In this chaptyr, I'm stepping away from writing about the warfare. Just know that there's lots of fighting and blood and guts. In fact, this story will fast forward through many years, and we'll see what the family is up to during this period of gruesome war.

I own no characters other than Gartier, Kaytsu, and Ian.

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Steady hands carefully diced the dried raze in preparation of the dinner that the boys would soon bring home. Raze tastes much like a spicy version of parsley and complements fish well. As Rinoa diligently made the preparations, Squall came up and embraced her from behind. He rocked back and forth gently as he whispered into her ear.

Kaytsu sat on the floor as he struggled with his boots. He pounded his heal to the ground several times and heard his mother giggle. "Hey!" he shouted, "You'd better not be kissing in there!"

"We're not!" she lied.

He looked over to the kitchen and saw the two part lips. He shook his head and jumped to his feet and put on his heavy parka.

"Do you need us to stop by Shumi Village while we're out?" Squall asked Rinoa.

"I could use some vegetables," she said turning around, "but it's much too late in the day for you all to travel that far." Rinoa pulled the fur-lined hood over his head and ran her hands down his chest. "Stay warm," she told him and gave him a very warming kiss.

"Ehem..." Little Kaytsu stood behind them.

"And you stay warm too," she chuckled. She leaned over fastening his coat as tightly as only a mother could, and sent him off with a kiss.

They were headed out the door, crunching along as Rinoa waved goodbye to her 'baby.' Before they were even out of earshot, Kay turned to his father asking, "Dad? Can I use the gunblade some more?" His eyes were steady on the Revolver.

He turned to his son and whispered, "Shh! Your mother is still watching!"

Rinoa shook her head in disapproval. Squall and Kay threw back a glance and waved to see if she heard anything. She smiled, waved a bit, and went inside. She had long known that Squall had been training Kay in the use of the gunblade, but she would never think of inhibiting them; Squall was passing on his own childhood and bonding with his son. "(This bond will never be broken.)" she thought to herself as she watched the father-son pair disappear over the hillside.

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The lake seemed to stretch into forever. It matched the light of the clouded sky, making it hard to tell where the lake ended and the sky began. There were never any distortions in its perfect face and it was almost a shame, Squall thought, to cast out a single line, let alone two. Kay, of course, liked the break in monotony and watched the ripples shout across the lake.

When the lake was perfectly still once again, Kaytsu began to ask the hard questions, "...Why do you and mom kiss?"

"What?" Squall paused for a moment. This was the first question of its kind. "…Mom kisses you, too."

"You know what I mean..." he glared at his father.

Squall brought his head down to his hand for a moment then came up with, "When a woman likes a man, the woman kisses him."

There was a silence as Kay absorbed this information. "...But sometimes I see you kiss mom. Do you like to kiss her like that?" he asked with his face all askew.

Squall frowned, "(Where are all these questions coming from? ...He is a pre-teen. I guess now is the time when he starts asking. But how am I supposed to know what to say?) ...Sure, I like to kiss her."

"Gross!" he sneered with a smile on his face.

"I don't think so," Squall replied, adding, "Kay, when you're in love, it's just what you do. It's what comes natural. ...You will understand it when you're older."

"You mean... I will kiss girls too?"

Squall nodded.

Kaytsu shook his head vigorously.

Squall continued to nod until he broke into a little laugh.

"What? What's funny?" Kay asked only receiving a shrug. Kay pushed his bottom lip up in an effort to keep from smiling, but in his failure he just threw some snow at his dad. Squall grounded his pole and there began a snowball fight.

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On the way back, the two bumped into each other time and time again. Each of them carried 2 sizable fish (Squall had given one to Kaytsu to carry). The sun was all but set when the boys pushed their way over the last hill. Squall stopped.

"What is it, dad? You tired?" Kaytsu, getting no answer, looked in the direction of his father's gaze. There, next to the house, sat the great, crimson dragon, the Ragnorok. Squall proceeded to the house, Kaytsu keeping up right behind him.

Squall walked onto the porch, his heavy boots took only a single step before Rinoa was at the door. She didn't say anything, but her expression was fearful. Kaytsu picked up on this and was worried himself, and being directed to his room only confirmed that he had reason to worry.

Headmaster Trepe was direct and went strait to the heart of the matter. She described to him a world in turmoil because of a traitorous general. Squall listened intently while Rinoa's face was consumed with concern. She knew what they wanted of her husband. Trepe told them, "Gartier even got recruits from Dollet and Timber, the very cities he had captured, using the Timber Maniacs to spread his propaganda to the youth. He took FH too, and he's manufacturing ships and robots there. ...He's building an unstoppable force. Trabia Garden sees this, and is pulling out its SeeD. President Dincht is almost out of this fight..."

"It's been like this since you left," Irvine informed.

"Yeah, it's like they were waiting for you to leave," observed Selphie.

"Squall," the headmaster continued, "everyone in the world recognizes the Lionheart. Your very presence could make the Arturo army buckle. We know where Gartier is. We're just asking that you join our storm on the compound and watch our backs while we take out Gartier."

"How many are in the compound?" Rinoa put forth the question with a tint of anger in her voice.

"50 thousand or so." An honest, ghastly answer.

"And how many are you taking in to storm the place?"

"It will be Selphie, Irvine, Xu, myself, and 4 others."

Rinoa shouted tearfully, "Nine! Against 50 thousand!"

"We're not fighting them, Noa. We're just to eliminate Gartier and their structure will crumble."

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said sarcastically, "it's 50 thousand against nine… Thanks for clearing the air on that one, Quistis!"

Quistis learned of Rinoa's fear of losing Squall when they had left the garden, and so stayed calm, but she was on the breaking point. Squall was their only hope of taking out Gartier and saving the world, but Rinoa would rather he stayed home with her. "(Selfish.)"

Squall stood up before the situation turned into a yelling match. "Quistis, I'll need time to think." Rinoa eyed Headmaster Trepe suspiciously as Squall walked the SeeDs out the door.

"Squall," Quistis spoke in a low tone on the other side of the door, Rinoa listening in, "you are the only chance we have to eliminate this threat. Please consider this. We need you."

Squall gently shut the door without a word. He turned, seeing his angry wife. "You're really going to do it, aren't you?"

Squall leaned against the door. "...It looks like I have no choice."

"You do have a choice! Squall..." she pleaded, "stay with us. You don't have to go."

"Without me," He pushed himself off of the door. "they don't stand a chance." He went to their bedroom.

She got up and followed after him. "That's their problem, not ours."

Squall spun on heal at those words. "What? You would have me turn my back on my friends? On Zell who I appointed president? On Quistis, who I appointed headmaster?" He turned back around and rummaged through the closet in the dark. "No... I can't abandon them in the positions that I assigned them. ...I have to join them on their last chance to nail this guy." He pulled down a long, black case with various clutter crashing to the floor. He slammed the case onto the bed and popped open the latches on either side.

A blue light seeped out from the cracks until Rinoa pushed the case shut, grabbing hold of Squall's full attention. "Squall, don't leave your son... don't leave me," she cried in the dark.

Squall heard her voice breaking and reached for her, bringing her into his warm arms. "Rinoa... I will never leave you or my son. One attack— one raid, and I'm out of there."

Rinoa tugged at the soft fur on Squall's parka. "Why do you have to go at all?"

"Nine years, Rinoa, nine years they've been at war. This could all be solved in one night..."

There was no use arguing with him, she decided. He was resolved to go. "Here," she replied somberly, her spirit broken. Rinoa gave him Diablo and Cactar. She held him tightly and kissed him as lovers do.

From the case, he produced the Lionheart. Squall gave squeezes to Kaytsu and then was out the door. Rinoa stood in the doorway and tearfully watched the Ragnarok disappear into the darkness of the night. She slumped against the door and slid helplessly to the wooden planks below.

Kay heard her crying and went to her. "He'll be back, mom," he assured her as he stroked her hair. "He's really good with that gunblade, you know. You don't have to worry." A wind whipped over the tundra, sending shivers down their spines. "Come on, mom. It's cold out," little Kaytsu helped her up and brought her inside.

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...So, any predictions for the future? But please don't 'spoiler' up the reply.