Part 2:
After the amazing fire works, the party came to its end. Squall and Rinoa had been the whole time on the balcony, in their endless dance of love, gazing at the stars, at gigantic full moon that hung over the sky as if it watched carefully the two teenagers...
It was past midnight when the party ended and Squall and Rinoa where the last ones to walk out of the ballroom...
'I wish the party could go on all night 'till the sunrise...' said Rinoa in a disappointed tone of voice.
'...don't worry, we'll have many more moments of these...if that's up to me...' he said as he smiled and kissed her forehead compensatively...
They head to the dorms together; both very embraced to one another, his arm around her shoulder, keeping her warm, and her arm around his waist...
They walked slowly, trying to extend the night as far as possible...
When finally they reached the dorms, they had to split up.
'..I'll miss you, Squall...' Rinoa said softly as she gave a puppy look to Squall.
'I'll miss you too...tell you what!...I'll see you in your dreams...look for me, ok?' he asked her giving her a sweet peck on her cheek as they both stood in the dormitory common room...
'I will...see you then...' she replied giving him a wink and a cute smile, walking into her room and shutting the door softly...
Squall stood alone in the room, still staring at her door. After a few moments of rehearing what she said numbers of times, with her voice echoing in his head, he smiled pleasantly and made his way to his own room as well...
They both feel onto their beds, stared at the ceiling until as their minds pictured each other until their eyes were painfully tired and hardly could stand open, falling asleep with smiles on their faces...
The next day...
While wind hit the curtains that covered the windows of the dorms, a sweet smell of a beautiful spring morning would fill the whole facility. The sweet aroma of peace had filled the air once more...at least it felt like so...
Balamb Garden as beautiful as it always was had been travelling all night through the peaceful, silent sea. In the morning it had reached a beach side near Balamb city...
The sun brought in the dorms its warmth and light, cheering up everyone's soul's right from the very morning...
The soft wind touched Squall's sleepy, swelled face as he opened his stunning eyes slowly.
When he sat up in his bed peacefully and realized he was still home and that had happened the night before had not been a dream, a huge smile came across his face. He got up quickly and eagerly, took a shower, ran up to Rinoa's dormitory room and waited.
'Squall?' Selphie walked up to him with a usual cute surprised smile on her face.
'You're ok?' she yelled all thrilled.
'Yeah...' he answered scratching his head, hoping she would not notice he was waiting for Rinoa, in case she made a scene...
'That's just great!' she grinned sweetly at him, patting his face caringly, skipping away happily afterwards.
Squall waited a few more minutes and started to worry, so knocked on the door 'Rinoa?' he asked in his serious worried tone of voice.
Suddenly he felt and hand on his shoulder and jumped.
'I-I thought you were still in there so I...I...' he started all serious, but couldn't resist that beautiful smile...grabbed her face with both hands, grinning and kissed her passionately...
'Woooooooooo!' went the whole corridor as they parted.
Squall blushed, looked down, kept the serious look on his face and walked away quickly dragging Rinoa behind who giggled softly as the other girls that winked at her...
Holding hands they walked slowly heading to the cafeteria.
'Squall?' Rinoa said gently.
'Yeah?' he pulled her closer to him, kissing her head lovingly.
'Do you think there'll be no more wars from now on?...I mean...Ultemecia...she's gone...do you think anyone else will come to take her place...?' she asked worried looking up at him...
'Well, I can't really tell, Rin...the way things have been going on...maybe not... but, I don't know, there are always conflicts between men and power...it's power all men seek and that's what generates all wars...at least that's what I think...but...as you told me before...and I genuinely agree...no one can predict the future...we can only hope to find peace and fight for it...' he answered trying not to sound too negative.
'I'm scared...' she said cuddling into his embrace.
'Don't think about that...don't be scared, I'll always be there for you...right by your side...you know I would never let anything happen to you, right?...besides if anything happens one day...anything at all I think of something...I'll do my best to be with you all the time...' he said once more in the most delicate and reassuring tone.
'I love you...' she answered back while she gazed at him in amazement...
So they walked into the cafeteria and walked into Zell who was standing in the end of the line as usual praying for hotdogs to still exist...
'Yo! Squall! My man! I see you up and ready ...and smotchy wooshy too! Ha!' he yelled so all the gang could hear, laughing and choking at the same time...
'I'm kiddin'! Go sit down, you guys! I'll order for ya! I've got SPECIAL CUPPONS and I'm feeling generous!' he offered smiling and saying the last words loud and clear for everyone to hear...
'Thanks Zell...' thanked Squall as he walked to one of the tables.
'You're too kind...'sneared Rinoa as she pulled her tong out...
'Hi!' said Quistis zombie like as she kept her eyes off Squall and Rinoa, pulling a chair and sitting down next to them...
'So, I've heard the news...' she said trying to force a smile on her face...
'What news?' asked Squall frowning as he crossed his arms, looking quite surprised.
Rinoa punched him slightly with her elbow, trying to make him understand.
'C'mon Squall, you should know that better than all of us...' Quistis replied unfriendly...
'Oh...yeah...of course...' he remembered now smiling at Rinoa as she pulled her chair closer tyo his and gave him a sweet peck on the cheek...
'Yo Squall! Getting hungry? I've come to save yall!' said Zell proud of himself already licking his lips in greed...
'Oh! Quisty! I never brought you any...there's no more by now...' he said as he slapped his hand on his forehead...
'Dammit! Here... you can have mine!' he gasped as he slid his hot dog in Quistis direction...
'It's ok Zell...I don't want...I feel sick...' she grunted angrily as she got up from her chair violently and walked out of the cafeteria in a flash...
'Geeezz! What's got into her? Stressed missy!' said Zell surprised as he looked at her walk out furiously.
'Oh..well...'he said looking at the hotdog, 'I guess you're mine again...' and grabbed the hotdog and took a great bite out of it spilling ketchup on Squall's nose...
'Thanks a lot, Zell...' spat out Squall whipping his nose furiously with his hand, forgetting to take off hs glove...'Oh...great!' he mumbled...
Squall messed ketchup all over his gloves...and his face...Zell snorted loudly as he a whole load of laughter came out as he guzzled his hotdog...Irvine who had just arrived at the table sitting down and having a laughter fit just like Zell...
'You messy little baby!' chuckled Rinoa as she looked at Zell as she controlled her giggles.
'...I guess, I look better this way, eh...?' said Squall humorously as he crossed his arms and smiled at everyone...
'...darling, you'll always look gorgeous ...with ketchup even better...' Rinoa explained as she smiled and kissed him.
'...I'll just go and change...' said Squall as he sighted impatiently and got up from his chair.
'..Poor baby! How could you laugh at him? You MEANNIES! 'She said impressed at Irvine and Zell's attitude and pulled her tong at them playfully as she followed Squall...
'...YEAH BABY! Two more hotdogs for me!' shouted out Zell still smiling, now staring at Squall and Rinoa's hotdogs.
'You just can't help yourself, can you Zell...' said Irvine laughing at Zell's sad picture.
'By the way, have you seen Selphie?'
'Nah...' said Zell with his mouth full.
'Guess I'll drop by the Quad, then...See ya!' said Irvine getting up from his chair and walked away, leaving Zell on his own.
While concentrating on eating his hotdogs Zell , couldn't think of anything else and was ignoring everyone around him, until...
'Hi!' said a lively girl's voice from behind him, frightening him and causing him to choke...
'Heeey! You alright there? Sorry! I didn't mean to frighten you!' said the anxious girl now patting him on his back, while everybody stared at them...
After minutes of coughing and choking, finally Zell was able to talk...
'Ya frightened me there for a while, eh?' he smiled enchanted with her pretty face.
'I'm so sorry, Zell! I didn't mean to! I'm sorry! I reall...
'Don' worry 'bout it, girl! He grumbled staring in her eyes and appreciating the view...
'So, what do you want, Moha?' asked Zell curiously with his mouth full of mustard, still smiling.
'Oh...' started the girl with pigtails, while she reached out to clean his mouth, Zell went purple...' well, I just wanted to warn you that the Library has a whole new collection of books...It's called 'The perfect fight'. You see it's about a very brave man called Vashim, a great ancient fighter...who...well, just read it, I'm sure you'll like it ...' she said now turning around and making a sign to one of her friends that were already leaving.
'Oh...yeah...sure...I...I'll read it. If you say tha...' and before Zell could finish what he was saying, she interrupted him 'Oh, Zell I have to go now...I'm late...see you later then...' she said in hurry kissing his cheek (to be honest, it was more the corner of his mouth) and rushing out of the cafeteria.
Zell went red in the face and was very glad that he was now the only one in the cafeteria, after what had happened to him, he was sure if any of his class mates had been there, he would be the joke of the month.
'Man, she's pretty...whoa...Zell...hold on there! You can't like her...remember your dream...grandpa...I wanna be just like him...oh, what the heck! If I like her, there's nothing I can do!...and if the girl likes me, there's even more reasons why I should follow my...whoa this is getting too cheesy for me... ' he thought to himself staring at his hotdogs, not feeling like eating them anymore. Zell got up and left the table, heading to the dorms, where he expected everyone to be...
Zell thought about Moha all the way. He had been in love with Moha the whole time. After what happened that morning, Zell was sure she had feelings for him, too. He had been waiting for a similar moment since they had met (unconsciously of course). He was sure now he really liked her and now only had in mind one thing: finding out if she liked him too.
As Squall reached the dorms, Rinoa ran up to him.
'Hi, Squall...' she said softly and Squall turned around.
'Following me, are you?' he said as he grabbed her by the waist and kissed her.
'Yuk, Squall! You messed on me!' she yelled laughing in amazement.
'Sorry, couldn't help myself...! Come here...you deserve it anyway...c'mon...' he reached out for her as she took a step back...
'Oh yeah!' Rinoa said softly looking him in the eyes and smiling demonically.
'Yeah...' said Squall simply...
'Well, then how 'bout this...' Rinoa waved her hand elegantly as a flash of pink light came out of the tip of her finger and hit Squall.
'Uh...' Squall was hit by the powerful light and was forced to take a step back.
As soon as the light was gone, Rinoa started stared at Squall for a few moments, holding her mouth in shock, giggling very loud and pointing at Squall's feet...
'Rin...' started Squall as he looked at his feet, mouth opened...
Squall's feet were covered in mustard and ketchup; in fact his toes looked like sausages.
'What the...?' said Squall in shock.
'Mr. Hotdog Foot!' said Rinoa all giggly as she put her arms around Squall.
'Rin, h-how did you do that!' asked Squall all puzzled...
'Does sorceress mean anything to you, Mustard-man?' asked Rinoa grinning with mischief.
'Kind of...but...but you already know how to use your powers? How come?'
'Well, actually this was the first time I've ever used them...not bad, huh?'
'But how?...I mean...' Squall started.
'I just pictured you like that...and... and it happened! I don't really understand. I was just playing when I waved my hand...I don't know...' Rinoa frowned a little puzzled.
'Wow! Rinoa, that's great!' Squall said all happy and hugged her congratulating her.
'Squall Leonhart, Zell Dincht, Irvine Kinneas, Selphie Tilmitt and Quistis Trepe please head to the bridge immediately' said Xu through the Intercom.
'What now!' said Squall impatiently for having to leave Rinoa .'Have to go, Rin...' said Squall to Rinoa as he kissed her forehead and gave her a loving look.
Squall walked across the dormitory's floor leaving yellow marks behind him and shut the door.
A second later Squall came back in running towards the bathroom, but Rinoa grabbed his arm.
'Oh! I'm sorry, Squall! I forgot! Stay there! Don't move!' she stopped him with her hand.
'What you...' Squall started and before he could even breathe, Rinoa had let a very bright blue light out of her finger, causing Squall to shut his eyes and step back as the light hit him.
'There... Go! Quick!' she shouted out nervously as she kissed him, pushing him towards the door in a hurry.
'Go! Go! Go! Love you!' everything was so quick that Squall was still a little disorientated. He shut the door and ran all the way to the elevator.
'Yo, Squall! Wait up, man...' shouted out Zell running after him.
They went up the elevator and reached the bridge where Quistis, Selphie, Irvine, Nida, Xu and Headmaster Cid where all waiting and staring at them.
'What took you so long guys?' pouted Quistis '...Didn't you hear: "Immediately!"
'I'm sorry, I had a slight problem down there' said Squall in a serious tone of voice, trying to stop himself from smiling to the thought of what Rinoa had done to him and her beautiful loving smile.
'Me too!' Zell snapped right after Squall, trying to use his excuse. The truth was that he had been following Moha and trying to find out between her conversations with her friends if she liked him (in vain), to the point of getting stuck under her bed, having to wait for them to leave.
'We'll talk about that later, then.' said Quistis once more as she gave them a scolding look.
'So, why did you call us?' asked Selphie in her naïve tone of voice.
Headmaster Cid, turned around turning his back to them and started:
'It seems like SeeD will have to take action once again.' He stated seriously.
'Rinoa won't be too happy if she hears this. She'll be so sad...' thought Squall.
'Oh nooo!' cried out Selphie as she fell to the floor and tears came running down her eyes.
'Not again! I thought we had finally had peace!' she said heart broken.
'Selphie! We're SeeDs! You should be prepared to face anything! You can't back out now!' said Quistis all annoyed with her attitude.
'I know and I'm willing to fight! I just wanted the world to be at peace! Just once! Didn't you? I mean we just got rid of Ultimecia! I thought it would take some time until some other jerk came along!' cried out Selphie banging her hands on the floor as she spoke.
'Oh, Selphie...Don't worry... what ever comes along will get rid of it! We fought Ultimecia, right? After what happened...I'm sure we are able to take on the world and much, much more!' said Irvine positively as he helped her up and embraced her.
'I'm sick of war, but I'll fight! I'll fight for peace...' Selphie went on as she sobbed in Irvine's arms.
'We all are...' Irvine said as he looked down bleakly.
'I'm sorry Headmaster, please go on...' said Quistis.
'SeeD has work to do...It's Win Hill...You see, we found out that Garden has an emergency communication system and when we tried to use it for the first time, we heard accidentally someone else's report...apparently it's about Win Hill...sounds like they want to take it over...because of it's powerful resources...That's all we know...' said Cid in a low voice and turned around to look at them.
'So, what must we do?' asked Squall.
'...Your mission is to go there and find out what ever you can about whoever's planning to take Win Hill over...if they don't agree to retreat, you are to eliminate them...' said Xu as she looked at each one of them.
'When are we goin?' asked Zell all worried.
'The Garden shall depart when Esthar gives the sign. This journey won't be any simple journey. It will have a number of destinations.' Explained Xu once again.
'But...why? asked Selphie all puzzled.
'It's for safety purposes; we cannot put the Garden in danger or any of our SeeDs or students.' Answered Cid this time.
'...and where are we to go first?' asked Irvine (deeply concentrated).
'Our first stop will be Dollet, there you can buy equipment for the whole journey, and you'll be provided with an extra amount of Gil. There will be a group of Esthar soldiers waiting for you there, you should notice them, they'll be waiting for you at the communication tower's entrance. They shall give you more detailed information about your mission. ' said Cid vigorously.
'Then, Garden shall head to Deling City, there you should find Seifer. We don't know where he's staying but he shouldn't be far. Then...' but before Xu could go on, Zell interrupted...
'What the hell is he doin' there!' asked Zell in shock.
'Deling city has been having some trouble with the monsters from the Chocobo Forests. That's why he's patrolling the city for any monster invasions. We thought that since he doesn't have any vocation to become a SeeD member, as tough and as good he is with his Gunblade, he should be able to keep monsters from entering the city with no problem. So be sure to find him there.' Cid answered.
'As tough...huh!' mumbled Zell in disagreement.
'After finding Seifer he shall accompany you on your journey to Win Hill. Then the Garden shall dispatch you at the Jail, where you'll find the Ragnarok. You'll have to take the Ragnarok to Win Hill, since Garden can't take you any further, due to safety purposes, as I mentioned before. As soon as you arrive your mission shall begin.' Continued Xu.
'Any order to retreat is most important. Remember that your obedience can save the Garden from being the enemy's target. If there is any sudden change of plans, we'll send you a messenger. Stay alert.' Cid underlined.
'Squall is the squad leader. Any order he gives you, you must obey. 'said Cid winking his eye at Squall secretly.
'I hate it when he puts all the responsibilities on me, hate it...' Squall thought.
'Hey, and why must Seifer come with us? He ain't no SeeD! What about Rinoa?' questioned Zell furiously.
'All the decisions made, have the precise objective of not making any wrong moves, avoiding putting Garden in danger. Seifer will be a great help when it comes to fighting the enemy, you'll see. ('Perhaps to cause some chaos', thought Zell) Rinoa, on the other hand, can be a great fighter as well, but isn't as experienced as Seifer and by the way, we've received strict conditions on Rinoa's stay here from her father. So as you can see, we have to avoid at all cost putting her in danger. Besides that, she is now a Sorceress and has a lot to learn about her powers. Matron will take care of that. Just be prepared, any time now we'll get the sign.' Finished Cid.
Squall felt heart broken. How was he going to explain to Rinoa that he had to leave her for some time? He didn't want to think about how she would react to what was going to happen.
'You are dismissed.' Cid finally said.
The comrades walked towards the elevator, entered and kept silent all the way down to the F1 Lobby, until Selphie broke it:
'Why Win Hill?' she asked rhetorically.
'That's what we have to find out...' said Squall absentminded as he stared at the elevator's door.