Squall noted with a certain amount of cynicism. "Man, this is crazy! I this suit makes me feel... I look like.... I don't know what!"

Irvine's face lit up into an evil grin "A penguin perhaps?"

Zell whirled around and his fists shot up to make a cross "What did you call me?"

Squall stepped between the two SeeDs and cut them off. "Both of you cool it, now!"

Natalie snickered quietly to herself quietly as they walked into the restaurant. The inside was as lavishly decorated as the outside, and Squall confirmed his earlier hypothesis. There was a 14 member orchestra playing music in one corner, with a few couples dancing to a waltz that he could not identify.

They walked up to the host and asked for a table for four. The host was a moderately tall man who just stared at the four over his oversized French nose. He finally spoke after almost a minute of just staring with a nasal, accented voice "Of course, but I will need to ask le monsieur" If pointing at someone with your nose without overly insulting someone was possible, the host attempted to do just that towards Squall "to leave his.... weapon.... outside."

Five sets of eyes there, and several others from the surrounding area, fell onto the Lionheart gunblade, faithfully attached to Squall's belt. Squall's eyes immediately went back to the host and flashed with murder. "I am not leaving my gunblade outside."

The host's nose rose higher if that was possible. "I'm sorry monsieur, but weapons are not allowed in le restaurant. Either leave it outside, or I will have to ask you to leave."

Natalie stepped forward quickly. Moving inches in front of the host, she leaned forward, giving him a great view down her sparkling purple dress. "Do you know who I am?" At this, the host shook his head, eyes wide, and not making contact with hers. "I am Natalie Darvin, you might know my father?" The host nodded his reply, eyes still south of her face. "Well, these are my body guards. In order to do their jobs, they need their weapons." With a very sweet - and slightly seductive - voice, she continued "Maybe... do you think you could make a little exception?"

The host stammered, eyes still bulging out of his face. "I... uh...." his eyes flicked over the chart marking the seats in the restaurant. "I think... uh... I cannot make an exception in le main seating area madam, but ah...." he paused for a moment before stammering on "I have a private room here that I think I can put you in and make that exception."

Natalie smiled and stood back straight "Thank you" The host stood there with a blank face for a moment, before absentmindedly grabbing three menus and waving his arm. "This way please ma'am"

Natalie leaned over and whispered into his ear "I think you need another menu."

The host's eyes flicked towards her chest, then up to her face "Err... uh.." he shuffled through the menus in his hand for a minute with shaky hands, then grabbed a fourth one sheepishly and raised his arm again. He turn and scurried away, with Zell and Irvine close behind him. Squall on the other hand grabbed Natalie's arm to stop her from walking. "Do you always have to do that?"

The tall blond smirked evilly. "What, Squall? You jealous?"

Squall's standard scowl deepened. Before he could say anything further though, she expertly removed her arm from Squall's grasp and was off following the others, throwing a wink and a smile over her shoulders at the SeeD. Squall watched as her perfect, slender, body encased in hugging, sparkling, shin length fabric retreated away from him, then planted his face in his right palm and shook his head.

After the four were seated inside the private room, which could hold considerably more people, the host turned and eyed them once more, and did a double take on Natalie, before he shut the door and left them alone. Zell, Irvine, and Natalie sat and made idle conversation, and Squall sat with his arms folded and a cross expression on his face not paying attention to the conversation. This continued until the waitress knocked on the door and opened it.

They gave their order to the waitress. Squall and Irvine both ordered the signature Prime Rib, while Zell ordered hot-dogs. Natalie ordered pork chops. The waitress left, and the conversation continued, not even pausing when the waitress came back with wine for the party. Their conversation continued for 20 more minutes before their meal came. Squall still had not spoken one word, nor did it seem he was paying attention. Natalie decided to bring him in. "So, Squall, are you enjoying yourself?"

Zell stuffed half a hotdog into his mouth and started chewing furiously. Irvine was sawing into his prime rib, while Natalie had not touched her food, instead taking a sip from her wine glass and holding it near her head while she leaned back. She pressed Squall further "You know, this is one of Galbadia City's most expensive and highly rated restaurants. Anybody who comes here should enjoy himself, no matter how they feel."

Squall took his knife and sawed through a piece of his prime rib effortlessly. "...Whatever"

At this Irvine snickered, then swallowed the food in his mouth. "The only way Squall would ever enjoy himself is to go into combat and rip things apart with his gunblade. See the way he cuts his prime ribs?" Squall was just cutting a second piece of his prime rib "Its like he is in battle and his gunblade is in hand. He be going through it as viciously as he would a Ruby Dragon." Squall's attention turned from the slab of meat towards Irvine, who sat across the table from him, as the cowboy continued "Hell, I reckon he is wanting to pull the trigger on that knife to...."

Irvine's words were cut off as the knife Squall was using flew past his head and embedded itself in the chair back. Irvine's speech stopped in surprise as he sat in ex post facto fear. Zell even stopped stuffing hot-dogs in his mouth. Natalie still sat with her wineglass in hand, though she did not have the shocked look his friends wore on their faces. Squall managed a smirk, then, as he was reaching across to remove the knife from Irvine's chair, intoned in a light voice "Oops"

Squall sat back down with the knife in hand, and put the piece of meat that he had cut into his mouth. Zell finally wiped that stupid look of shock off his face and Irvine went back to his meal silently and slowly. Natalie looked at Squall as if she wanted to continue, but Squall flipped the knife in the air for a half turn, and caught it on the blade, in an obvious manner to throw. When her mouth closed again, Squall flicked the knife through his fingers until the handle was again in his grasp.

The minutes ticked by as the four ate their meal in silence. They were half way done before someone had the courage---or stupidity---to speak again. Zell finished up his second to last hotdog, then asked the woman sitting across from him "Natalie, I'm curious, are we going to be at your performance tomorrow night?"

Squall supposed as far as trying to start up conversations again, without running the risk of prodding the raging lion, talking about work as a good a way as any to do it. He glanced at the other blond, who was sitting quietly, staring at her food. She looked up and responded "Well, you need to guard me, so I suppose you are going to have to be close by correct?"

Squall rolled his eyes. This was just what he needed. He was going to be stuck in the same room as a hundred of the richest and snobbiest people in Galbadia City. Natalie caught the gesture, and inquired about it "What, does poor little Squall not like social gatherings?"

"Not particularly"

"Well then, just sit back and enjoy the show. I think even a grumpy person like you will enjoy the music. And I happen to know the repertoire, its grim and unhappy. You will enjoy it."

"Its not that. I just don't like being around people in general. The rich and famous of Galbadia will be there, making it about five...."

Squall was cut off as a huge explosion shook the building. Outside their room, they could hear glass shatter and hit the ground, and people scream. Then gunfire erupted. Squall, Zell, and Irvine looked at each other. It took about a second and a half after the explosion before all three SeeDs leapt up and charged out of the room. Squall shouted for Irvine to stay back and provide fire support while protecting Natalie. Then he motioned to Zell and the two charged out of the room.... into chaos.

Rich patrons were screaming and running in a general rout away from seven... no eight... armed men in forest camos. Squall shook his head. Amateurs. They are just trying to intimidate. Those camos just make them stand out. What did concern him was that two of them were armed with pistols, while the other six had various swords, pole-arms, and axes. Squall drew Lionheart and aimed the tip of his gunblade at one of the pistol-armed terrorists and pulled the trigger.

Lionheart glowed blue and a flash went down the barrel, sending a bolt of turquoise energy off the end and into the chest of his unfortunate target. The smell of charred flesh filled the air as he fell back with a hole burned almost clean through him. Unfortunately for Squall, they might be amateurs, but they were still trained. The second pistol armed terrorist turned and snapped off a well aimed shot before Squall could dive or reposition his gunblade to shoot him. Unfortunately for the remaining pistol wielder, Squall had other tricks up his sleeve.

Even as his aggressor pulled the trigger, Squall raised his left arm and concentrated on a single word. Protect. Then the gun went off. The bullet sped towards him, and smacked into a blue shield that had magically appeared in front of him. The bullet slowed and stopped while in contact with the field, before falling to the ground. Its a good thing that was a pistol shot. Squall knew that his spell could stop some gun fire, which is why they are not a common sight on the modern battle field. Too many armies had taught their soldiers basic protection spells. Higher powered weapons, however, can only be stopped by the powerful magic of sorceresses, as Edea had done with Irvine's sniper rifle round.

Squall had no more time to consider this, because one of the sword wielding men charged and swung his sword at him. Squall brought his gunblade up to parry. As crystal harder than diamond met steel, Zell shot from behind Squall and rammed his left fist into the swordsman's stomach. The martial artist's other fist found the man's face, and Squall heard a distinct pop as the unfortunate victim's jaw went out of alignment. Faster than anybody in the room could react, Zell jumped and kicked the man in the chest. The sound of ribs snapping was heard, and the sword wielder fell, for good measure, hitting his head against a table before blacking out.

Zell dived as one terrorist wielding a halberd swung his weapon at him. Zell rolled and popped up well within his opponent's minimum range and he went down to a furious assault from Zell. Squall in the mean time charged an axe wielding terrorist, and ax head and sword blade met. Squall threw aside the head to the left, spun with the momentum, and planted his now quickly moving boot in the man's face. As he fell back, the other sword wielder charged him. Squall exchanged several sword blows with him before dropping down and tripping his opponent with his left foot. As his opponent fell, Squall swung around, continuing the spin started by his tripping kick, and smashed his gunblade hilt into the falling man's skull. A distinct crack later, he was unmoving.

Squall heard a gun cock behind him, and turn his head, to find him staring down the barrel of a pistol. The second pistol wielder smiled at him. Squall cringed and a shot was fired and blood splattered all over Squalls face, but it took him a moment to realize it was not his blood. As the pistol wielder fell, he noticed Irvine tip his hat while blowing smoke from Exeter's barrel. Squall threw him a SeeD salute before charging into battle with the final sword wielder. Their blades crashed together several times as Squall and the final swordsman attacked and parried.

After one particularly forceful strike of his sword, Squall applied pressure to his opponent's weapon and, because of his guardian force enhanced strength, started to force him down. Movement caught his eye, and he looked towards the ruined glass to see five more terrorists walk through and charge Irvine. Squall shoved his opponent back and kicked him, sending the man sprawling backwards. Not out of the battle, but it gave Squall an opportunity to charge the new-comers.

Squall quickly judged that he would not make it there in time. Irvine's quick shots took down two of them, then he backed up trying to bring his barrel to aim at a third. Before he could fire, a flash of purple and yellow shot past the cowboy and engaged the three terrorists. In a flurry of fists and kicks that should have been impossible in the conservatively slit dress, Natalie disabled the final three in a show of martial arts that rivaled even Zell's ability.

Squall stopped short. Where did she learn to do that? Squall's thoughts were interrupted as he heard crunching glass behind him. A glance over his shoulder showed the final swordsman charging him with his sword over his head, meaning to chop down on Squall. The SeeD did the only thing he could. As his attacker came to an arms length away, Squall dropped onto one knee and flipped his gunblade backwards in his palm. He brought it up and felt it connect with the other man's stomach, and go clean through. His victim gurgled and halted his charge, dropping his sword as Squall's blade continued deeper and out the other side. Squall stood up and brought the gunblade up through the man's chest, ripping a nasty gash in it, one that not even 10 Curaga spells could have a prayer of fixing.

The corpse slid off Squall's gunblade leaving a trail of blood on it as Zell joined him. One glance told all four that there were no more enemies on the field. Squall brought his gunblade into a left-handed back-hand grasp and approached Natalie and Irvine.

Squall and Zell joined the other two, then surveyed the carnage. 13 terrorists clad in forest camos lay in various states of brokeness around the restaurant, while several bystanders were either lying or crawling with various injuries, mostly from the exploded glass from the large windows. Much more glass lay covering most of the floor of the restaurant, and many tables and chairs were turned over, the meals that were on top of them strewn about the room haphazardly.

Squall heard a whimpering sound coming from behind a downed table near him, and propped it back up. Behind him, the host who had seated them lay cowering on the ground, with his hands over his head and laying on his knees. His oversize nose was the only distinguishable feature from his face at this angle. Squall also noted a liquid running its way from under the host. As the cowering man finally looked up into Squall's eyes, he could see fear in the man's features.

Squall reached a hand down in a gesture to help him up while Irvine and Zell went around casting cure spells. The host grabbed his hand, hanging on for dear life as Squall hauled him to his feet. Finally, the terrified man returned to a semblance of calmness and looked at Squall, before commenting in his accented, nasal voice "I told you that your weapon was not allowed in the restaurant." He turned his nose up and shoved Squall, not really displacing him, but showing contempt for him, and walked towards the entrance.

Zell and Irvine rejoined Squall, and all three turned their eyes on Natalie, who was brushing her hair out of her face and behind her back. She looked back with a question written on her face. "What?"

Irvine took off his hat as he replied "Ah, ma'am, its just we were wondering where you learned to fight like that."

Natalie narrowed her eyes and stared at him. "You think that just because I'm not a SeeD that I'm not allowed to know how to defend myself?" Irvine opened his mouth to protest, but Natalie cut him off before he could say anything. "Or is just because I'm a woman and I shouldn't know how to fight? Or better yet, I'm a rich spoiled brat and should only run and cower like everybody else in the restaurant when people show up with guns?"

Irvine's mouth hung with a loss of words at Natalie's admonishment, unable to speak. Squall, however, spoke up quickly. "We were wondering because it is uncommon to find someone with the same proficiency in fighting that SeeDs regularly train to."

Natalie regarded Squall and Irvine for a moment, but before she was able to reply, one of the terrorists near them moaned and slowly opened his eyes. Their attention turned towards him. He opened his eyes and blinked them into focus as Squall brought Lionheart to his neck. "What were you doing here?"

"Just..." The fallen man stuttered as he stared at the heavy blade hovering over his jugular "Just following... orders...."

"And those would be?"

"To.... apprehend Miss Darvin, and bring her back to our base.... to show her and try to get her help..."

Natalie frowned at this "Help on what?"

The downed terrorist looked up past the blade for the first time. "Help with convincing your father to sell us the weapons.... Please, I have a family, I need to protect them... thats why we need the weapons... we are just simple people wanting to live our lives"

Squall lowered the blade even closer to his neck "Protect them from what?"

"There is something down in Centra, something.... evil. All our crops are wilting, and our animals are dying, villagers are getting sick. Please, we don't want to hurt anybody, we just need these weapons to defend ourselves." The terrorist looked at each one with a combination of earnest pleading and true terror, not at the fact his life was hanging by a thread, but whatever it was that had these Centrans terrified.

Before Squall could ponder what the terrorist had said further, he heard sirens approaching the restaurant. He sheathed Lionheart and motioned. "We need to go, I don't think there will be anything good coming from our staying for the police."

The four headed towards the exit but was blocked by the host, who stood in front of the door. With his overly nasal and accented voice he chided them "Forgetting to pay your bill? Le restaurant does not like this. And look at all the mess you made"

Squall closed the distance between him and the person who, in his mind, was rapidly becoming more annoying than Zell. Towering over him, Squall stared into his eyes and gave him the famous Squall Leonhart Death-Glare. The annoying host visibly shrunk away from him, but before he could pursue things further, Natalie grabbed him by the shoulder "Down boy." Pulling her wallet out of her purse, she took out four bills from it and handed them to the host. Four eyes widened at this, as Natalie continued "Will this be enough?"

The host stared at the four 5000 Gil bills over his large nose. He reached out and snatched the cash from her hand and ran off quickly. The four proceeded out the exit and dashed around the corner as police and military cars passed by and stopped in front of the restaurant. They continued through side streets until they got back to the hotel and into their rooms. A quick check of the computer verified that the rooms were untouched.

With everything seemingly in order, Squall finally asked the question burning in his mind "Natalie, why didn't you tell us that you were trained in martial arts?"

Natalie sat down on the couch in the main suite and crossed her legs "Why do you think I didn't want to have body guards? I am very capable of defending myself."

Squall regarded Natalie for a moment before deciding on his course of action "Zell I want you to test Natalie's martial arts capabilities tomorrow. You are the martial arts expert in Garden. If she passes our Field Exam prerequisites, I will consider her a SeeD for the duration of the mission and redo our defense approach accordingly."

Irvine cleared his throat. Squall glanced at him "...With your approval, SIR"

Irvine smirked and took off his cowboy hat, tossing it on the table "I approve. I also want you to write the mission report to the headmaster tonight. He will probably want to hear your opinions on the terrorists."

Squall nodded and left for his own room. Zell, leaning against the wall, turned his head to Natalie "will 7 AM work for you?"

Natalie stood up and started walking to the door "See you at seven" With that, she walked out the door to her own room. Zell and Irvine glanced at each other, understanding passing between them. Finally Irvine spoke "I think Squall is back in action."

Squall sat in front of his computer considering his report to Cid. He understood why Irvine wanted him to make the report. I am the Commander no matter what Cid said, and I know the best way to handle the situation. Squall stood up and stretched his cramped muscles before looking at his watch. 3:15, I've been working on this for almost 5 hours.

Squall knew he needed to get to sleep or else his combat abilities would be degraded tomorrow. However, what the terrorist said continued to plague his mind. "There is something down in Centra., something.... evil"

Squall's gut told him that the terrorist was telling the truth, that he was just a simple farmer, but something was scaring them and forcing them to acquire weapons, weapons that were illegal for most non-military personnel to own. He turned back to the SeeD report on the Centran terrorists. As far as SeeD can estimate, the terrorists number approximately 60-80 people, and are the equivalent to a military for the colonists, who number no more than 20,000.

Even with the weapons they wanted, Squall knew that anybody with a gram of sense could see that they had no chance of seriously threatening any nation in the world. Finally, Squall felt he could complete his report.

Headmaster

Attached is a detailed account of the Centran Terrorist's first attempt at abduction of our client. The attempt was easily thwarted. However, a statement made by one of them (see Pg 3, line 42) makes me wonder about their motives. Our report on them (Pages 5-7) match very closely with Galbadia's intelligence report on them (Pages 8-12). These are not extremists. They seem to be concerned mostly about something that is affecting their lively hood, but they do not know what it is. I recommend having a high level SeeD infiltrate and analyze ASAP. Nida, Xu, Fredrick, or Marius are all good selections for this proposed assignment. I am aware that I no longer hold the rank of Commander, but I think this is only prudent.

Squall Leonhart

Squall proofread his report, twice more before he finally sent it off. However, the mystery still nagged at his mind, and he knew he would not be able to sleep yet. He stood gazing out of his window at the Galbadia City Gate for more than an hour, recalling his fight with Edea and Seifer there. When he finally did drop off to sleep, it was a restless one.