I do not own Final Fantasy, I have never owned Final Fantasy, and I probably never will.

Prologue: After the War

Six months after the defeat of Ultimecia

"So let me get this straight. Melissa Rodriguez, the librarian, still agreed to go out with you?" Irvine said, shocked.

"Well, yeah. What's so surprising about that?" Zell asked, confused.

"Well, I would have thought that after the incident at the party..." Irvine trailed off, a smirk on his face. Zell's eyes narrowed. That smirk was never, ever a good sign.

"What party are you...oh, the party after Ultimecia's defeat," Zell smiled fondly as he said that. That had been a good night.

"Yeah, the one where you shoved hot dogs into your face like there had been a five year famine."

"There was! A famine from hot dogs!" Zell looked annoyed. He could never expect an uncultured, uncivilized person such as Irvine to understand what hot dogs meant.

"Look, you choked on a hot dog, then Selphie and Quistis had to pound you on the back. And after that, you threw a hot dog at me!" Irvine pointed proudly to himself, and struck a heroic pose. "At the great, wonderful me!" The psychotic cowbow looked deeply indignant at that. Zell just rolled his eyes. Irvine had no idea what reality was.

"Irvine, you are not as cool as you think."

"300 girls can't be wrong!" Irvine said slyly, winking at Zell. Zell sighed.

"You haven't even dated three. I know, I asked around. You flirt and flirt and flirt, but no one actually wants to date you. I may have waited six months to ask a girl out, but at least she said yes." He smirked, narrowing his eyes at Irvine's discomfort. "What do you think of yourself now?"

"Still, I can't wait until tomorrow," The evil smirk was back as he quickly changed the subject before it became embarrassing. Zell was afraid to ask, but he knew that curiosity was going to get the better of him. And it did.

"What happens tomorrow?" Zell mentally steeled himself. The grin had gotten wider, and that was always a bad sign. Always.

"I annoy you for information about your date. Over and over and over. Loudly, if need be."

"Great..." Zell muttered, with absolutely no enthusiasm at all.

Quistis groaned in frustration. She had been trying and trying, and there was still no information on Seifer's whereabouts. Where could Seifer hide? Everyone knows his face, and what he did. She got up, and stretched her aching muscles. She had been in front of the computer for ages, and there was nothing.

She remembered the time compression, right after Ultimecia had defeated her. She had been the first one knocked out. She had been wandering around a huge white nothingness, and had seen a person in the distance. Upon closer inspection, it had been Seifer. Crying. Not just a few tears, it was serious. His chest was heaving, and his forehead was cradled in his hands. She had been surprised to see the arrogant, tough bully of Balamb Garden in tears. After a moment of hesitation, she had tried to walk over to him, to see what was the matter, and because he was the only human she had encountered in that wasteland. But he had vanished, and she had been left alone. At least until the others had appeared.

I know it couldn't have been a dream. If I was so lonely an apparition appeared, it wouldn't have been of Seifer. Especially not crying. I can't even remember the last time he cried out in any kind of pain, let alone remember any tears falling from his demoic eyes.

He should be sorry for what he did to us. And yet, why do I care? she wondered for the twentieth time that day. He had cost her the teaching license she had worked hard to get, and nearly gotten them all killed. So why care? But she knew the answer.

Because, despite what he's done, he was my friend at the orphanage. Sure, everyone else liked me. But I was older, and therefore too 'old' to be a close companion. Ellone always accepted me, but she was so busy with Squall. Seifer was really the only one there. Sure, we fought and he was so mean, but usually I could curb his spite. And he could usually convince me to enjoy myself, save me from my constant worrying.

But that's the past, right? People change, and Seifer has changed more than all of us. It should have been the past. But she was still here, in this small computer lab, typing in the addresses for online newspapers and magazines, actually watching the entire newscast each evening, trying to find anything that may be remotely related to him to follow up on, even if he wasn't directly mentioned. Why am I sitting back down at this computer, in a hard backed chair, sipping some coffee that is now the temperature of snow, when it's a gorgeous day out and all my friends are out there, enjoying themselves? And, as always, she mentally answered herself.

Because I still think he deserves another chance.

Seifer looked at the sky. It was a beautiful combination of red, orange and purple, hovering above the sparkling blue-green of Balamb Bay. He nearly smiled, as he walked toward the crater where Balamb Garden had once stood, feeling the cool breeze playing across the plains, tossing his hair in his face, gently tickling the scar that wound down his nose to the cheek below, and tossing his trenchcoat back like a movie villans. He was glad he'd learned over the Garden line that it wasn't due to arrive for ten more minutes (he had tapped the line, just one of the useful skills he had learned in the underground where he had been hiding these past six months). He wanted time to think about the course of action he had chosen. The second biggest choice of his life, second only to the choice he had made so many months ago, in the broadcast station above the rooftops of Timber.

He walked up to the blackened crater, and sat down on the ridge. He had ten long, excruciating minutes to reconsider, to wonder why on earth he was actually thinking about doing this.

Do I have any right, asking for another change? he wondered, his mouth frowning ever so slightly. After everything I did, all the lives I either ended or crumbled, do I have any right to ask for a second change? They trusted me when I was a cadet, letting me take the examination three times, despite my attitude and flaws. The took me in when I was an orphan, when no one else would open up their hearts to me. They let me slide again and again and again, and did nothing but help me. All those years of schooling and board, tolerance and acceptance. Then I just threw it aside when Edea, Ultimecia really, showed up and promised me more. And I believed her! Despite what I had learned, despite what they had tried to tell me like a compassionate parent, I tossed all of that aside like a coat I was finsihed with. I thought I would be a god, a knight, better than Squall. And in the end, he was the better man. He won, and I lost. Just like he always does. I won a lot of battles, sure, but he always won the war. He is a sorceress' knight, and I am a mockery of the mere name. He is a great SeeD, and I couldn't passed three fucking exams. He and Rinoa are probably together right now, and I am alone. He is a hero, and I am a demon. Garden took me in, made into everything I was before I left. And how I have repaid them?

With their own blood.