In this chaptyr, blood will be spilled. Hyne help them all...
I don't own any of these characters! Oh, wait, yes I do! Kheheheh. I own Gartier. Yay!
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President Dincht proved to be a man of the people. Unlike his predecessors, Dincht had a genuine following among the Galbadians. They were united behind him. They trusted him. Everything seemed easy to the young president though some of the council meetings would get rough. He found the routine meetings to be an unproductive waste of time, but they were mandatory so he had to go, but he did manage to get the meetings down to once a month.
On each side of the long, glossy table, a dozen council members were in attendance all quietly chatting as they waited for the president to arrive. They spoke badly of President Dincht among themselves calling him young and naive. All of them worked together to try and teach the boy that the army was the heart of Galbadia. Without it, they explained, the people would run wild in the streets and form factions to overthrow the government, other nations will knock them around, and the economy will suffer greatly due to the lack of imports coming in from the once conquered territories. Except that the economy slowed down a notch, none of this came true, giving Zell even more reason to ignore the council.
The president entered the room and all was quieted. The council rose to their feet respectfully as he made his way across the room to his seat. A few of them had stayed seated.
Zell reached the front, smiling at those seated. "Starting this meeting off right, are we?" He sat at the head of the table and all who were standing followed suit. "Now are you going to stand?" he asked them, generating no response from the men who blankly stared forward. "Commence." With that word the meeting was started.
Everything had started out quietly and polite, but, as usual, it escalated into a distempered free-for-all. General Gartier meshed his black leather gloves together as he stared off into space. He had promised himself not to participate. "(There's no use in it.)" he told himself, but as he listened, he wanted more and more to yell out the solutions that he had bellowed for so many years. He rubbed his hands with more force as he listened to the boy tell them how it was going to be. Each time he spoke, the pressure mounted on Gartier's shoulders until, finally, he couldn't take it...
Gartier slammed his fists on the table and pushed himself up. His violence shut everyone up and all eyes were on him. "All these problems would be solved if you would just give the army back its strength! You've crippled us!" Dincht started to respond to his harsh words, but the general's voice outmatched his own. "You've given back the lands we worked hard to appropriate and now we don't have enough farmland! Resources are so hard to come by, it's no wonder are economy is down! And we've only just seen the tip of the iceberg on that one. You've shriveled the army and now our country is suffering, don't you see that!" Zell sat down and let him continue his same old song. "You negotiate with Esthar to get plastic, in the meantime we don't have the means to defend ourselves! Shouldn't you get new weapons technology!"
The room seemed extra quiet in the absence of his voice. Zell calmly answered, "Now is that a rhetorical question, or would you like me to answer again?"
"As many times as I have to ask, I want you to answer. Maybe you'll finally hear yourself and know how dumb you sound," Gartier said and plopped into his seat.
Zell drew in a long breath wishing he were somewhere else.
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Laguna stretched out his muscles and rotated his chair. He looked over the great city of Esthar. What a beautiful city. He frowned and wondered why he felt out of place. "(Oh yeah, I'm usually checking up on Adel right about this time of year...)" He looked up at the sky and spun his chair back around.
"Miss going out there?" Kiros asked.
"Yeah. It was kinda fun just to go out there. A break from the ordinary, you know?" Laguna sighed at the mountain of paperwork on the desk and went on another spin. "Hey, you know who I haven't seen in a while?"
"(Laguna...)"
"No, Ward, I'm not trying to get out of work, seriously." he answered Ward's look. "(Not that I wouldn't mind to. Heh heh...) Odine."
"Now that I think of it, I haven't seen him for a long time either," Kiros replied and Ward nodded in agreement.
"See?"
"I'm gonna go look for him." Laguna happily left his work desk and bolted out of the door.
"...Or he could have just called..." Kiros exchanged glances with Ward who was laughing. Kiros picked up the phone.
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"Squall...?" Rinoa began. "There's something I've been wanting to ask you for some time and it's just been driving me crazy lately..."
"What is it?"
She shifted uneasily in her chair. "...Griever...?"
Squall sighed within himself. He had thought about it for many years, but still was unable to figure it out. Talking about it now certainly wasn't going to help.
"How did you come to learn of it?"
"(She's been holding on to this question for a long time...)" he thought and figured he should answer that it may put her mind at ease. Squall shook his head and responded, "I made it up myself. I made up the name and everything."
Rinoa was puzzled. "Are you sure?"
"I've already tried to figure this thing out. I thought maybe I was influenced by something else, but I remember making Griever and designing the ring myself." He looked at the rings around her neck. "Griever was the image of who I wanted to be."
"A lion..." she whispered.
"Yeah."
"Did you... make the ring yourself?"
"Why are you asking about the ring?"
"I'm pretty sure that I saw Ultimecia use a ring."
"I don't think so..." Squall wondered where this was going.
"Where did you get it made at?"
"Rinoa," he sighed. He didn't mean to feed her imagination. "why are you so worried about this? It was just a trick, that's all. She wanted to confuse me so she conjured up the image that I had of myself and turned it against me. It's that simple." He scooted his chair around the small table and held Rinoa's face. "Ultimecia is gone. You don't have to worry about it anymore."
"But if it is the ring-- this ring..."
Squall's attention went elsewhere. Rinoa turned and saw tall Irvine walking along side a squat, little fellow. Irvine waved and scooped up the toddler and made him wave. "Hey, little man, there's your mommy and daddy. Go on." He set him on the floor and patted his butt. The little one then ran across the way and jumped into his mother's arms.
"Ooooh," Rinoa sang as she did a spin-around. "We missed you, yes we did!" she chirped. She sat in her seat and he was bombarded by two juicy kisses. Squall smiled and brushed back his soft, brown hair.
"Man, that little guy is something else. He is my ultimate partner in crime, aren't you?" Irvine tipped his hat and the little fellow giggled.
"Kaytsu is not your personal chick-magnet," Rinoa scolded.
"Actually, we just went down to the Quad and played with a guitar. The ladies... came after." He shrugged, "What can I say? He's goood." Rinoa shook her head. "Oh, and I just saw Quistis on the way up here. They, uh, need to discuss some things with you in the office." He saw a frown make its way onto Rinoa's face. "But it'll only take a little bit."
Squall rose and, after a little kiss, walked off with Irvine. He could feel her eyes boring holes through him as he walked out of the cafeteria. She didn't like the way he was always gone. She also didn't care to raise Kaytsu in a military environment. Sooner or later something was going to give.
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Laguna didn't get it. He scratched his head in his confusion. "(Where could he have gone? I can't find him anywhere, but at least I know he's in the city. Wait... that's not helpful...)" He rode back up to the Palace using the sitster. When he got off he stopped at the first door. "(I left him here...)" He pushed the door open and walked inside.
He snooped around the room. "Little scary-man...? You in here?" He came across a panel he had never seen before. "What's this?" Laguna punched in the presidential code.
Access Denied.
"Denied!" he looked at the screen in bewilderment. "Let's see if you deny this..." He punched in Odine's 'secret' code and the wall shifted and folded upward. Laguna was stunned to find a part of the Palace that he didn't know about. He ducked down to look into the dark abyss. Little rectangles of light went on as far as the eye could see.
Laguna hunched his way into the little room. The door quietly closed behind him. He squatted and looked over the first machine. Somebody had uncovered it... Odine was likely here, Laguna decided.
Laguna made his way walking blindly through the low-ceilinged maze until he heard the sounds of someone working: tools falling to the ground, some kind of blowtorch, and various grunts.
Finally he made came across a little man wearing a welder's mask. "Odine. I've been looking all over for you. What is this place and what are you—," he stopped suddenly. He recognized the headgear that the good doctor was working on. "Junction Machine Ellone..."
Odine dropped the welder's mask revealing his twisted, little face. "Sure iz," A hand went around his backside. "you cheeky monkey!" Odine fired a laser gun into Laguna's chest.
Laguna brought a hand up and turned away from his murderer. His head spun as his body was wracked with pain. An image of Raine came to mind and he found the strength he needed not to cry out. He fell to his knees and finally to the floor. Dead.
Odine looked at the laser gun he held out in front of him with dismay. Then he scooped up his beloved machine and fled the lab.
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:'( Damn you, Odine. I'll kill you! So how many of you saw that coming? Write to me, I love teh reviews.
In the next chaptyr, I'll use my author-itarian powers to crush Odine... Or perhaps his role isn't finished in all of this. I don't know. But I've gotta take a break...
