Chapter Three: The Decision

"No! No way! It's the worst idea yet!" Squall waved his hands in Quistis' face and walked into the Quad, the orange sunset reflecting on his red button down shirt.

Quistis followed him, relieved that no one was around. "Squall! We need him! I don't care what you two have had happen to the both of you but I want you to know we are in serious need of someone who has knowledge of the Mortali's…"

"The answer is no!" Squall spun around, his face filled with anger.

"This is unprofessional!" Quistis snapped back. Squall turned around and sighed.

"You…you don't understand! I cannot just order them to release him! It's not my authority!" He rested his arms against the railing and stared out into the sunset.

"Squall I know that! But I already spoke with Vinzer Deling's son, who IS in charge of Galbadia and he already gave me this!" Quistis pulled out an envelope. Squall ripped it from her hands.

"What is it?" He tore it open and read the contents. "To the headmaster of Balamb Garden…I have spoken with you colleague Quistis Trepe…"

"It's a letter of approval…to release Seifer." Squall looked up from the paper and sighed. "Squall, we need him to catch them. If we don't…you know what'll happen."

"You did this without me knowing? Why?"

"You know… you used to be kinder…until…" Quistis reached for his hand.

"—Look at me Quistis…I'm 21 years old and…I'm in charge of this fucking place." He took her hand in his. "I didn't ask for this. And then things got complicated after the compression. With Rinoa and her bullshit…and then us and Cid's retirement and then my…my fathers heart attack…"

"And your anger…" Quistis said quietly.

"And my anger…I just can't handle it anymore. I….Quistis…I'm sorry."

"It's fine, Squall." She wrapped her arms around him. "It's perfectly fine."

Zell, Nida, and Dr. Kadowaki waited at the main entrance to the Galbadian Mental Institution of the Criminally Insane. Clearance was worst here than it was at the prison.

"This is probably the worst idea Squall has mentioned yet." Nida said quietly, taking small puffs from his cigarette.

"It's because he's so fucking pussy whipped from Quist—"

"Zell!" Dr. Kadowaki glared at Zell and Nida. "You grown men need to learn to clean up your mouths. It's bad enough I have to hear it from the students."

"Yes Ma'am." Zell muttered.

"Sorry Ma'am." Nida sighed. Dr Kadowaki continued waiting patiently.

Seifer's doctor came towards the doors and stopped for a moment, arguing with the guard next to him. Finally, he walked out. Zell snickered, his imagination was right in matching a face to the voice over the phone. The Doctor was a tall slender man. The light seemed to collect on his black slick hair. Smarmy, Evil… Zell thought.

"I wish you would have given me warning, Mr. Dincht." The doctor checked his clipboard. "Bringing an unauthorized doctor to a hospital is …impractical."

"Well if I am going to be treating a patient I usually would like to meet them as soon as possible." Dr. Kadowaki could tell that this doctor did not want her to see Seifer in the state he was in.

"He just finished his treatment." The doctor said. "You cannot see him until he is awake."

"Fine. Then we'll wait."

"Get up! You've been released!" The guard opened the cell door and flipped on the light. Seifer shielded his eyes from the sudden brightness and looked around. He felt a blow to his ribs when he didn't get up fast enough. He rolled and fell out of bed. Cramped in a fetal position, holding his malnourished body, he looked up at the guard who flung the tip of his boot into Seifer's arm. Seifer began to feel weary. As he was trying to get up, two guards had walked in and shut the door behind them.

"Yeah…Don't worry honey… yeah he's here, he's not awake though…. we don't know….yeah….its weird to say but I think someone came in and beat his ass before we showed up…well, that's the problem…yeah." Zell was talking into his phone when Seifer began to regain consciousness. He felt the vibrations of a vehicle, and the occasional warm hand over his head. His body throbbed. He tried opening his eyes, but he was too weak to even try. So he laid there, listening in on Zell's conversation. "…We're at Timber now. We can't bring him to Garden safely over the water highway with the weather as severe as it is."

"I can drive through this, Zell. It's not a problem. It's only a thunderstorm." Seifer could hear Nida's voice from the front seat. "Weather conditions are clearer in Balamb than they are in Timber."

"It's probably a good idea…" said Dr. Kadowaki. "He's very sick. I need to get some proper medication. I cannot believe that they let him get this ill…"

"…Dr Kadowaki is here to make sure he's stable and healthy….Well, I guess I'll let you go….because its late, and I need to help Dr. K with Seifer. Haha. Shut up. I love you too. Bye, Sephie." Zell shut the phone off and started talking to Nida. Seifer couldn't understand what he was saying to him, but he could hear what Dr. Kadowaki was upset about.

"…raised him….almost like a child…cursed malpractices…poor Seifer…"

"Mhhmm…" Seifer weakly opened his eyes halfway, only to close them from the overhead light blinding him.

"Seifer?" Zell waved his hands over his face.

Dressed, fed, and cleaned in new clothes and treated wounds, Seifer was escorted to the Headmasters office by Zell. When they opened the red doors, there stood Quistis, Selphie, Rinoa and Squall.

"Seifer!"

"You see, this is why weapons are easier to kill a monster than magic." Seifer commanded, taking a swing at Emma with a Galbadian sword. Emma defensively threw up Seifer's Hyperion. When he was instructing her, his voice was low, seductive, yet, commanding. "G.F's are useless at times," Another swing, another clash. "Especially when you are silenced." He put his hand up to tell her to stop. The weight of the blade caused her to slip and make the blade hit the ground every so often. "Gunblades are more secure in my opinion. Yes, they're harder to handle, but…" He reached out for Emma's hand that was on the trigger. He spun behind her and slipped his finger over hers. He pressed against it, causing the gun to fire and hit the target on the wall. The target was torn in half. "They're guaranteed to keep you safe." He moved away with grace and picked up his weapon. He nodded and blocked a charge Emma had tried. "Come on, Mortali!" He swung at her. He missed her arm by a foot.

"Watch out! You almost hit me." She yelled. Seifer lowered his head and sighed.

"I guess I was wrong about this weapon being right for you."

Emma had taken this as an insult and picked up Hyperion and charged and Seifer once again. Luckily, she had the blade sideways. When Seifer saw what she was doing he spun and kicked the blade, which caused her to spin around and slip. The trigger shot fire rounds into the air. Seifer grabbed his trench coat and flew onto Emma, covering the two of them with his coat.

He fell on top of her, his own body surrounding her small frame. She felt the fire rounds fall on top of his coat and dissipate.

"You don't have to get so angry, Mortali. It's only your second day." She could feel his chest vibrate when he spoke. It made her want to press her head closer to his chest but didn't. He shifted his weight, looking down at her. He pressed his lips up against hers, holding them there for a moment, kissing her deeply.

He pulled me up with a quick motion, causing my body to fall forward into his. My chest pressed against his as I breathed heavily. I just stood there, my body against his, not really wanting to move. His heart was beating against my breastbone, which made my own beat faster. I looked up into Seifer's eyes, our chests still molded together, our hands still intertwined. He looked at me, a look of surprise and something else that I couldn't place my finger on. We just looked at each other, becoming oblivious to our surroundings. Seifer then cleared his throat, disentangling himself from my grip, breaking the link of our hands.

Rinoa's mouth dropped, unaware of his return. "What are you doing here!"

"Rin." Zell put a hand up. "Not now."

"Hello, Rinoa." Seifer said and began to make his way over to Squall.

"Squall…would you mind telling me exactly why you released me?" Seifer asked coolly, waiting for Squall to turn his head and speak. But he didn't. He looked at Squall oddly. "Ok so is everyone just going to give me my life back, and ignore me?"

"You unappreciative bast--" Squall began to charge at Seifer, but was stopped by Quistis.

"That's enough for now!" Quistis groaned, sitting the two men across from each other.

"Just begin already! I left Lula with Mrs. Dincht and I don't want her to wait for us!" Selphie shouted and threw her arms down, annoyed.

"Fine…I'll begin…Rinoa, could you call Squad B in please?" Rinoa nodded at Quistis and left the room.

"So where's the cowboy?" Seifer asked, putting his feet up on the long glass table.

"He, is in Deling at the moment. He had some…" Quistis lowered her voice when Rinoa returned. "other personal business."

"He will be back sometime next month." Rinoa said, sitting down. "He promised we'd go to Esthar and have a vacation toget--."

"Okay, I need to make sure that you're all here." Quistis pulled out a clipboard and began checking off names. She stopped for a moment and looked around the room. "Sindel Dincht— Zell, where's your nephew?"

As the door swung open, a young redhead, looking the age of eight or nine, ran through the doors and stopped in front of Zell. S-sorry Uncle Zell…I g-got lost--WOW! It's the real Seifer Almasy! I've got all of your magazine clippings! Did you know that you were on the front cover of Weapons Monthly! But sir…why are you so battered up?" Sindel sat beside Seifer, who scooted closer to the edge of the table.

"Ahem…Sindel…" Zell shook his head.

"Okay…let's begin…first of all, to anyone outside this room, this meeting never happened. This is strictly confidential to any average student. Most of the staff has no idea, none of the students do either. Nobody is to know about it. Understood! And second, as you all know, Seifer Almasy has come to help us out…" Sindel grinned widely at Seifer, who just smirked at the boy. "…he is our key advisor on the field…watch from him and learn from him. Just from my experience from teaching, Seifer is a very intelligent intellectual…."

"Psh…" Seifer mumbled.

"…and very honest." Quistis spoke louder. "If we are going to complete this mission successfully I recommend we work and learn from each other as a team, as is the SeeD way." Quistis sat down in her chair by Squall and watched as Zell and Selphie stood and walked to the front of the room. The lights dimmed, and a transparent blue screen appeared on the desk. Selphie cleared her throat.

"We believe that the Mortali Hitmen are responsible for the terrorist attacks…" Seifer looked at the screen to see a picture of a man appear. The Mortali's include: Evers Mortali, age 33…he is the head foreman in the group…along with his son, Lux. Age is 14, and specializes in locations and directions…After that is Cort 'Tricky T.' Gunner…age 20…" As Selphie droned on about his information, Zell leaned in by Seifer.

"We believe that that is your replacement after you were caught." Zell whispered and sat down next to Seifer.

"Replacement?" Seifer looked up at Zell.

"Next is Seri, age 24. She's a specialist in pyrotechnics…"

"Yeah, after you left, this guy was hired to complete your duties to…Edea. But by that time—"

"You guys ended up taking the show over." Seifer finished. Zell nodded, biting his fingernails.

"Then there is Morus, age 28…he is very powerful with the melee arts…there is Fik and Mik ages are 21… they specialize in kidnapping and inventory."

"I'll tell you more after she's done." Zell stood back up.

"…And finally, Luda a.k.a. Emma Mortali …"

Seifer shot his eyes up at the screen to see a badly drawn sketch of Emma. "Rinoa must've done it." He joked and smiled to himself.

Selphie began to walk around the room as she spoke of Emma. "…Age 19, she took her mothers name to honor, and was known as 'Daddy's little terrorist' when only a year old when he had sneaked her into the Presidential Palace in Esthar, with a camera in her stuffed bear. This is the one that we need to be cautious for. A convicted infiltrator, murderess, thief, and terrorist. She sided with Seifer Almasy and the well-known Sorceress Edea Kramer exactly one year ago as their own personal spy and—"

"Emma wasn't a spy." Seifer said defensively. Squall looked up at Seifer with a glare.

"Just remember to be on your guard…end of briefing." The lights returned and the screen disappeared. Seifer came back to reality.

Squall stood and made his announcement. "Tomorrow, after the dinner party, you are to meet up back in here where I shall discuss our mission. The following morning, we disperse. I will give you each a list of what you will need and what your duties are to Galbadia-Balamb United. Any questions?" He pointed at a black haired student, who stood up as well.

"Sir…how do you know if we are to trust this…man as you call him?" He pointed at Seifer in disgust. "…I mean, what if we-- I mean say that we were to have him put us in the open, after giving us false information, how are we to protect ourselves from getting injured or worse: dead?" Seifer began to chuckle at the young man and stood up.

"What's your name kid?" Seifer asked.

"My name is Mape Krackki." He said carelessly.

"Well, Mr. Krackki. I can assure you that I would rather be out here than be put back in that Hyne-awful cell that they dare call home for me…"

"And your point is sir?" Mape folded his arms across his chest.

Seifer walked to the front of the room with his hands behind his back and faced the window. "My point is…Mr. Krackki, that I won't be making any wrong decisions, I won't be giving you any false information of any kind. Because if I do…" Seifer turned around. "…I will be back right where I was in the first place. And where would that get me?" He walked out of the room.

"This meeting is concluded. Enjoy your lunch." Quistis said with a warm smile.