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Chapter Two: Mission Briefing

Zell and his team raced down the old trail from the Dollet Communications Tower to Dollet. He hoped they would get there in time to stop the Galbadians. He knew that calling the Dollet government should have been his first move, but they had told him that their soldiers were searching the other half of the mountains or protecting the water infront of the barrier, so the Galbadian backup wouldn't get them. Calling would have been a waste of time. Dollet would never move their few troops out of those defensive positions because that would put the people at risk.

Now that he had a chance to think while they were running, Dollet's actions made sense. Dollet was afraid that if the SeeDs knew the truth about the disk, someone within SeeD would take valuable time away from protecting Dollet to solve the mystery. They weren't about to forget Seifer's actions a year ago, when he had disobeyed a direct order, just because he had wanted to investigate the tower where the Galbadians were. As a result of that, the X-ATM092 had come crashing into town, killing one person and smashing many buildings.

They sped through Dollet, ignoring the surprised looks on the townspeople's faces. But as they reached the beach, Zell groaned. The Galbadians were already here, searching the ruins of the X-ATM092. No doubt they were looking for the AI chip, while pretending to be here looking for the datadisk. For some reason, they didn't want people to know they had the chip. But Zell could ponder that later. Right now, he had a job to do. He signaled the SeeDs to ready their weapons, and checked his own Erghiz. He flexed his hands in anticipation of the upcoming fight.

"No Guardians!" he called back. This close to the town someone may get hurt. Something Dollet frowned upon very, very much. He pointed to Jones.

"Get that group you had in the mountains and circle around them. Kill the resistance they may have, then get onto the beach.

"Sir!" Jones said in acknowledgement, then pulled his SeeDs off to the side. Zell continued to race forward.

The surprised Galbadians looked up as the SeeDs poured into the beach. The majority started to attack them, as the rest continued to search the ruins. There were clashes of metal on metal, and fists meeting flesh as the two sides started to battle. Zell raced toward a Galbadian soldier, avoiding the slashes from his weapon. He ducked behind the soldier and hit him with a right hook. The man went down, and Zell moved toward the next one. This one was obviously a ranking soldier, because he had a machine gun. Zell ducked behind the stairs leading down to Lapin Beach, while another SeeD hit him with his mace.

Slowly, the stream of SeeDs started to break through the Galbadian ranks. It looked as though the Galbadian plan was foiled. Then a submarine appeared, and discharged a new, fresh wave of soldiers. One rushed at Zell, sword raised. Zell ducked under it, but it slashed his upperarm. Zell grunted, and landed a harsh roundhouse kick on his ribs, followed by an uppercut to his chin. The man grunted, and fell backward. Zell didn't even watch him fall, moving on to a new opponent. This man also had a machine gun, so Zell decided to use a new tactic.

"Thundara!" he shouted, thrusting his hand at the man. Thunderbolts crashed into him, and he kneeled over. Zell turned to his next opponent. He was starting to tire. The ablilities gained by Guardians were wonderful, but they would start to leave if you battled too long. It was like coming off a sugar high, as Selphie had once described it. Zell supposed she would know. Where's Jones? he wondered.

As though on cue Jones and his men poured out on the other side. Zell smiled to himself. It had actually been a good plan. With most of the Galbadians over here, Jones could attack the thinned area on the other side. He'll make a good SeeD someday.

A cry went up from the non-combatants. They had found the chip. The SeeDs pushed harder, but suddenly there was a loud noise. Several Galbadian troop carriers flew over Dollet, and hovered several feet above the soldiers on the beach. The people carrying the chip were loaded first, and the rest of the soldiers followed. Zell and the other SeeDs watched as they flew off into the distance. Zell looked around. Fortunately, there were no SeeD casualties. And there were no live Galbadians left, so there was no one to question. At least they had the people captured in the mountains. A hand on his shoulder made him jump.

"The duke would like to see you." a young man said. Zell frowned.

"And I have a couple questions for him." Zell said, following the man up the steps, and over to where Duke Victor Hansen of the Dollet Dukedom stood, surrounded by his aides.

"Sir, why wasn't I informed about the nature of the disk?" Zell asked, wasting no time on formalities. He was careful, however, to make sure that it didn't sound like he was accusing the man. He didn't want his first command to axed because he had yelled at the Dollet duke.

"We would have, but we didn't want...vigilante work going on." he explained. "I'm sure you heard about what happened at the last mission SeeD was on in Dollet."

Zell nodded. Just like he had thought.

"How did you find out about the disk?" Hansen asked.

"I overheard some Galbadians saying that the disk was a machine program. They also mentioned an AI chip, and I know that Galbadia is the only country with AI chips. I remembered hearing somewhere that the X-ATM092 had an AI chip in it that it was encased in titanium to protect it. I realized that they had stolen the disk from your transport as an excuse to come here, to steal the AI chip secretly. Why, I don't know yet."

"Wouldn't they have other AI chips, so they don't need to come here?"

"I would assume that they were destroyed in the second Sorceress War."

"Of course, that makes sense. Good work." Hansen thought for a moment. "I will call your Garden and inform them of the situation. They can advise you from there." He gestured toward the satellite communicator, and they walked over to it. After a few moments, Headmaster Cid Kramer was on the phone. Zell told him what they knew and suspected.

"Interesting. Is that all you know?"

"Yes sir." Zell replied.

"Well, we need to know what Galbadia is up to. You will return on the transport to Balamb, to restock supplies and get additional SeeDs. From there you will leave for Galbadia."

"I see sir, and I understand."

"Good. Leave tomorrow. Balamb Garden out." Zell stared at the screen for a few moments, unsure of what to do. The president spoke.

"Talk to the aide who led you over here, William Perrine. He will give you and the other SeeDs accommodations at the Dollet Inn."

Zell saluted. "Yes sir." he said, and walked over to where William Perrine stood. Great. I won't see Melissa for a while now. I wonder if she'll be worried. I'll miss her, although I don't know if I could say that to her.

"What's the situation, sir?" Jones asked.

"We're to rest in the hotel for the evening. Tomorrow we move back to Garden, where we will receive further orders."

"You should get that arm looked at sir."

"I'll be fine Jones. I'm going for a walk, so you're incharge. Uh, what's-his-name here will show you the hotel."

"Perrine." the man said.

"That's right. Perrine."

"Sir..."

"I will be fine."

"If...if you say so. I'll get the other SeeDs checked out at a hospital, and save you a room at the hotel. I'll leave a message with the person at the desk to tell you your room."

"Good idea. I'll talk to you later." He raised his hand in a salute, and Jones quickly followed suit. Zell dropped his hand, and Jones dropped his. Zell walked away, smiling to himself.

A damn fine SeeD indeed.

"Who's next?" asked Selphie. Quistis had roped her into going around and asking their friends if they'd heard of Seifer since the Sorceress War. Quistis consulted her list.

"Irvine."

"There he is now. Hey Irvine!" shouted Selphie, waving her hand energetically and running toward the brown-haired cowboy. Irvine looked up, surprised.

"What's the matter?" asked Irvine.

"Nothing really. Quistis just wanted to know if you've heard anything about Seifer recently."

"Seifer?" Irvine asked, even more surprised. "I haven't heard anything from Seifer since over three months ago, in Lunatic Pandora. Why are you asking?"

"I wanted to know where he is." Quistis said.

"Once again, why? He's...you know..." Irvine fished for a word, but found none. "...Seifer." he finished lamely. "That's really the best way to describe him."

"Uh-oh, you're in for 'the speech', Irvine." said Selphie, leaning against the wall. Quistis started her long 'everyone deserves a second chance' explanation.

He had been staring at it for the last half-hour. But no matter how hard he concentrated on it, it wouldn't go away and solve his problems. What moron thought up this hellish invention? he grumbled to himself. He looked to the piece of paper in his hands, and then back at the damn machine that caused so much indecision.

Also known as the telephone.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get the courage to call her. It would be a simple physical matter to pick up the phone and dial a number, but the mental power wasn't something he had. Come on. She deserves to hear it from you, not a messenger. But am I just being self-centered to even think that she would be worried? Oh man, now I'm going to be worrying about that the whole time I'm calling. Man, I just don't know what to do... So this is what Squall was talking about when he said it was hard to talk to people...

He sighed, then got up. He picked up the phone, but put it back down. He looked back at her dorm number, which he had gotten it from Selphie when he had called her earlier. It was easy to call a friend, but calling Melissa was harder somehow. Was it because she was a girl? No, that couldn't be it, because he had called Selphie with no problems. Then nothing is wrong, which means I can call her, he tried to convince himself. But he couldn't hide the truth from his inner self. He really liked Melissa. And he wanted to ask her to meet him at the Balamb port. But he wasn't even sure if she would want to. He didn't want to call her, then feel like an idiot when she said she couldn't. Then he remembered what the author of a book he had read once had said about phones, and calling people. He couldn't remember the title, or what the book was about. But that one part had always stuck out in his mind. You never know what could happen when you call a person. But it's better to know, instead of wondering later what the outcome could have been. Finally, he came to a decision.

He picked the phone up again, and dialed her dorm number.

Melissa was sitting in her dorm watching the news when her phone rang. She reached over and picked it up.

"Hello?"

"It's Zell."

"Oh hey Zell. Is something wrong?" she asked, concerned.

"Well, not really." He paused, probably to gather his thoughts. "They're prolonging my mission."

Melissa was silent a moment. They're...prolonging his mission? She willed her voice to be calm. "How much longer?"

"I would guess at least a week, but I don't know. We have to go to go elsewhere. Some...new developments came up we have to deal with." She knew he couldn't say anything about the mission over the phone.

"Oh. Well, I guess I'll see you when you get back."

"Yeah."There was a pause from both of them, as they thought. A week? Well, I guess I'll see Zell when he gets back. But I'll miss him. Although I couldn't say that to him. I don't know if we're at that stage in this...relationship, for lack of a better word. I was never good at talking to him anyway.

"So, I'll see you later. Mind if I call, if I get the chance?" he asked.

"That would be great." Melissa said, and she really meant it. "I...guess you have my number."

"Yeah. I'll give you mine when I get there, if I can." There was a pause, as though he was trying to get up the courage to say something. She waited, knowing if given the time he would get around to what he was trying to say.

"Um, we're going to put into port at Balamb, to get extra SeeDs and equipment. Would you like to meet me there?"

"I would love to. What time?" She could practically feel his relief.

"Um, maybe 1400?"

"Okay, I'm free then. I'll be there." she promised.

"See you then! Goodbye."

"Goodbye." She hung up the phone only after she heard the click on the other end.

Seifer stood in the shadow of Balamb Garden. It had taken him several days to come here. He couldn't even explain his running away action himself. But when he had seen the sleek, shimmering Garden arriving he just couldn't take it anymore. It was everything he wanted to be, everything he could never be. Sure, he could potentially become a SeeD in name, but never in reality. In reality, his hands would always be a little too stained with the blood of innocents for him to ever accept himself, for him to ever do his job and not remember that the people he now helped were the people he once hunted. And so, he'd run. Ah, the basic instinct of life. Run when something bigger and better than you can ever be comes. He smiled slightly. The irony of the situation wasn't lost on him.

Come on Seifer. You can do this. You have to, if you want to make amends. And you do want to make amends, so you have to go in there. Maybe I should get a disguise, people will want to kill me, he shook his head, clearing the thoughts. Just be yourself. Well, my improved self anyway. If I was my old self? He needed to stop over analyzing everything, like a certain Instructor he knew. And even a certain Commander, to some extent. He needed to get this over with. He took a deep breath, and entered Balamb Garden.

The gatekeeper looked in surprise at him as he entered. "A-are you allowed in here?"

"Yes, I am." Seifer walked passed the stunned guard, and entered Balamb Garden. He walked up the familiar path, through the foyer.

"Seifer?" asked a voice behind him. He turned around, and was surprised to see Quistis standing in the entrance of the library. She walked over to him. "What are you doing here?"

"My dear Instructor, what a lovely surprise!" he asked, ignoring her question and giving a slight bow. Quistis merely raised her eyebrows as she stopped infront of him.

"It's good to see you too, Seifer." she said. "However, you are probably unaware that I still haven't received my permanent credentials yet. I am merely a temporary Instructor, until I have been tested."

"I know." Damn, I thought she had her credentials back already. Isn't saving the world enough these days? "But, naturally, I cannot pass up the opportunity to rub it in your face."

"I thought so," she said, shaking her head, an almost amused look on her face. "There are some things that don't change."

"Yeah well, life would be pretty boring if some things weren't the same. Like my charming personality."

"Uh-huh." They stood there for a moment. "Aren't you going to ask how I'm doing? And you haven't answered my question."

"Oh yeah." There was another pause. "So, how is the great Instructor, with her own personal fan club? What have you been doing?"

"I'm fine. And I've been looking for you." That made Seifer stare.

"What?" he asked, unsure of what he had heard.

"I wanted to make sure that you were okay. You were my student, and therefore my responsibility."

"Well, save your concern for someone who needs it."

"I'll make sure I check up on you then."

Oh, I set myself up for that. Damn, I'm getting slow. Wait, I'm supposed to be changing. Great, this is going to be harder than taking my SeeD exam three times. Maybe I should make a run for it. Maybe I should go to jail, at least I'll be safe there.

"Seifer, are you all right?"

"Huh?"

"Nothing. But what are you doing here?"

"I'm coming back. Life just isn't the same without you wonderful people to taunt."

"You do realize that people want to kill you, right? And they think you're dead. If someone sees you they may take matters into their own hands to make sure the rumor you're dead is true."

"I'll be absolutely, totally fine. Remember, I scarred your wonderful commander. I could do it again." Quistis just shook her head, and waved goodbye as she continued toward the library. Seifer waved goodbye back, and got into the elevator. He pressed the 3 floor, to once again enter the office he had seen way too many times during his stay at Garden.

Zell was standing on the bow of the ship, looking out at the wide expanse of sea. This frigid ocean was all that stood between him and Balamb. He kept straining his eyes, trying to see Balamb port, but it was still too far away.

Oh man, what if she isn't there? What if she had something else to do? What if she doesn't want to be there? What if... There were a million things running through his mind, most of which were along the 'what if...' line of thought. The part of him thinking about it wanted to slow down time, if possible.

Finally, they were at the port. And there she was, waving frantically in his direction. He waved back, smiling brightly. She came! Oh YEAH! As soon as the transport docked, he jumped down to meet her.

"Hey there." he said, gathering the courage to reach out and hug her. "I...missed you," he admitted.

"I missed you too," she said, smiling as she hugged him back. He nodded toward the plains, visible over the buildings of Balamb. "I have a few hours while they load the transport and send in the new members of the team. Would you like to go for a walk?" he asked.

"Sure." she said, and they walked hand in hand out of Balamb, and into the plains near the ocean. They just walked in silence for a while, basking in each others company. They stopped on a small hill overlooking the sea, and sat down.

They didn't actually say anything, but they didn't need to. They just enjoyed the simple pleasure of being near a person you care about, and who also cares about you.

"What do you mean, Cid thought you'd work well with me?" Zell demanded of the man standing in front of him. "Where did he get that idea?"

"How the hell would I know? Does it look like I am Cid?"

"Yes." Zell snapped irritably.

"Oh, that hurts. That really hurts. But I am not Cid, and I do not know everything about Cid's decisions. I do not comprehend his psychological reasoning."

"That man needs a shrink. I don't want to work with you!"

"Hey, don't think I was so excited about working with you either. But I have a job to do, and that is-"

"To make a fool of yourself? You do that well enough, Seifer." Zell snapped back, his voice full of venom.

"Only in your fantasy realm, only in your fantasy realm." Seifer said, cool as he always was.

"Hey, what's with all the arguing?" demanded a voice. They both turned at once.

"Selphie? What are you doing here?" Zell asked.

"Cid sent another part of the loser team besides the chicken-wuss to work with me. Great." Seifer muttered.

"What did you just call me!" shouted Zell, losing his temper. He advanced toward Seifer, fists raised.

"Temper, Dincht, temper." Seifer said, smirking. "Don't want to lose what little rank you have." Zell made a strangled noise of outrage. Selphie decided to intervene, before someone got hurt.

"Enough, both of you. Don't make me separate you." she threatened, grinning. It was like talking to children.

"I wasn't doing anything but talking. And this is a free country." Seifer said, annoyed.

"Wouldn't have been if you'd had your way." Zell muttered.

"Did you say something?"

"You never answered my question, Selphie. What are you doing here? Come to think of it, why are you here Seifer?" Zell said.

"Cid said if I pull this mission off without killing any of you people, and do it well, I can get a SeeD ranking. After I pass the test, of course, but that shouldn't be hard." Seifer spoke toward Selphie, ignoring Zell. "He wants to start the ranking low, but with my far superior abilities I can
easily rise to a rank higher than Zell's." He pointed toward Zell, who was still standing a few feet from Seifer, trembling in rage.

"Okay, here are the rules." Selphie said.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Why do you get to make up the rules?" asked Seifer.

"Because this is my first command mission!" Selphie said excitedly, jumping up and down. "Anyway, as I was saying, no fighting and no acknowledging each other's existence. Okay?"

"Sure. He doesn't have much of a life anyway." Seifer said, and walked back out the door. Selphie turned to Zell.

"Are you agreeing or not?"

"Sure."

"Good. Man, this is really sad." Selphie admitted as the boat began to leave.

"What is?" Zell asked, curious.

"I'm the voice of reason."

Seifer looked out at the ocean. The azure depths glinted as they reflected the sun from the noon sky. He drew another breath, then exhaled the smoke from his cigarette. He leaned against the rail for support. Hyne, I really screwed up down there. Why did I have to bait Zell? Was it just a natural reaction? I regret my actions, but how can I prove that, especially after all that has happened? He took another breath, letting the smoke fill his lungs. He knew it was bad for him, but who cared? He certainly didn't. This was the next best thing to drinking to help him forget about his life. And it wouldn't do to be drunk on the mission. He snuffed the cigarette on the railing, then went back below.

Seifer found Zell and Selphie in the room where he had left them, lounging on the chairs. "Headmaster Cid said I was to brief you on what you don't know."

Selphie sat up straighter. "Well, let's get going. Are we the only SeeDs?"

"Yeah, pretty much. Except for this one Galbadian, which I'll get into later," Seifer said.

"Great. Oh well, let's just have the briefing here. Then I don't have to move."

Seifer shrugged. "Fine. I don't care." He walked up to the front of the room, and pulled up a picture of Deling City.

"This is Deling City."

"No, really?" Zell said sarcastically, annoyed. He flicked a rubber band at Seifer. Seifer ducked, and took several cleansing breaths, so he didn't retaliate violently with his gunblade.

"We land in Dollet sometime this evening, and transport to Deling by train. Cid wants us to enter the city under the pretense we are looking for a terrorist who supposedly threatened General Caraway's life. This won't be considered unusual, and no one else will care, because there is a power struggle going on. Everyone is vying to become the president. Unfortunately, this makes our job harder. Because everyone has a private army, we have no idea who attacked Dollet and stole the AI chip."

"Wouldn't it be the G-Army? After all, we saw them wearing standard G-Army equipment." Zell pointed out.

"G-Army equipment is abundant in Galbadia. Anyone could have taken some, and used it to attack Dollet. The Galbadians captured wouldn't give us much information. All they would say was that with Deling in turmoil, the army sort of became a mercenary group. They were hired by someone - no one knew who - to take the AI chip, in it's box, back to Deling. The general was one of the ones who got away, and he was the only one with more information."

"Why did they want the chip in the first place?" asked Selphie.

"Because all the other chips were destroyed in the Sorceress War. Which brings me to the next topic, information about the AI chip. Not really much is known. They were created a little before the war, to make Galbadia stronger. The X-ATM092 you guys had to fight was a model of them experimenting with AI technology."

"That thing was so mean! It wouldn't die." complained Selphie. Seifer just raised his eyebrow at the outburst, then continued.

"The AI chips are still experimental, so they will have flaws. Any flaws we can discover and exploit will help us. Once we enter the city, another SeeD contact will meet us. Cid wanted someone with knowledge of Deling, and so he chose a student from Galbadia Garden, which is no longer under Martine's jurisdiction. It is headed by a Balamb SeeD until a replacement can be found."

"Couldn't Irvine have come along had helped us? He's from Galbadia Garden, and he's sure to have been in Deling City a lot," said Selphie.

"He's on another mission right now," Seifer said. "The SeeD will meet us at the Rent-A-Car sign, near the entrance to Deling. We don't know anything about the person yet, because when we left a SeeD still hadn't been chosen. We who it is because they will come up to us and use a specific hand gesture, to which we must have the countersign." Seifer demonstrated a series of complicated hand movements.

"Why don't you handle the countersign?" suggested Zell, knowing he would never remember that.

"Don't worry, I will. If you have no more questions, that's it. Once we're in we look around."

"Alright! This sound like fun!" Selphie said, jumping up and down. "Can I blow stuff up? Can I drive? Will there be big parties?" Seifer looked surprised by Selphie's outburst.

"This is normal." Zell informed him. Seifer sighed.

"You could blow up stuff and you could drive, but you won't. As for parties, how would I know? Does it look like I can predict the future?"

"I don't know. How do people who can predict the future look?" she asked. Seifer heaved another big sigh. He could already tell this was going to be a long mission, and it was getting longer.

"I don't know," he said, deciding to humor her and hope she didn't continue along this line of 'Selphie-logic'. However, she ignored his silent pleas and kept speaking.

"Well then, how can I know if you look like you can predict the future?" she asked. Zell appeared to be hiding a smile. What are you laughing about, chicken-wuss? he snapped mentally, and satisfied himself with mentally wiping the smirk of Zell's face with his gunblade.

"That's an expression, Selphie. Geez, you don't need to take everything so literally. That's more something I would expect from Squall," Seifer said.

"No, from Squall you get either silence or a 'whatever'," Selphie informed him, grinning.

"True," Zell added, joining the conversation. "Of course, you always predict what he's going to say."

"Really?" asked a voice from behind them. They turned around to see Squall standing there.

"Hey there! If it isn't my favorite commander!" Seifer said brightly. "How about a hug for your best friend?"

"Knock it off, Seifer," Squall spat. Seifer backed up a step. Squall didn't normally show contempt for people openly. Guess he's still mad about Lunatic Pandora, reasoned Seifer. And I don't blame him. I'm still mad at me for Lunatic Pandora.

"Knock what off?" asked Selphie and Zell together. The both started to laugh, while Squall just stood there, and they could tell he was not amused. Seifer remained silent as well, surprised to see two people who'd once been slightly unnerved and silent near Squall joking with him. And Squall didn't seem that opposed to it either. I guess the rest of the world is really changing. And I don't have a part in it anymore, do I? he wondered, sighing. They kept laughing, until him tapping his foot began to get on their nerves. They stood still, and Zell tossed him a salute, although neither of them stopped smiling.

"...Whatever." he said, which made them start laughing again. He waited until the laughter had subsided. "Seifer briefed you on the mission already?"

"Yeah. But he said it was just the three of us for now. Why are you here?" asked Zell.

"I'm just coming with you to Dollet. From there I have another mission."

"I thought SeeD was going to move away from the mercenary path," Seifer said. Squall glared at him again.

"We are. My mission isn't for a client. I'm not supposed to give you details. The less you know, the better. Then no one can get the information from you," Squall said, and walked away from them. They all looked at each other.

"What do you think the mission is?" asked Selphie. But no one had an answer.

Although Peptuck3 didn't review, I would like to thank him for allowing me to use one of his ideas. In his novelization of Final Fantasy VIII, The Gunblade Saga (which is excellent), he created the idea of the X-ATM092 having an AI chip. If you haven't read the story yet, you should! It's really, really good.