Author's Notes: Well. Here is the sequel to The Curse of the Mercale. I
know I haven't prepared you much for it, but we're not going to dwell on
the curse for now, but instead lead up to Reyn's dealing with the curse
when he is older. In the prologue he was 15, now he is 18. So, here it is.
Chapter 1: Beginning of the Story
"You're just like your father!" Nida growled in desperation, "What would Kiros have said?"
"Not much. He'd have chuckled. But don't bring that up. His funeral was only two months ago," I shot back.
"Get your muddy feet off my desk!" Nida shook his head, "you're EXACTLY like Seifer. Come on... You know that if you weren't a level A SeeD or my SeeD Commander since Kiros left the job open, I would have thrown you out of here already!"
"But as it is," I helped Nida along.
"But as it is, we have a mission for you to arrange... And I think it is SeeD mission time of the year."
"True," I admitted, taking my feet from the headmaster's desk, "Besides, admit it old man, you'd miss having me around."
"I'm not old!" the headmaster got defensive, "I'm only 44!"
Nida DID look his age. What I assume was once wonderfully dark, chestnut brown hair had started to gray. Once smooth skin I'd known from my childhood was wrinkling, but at least those were from laughing and smiling. He was just as tall, though shorter than I. Everyday the man still worked with his large, dangerous metal bladed staff, but he was not nimble anymore. He was starting to remind me of the pictures of my grandfather Laguna.
"Grandpa Laguna was already President at that age, Mom too... Shoot, mom and dad were saving the world at my age!"
"Now we get to the problem, Reyn doesn't want to live in his parent's shadow... Better your parents decided that you have Seifer's last name then. Fewer things to push past," the old man joked, "And I'll have you know..."
"'That I helped Squall and Seifer plenty of times. Like in the Behemoth Crisis...' " I sighed, mocking Nida's tone, "You've told me that far too many times."
"Least you're not counting," Nida grumbled as he took his seat back and put a briefing folder down for me to read.
As I straightened my SeeD Commander uniform, much like a SeeD uniform but with a main color of green, unlike the teal of the uniform for Esthar SeeDs, I grabbed the briefing folder. Quickly I did a mental check of which country had what SeeD uniform colors. Balamb's Garden uniforms were the same blue my father's generation wore. Their SeeD uniforms were black where ours were blue. Their SeeD Commander had a slate gray uniform, which drove Zell insane. In Trabia, the SeeD Commander's uniform was yellow, seeing as Selphie loved the color, and the SeeD uniforms were a nice violet, while the cadets wore sky blue. Galbidia's uniforms were all tainted by Fujin and Raijin's tastes now.... Cadets wore gray, SeeDs had blood red and Fujin, SeeD Commander, wore the same blue clothes Dad said she had when she was a teen.
"Three-thousand, four-hundred and twenty-three times since my parents disappeared," I informed Nida as I took a seat across from him
"... ..." Nida growled angrily at me.
"So what kind of mission are we talking about? Seek-and-destroy, night raid, killing Malboros..."
"Retrieving information from an anti-SeeD organization... They call themselves Ultimecia's Crusaders," he went on to rattle off details.
For a long time in his youth, Nida had been known as a quiet, intelligent men intent on his work. Nida Marls never disobeyed an order in his life. But he'd grown up, even developed a personality some say. Still, Nida works best with numbers. Through his time working with Squall and Seifer he became better with people and the bladed-staff he used, so I've been told.
Now my mind turned to what I knew of the name of the group. Ultimecia was the sorceress from the future that had forced time compression upon the world. She was evil, and had possessed first Adel, then Edea, then Rinoa. The sorceress had tried to use Ellone through them so she could achieve time compression. Squall and his friends had defeated her, thus freeing Seifer from her spell. Crusaders tended to fight hard for a religious cause, meaning these people believed Ultimecia was a great woman, maybe a goddess.
"Wait a minute... Shit.... Don't tell me this involves people thinking a sorceress is coming back to life or a new sorceress!"
"The President fears it might. We're on the verge of another war. Looks like you still have a chance to be a hero."
"This is a bad thing... I'll get planning now."
"You'll need more than SeeDs... They are great for securing things, but this is a major risk. We CAN'T afford to fail. We need a bit more power, and we have no one strong enough really..." Nida sighed.
"What about the Black Knights?" I asked of Nida.
The Black Knights were a group of mercenaries much like the SeeDs of the world headed up by a man by the name of Drew Kinneas, but he was not Selphie and Irvine's child. This man of 20 was their adoptive son, and I had no clue who his real parents were. His band of mercs were powerful men and women that never gave in to the discipline of any Garden. Their skills were all varied, but none would help us like the gunblade wielder I often dueled with. But that dark man expected a lot of money to be hired; this was why his group was normally called upon to act as body guards to the rich and famous.
"Expensive and we've not much funds. And of all their groups, I'd say only Drew Kinneas himself would have the skill to be useful in this. Plus we need to get a good hacker, something Esthar Garden lacks. Maybe we should focus on that first sir."
"Yes... I guess you are right. I am sure you can find that for us, as well as a security expert. And get in touch with Zell, Fujin and Selphie; I'm sure they can spare some students who need to get SeeD position so we can make this a mission for higher level students only."
"Yes sir Nida... I'll get right on it while you contact the President about using the Black Knights I assume. Will there be anything else?"
Nida chuckled, "Yes, could you fetch me lunch?"
I grumble in frustration and leave the room to the sound of my favorite Uncle laughing up a storm.
Chapter 1: Beginning of the Story
"You're just like your father!" Nida growled in desperation, "What would Kiros have said?"
"Not much. He'd have chuckled. But don't bring that up. His funeral was only two months ago," I shot back.
"Get your muddy feet off my desk!" Nida shook his head, "you're EXACTLY like Seifer. Come on... You know that if you weren't a level A SeeD or my SeeD Commander since Kiros left the job open, I would have thrown you out of here already!"
"But as it is," I helped Nida along.
"But as it is, we have a mission for you to arrange... And I think it is SeeD mission time of the year."
"True," I admitted, taking my feet from the headmaster's desk, "Besides, admit it old man, you'd miss having me around."
"I'm not old!" the headmaster got defensive, "I'm only 44!"
Nida DID look his age. What I assume was once wonderfully dark, chestnut brown hair had started to gray. Once smooth skin I'd known from my childhood was wrinkling, but at least those were from laughing and smiling. He was just as tall, though shorter than I. Everyday the man still worked with his large, dangerous metal bladed staff, but he was not nimble anymore. He was starting to remind me of the pictures of my grandfather Laguna.
"Grandpa Laguna was already President at that age, Mom too... Shoot, mom and dad were saving the world at my age!"
"Now we get to the problem, Reyn doesn't want to live in his parent's shadow... Better your parents decided that you have Seifer's last name then. Fewer things to push past," the old man joked, "And I'll have you know..."
"'That I helped Squall and Seifer plenty of times. Like in the Behemoth Crisis...' " I sighed, mocking Nida's tone, "You've told me that far too many times."
"Least you're not counting," Nida grumbled as he took his seat back and put a briefing folder down for me to read.
As I straightened my SeeD Commander uniform, much like a SeeD uniform but with a main color of green, unlike the teal of the uniform for Esthar SeeDs, I grabbed the briefing folder. Quickly I did a mental check of which country had what SeeD uniform colors. Balamb's Garden uniforms were the same blue my father's generation wore. Their SeeD uniforms were black where ours were blue. Their SeeD Commander had a slate gray uniform, which drove Zell insane. In Trabia, the SeeD Commander's uniform was yellow, seeing as Selphie loved the color, and the SeeD uniforms were a nice violet, while the cadets wore sky blue. Galbidia's uniforms were all tainted by Fujin and Raijin's tastes now.... Cadets wore gray, SeeDs had blood red and Fujin, SeeD Commander, wore the same blue clothes Dad said she had when she was a teen.
"Three-thousand, four-hundred and twenty-three times since my parents disappeared," I informed Nida as I took a seat across from him
"... ..." Nida growled angrily at me.
"So what kind of mission are we talking about? Seek-and-destroy, night raid, killing Malboros..."
"Retrieving information from an anti-SeeD organization... They call themselves Ultimecia's Crusaders," he went on to rattle off details.
For a long time in his youth, Nida had been known as a quiet, intelligent men intent on his work. Nida Marls never disobeyed an order in his life. But he'd grown up, even developed a personality some say. Still, Nida works best with numbers. Through his time working with Squall and Seifer he became better with people and the bladed-staff he used, so I've been told.
Now my mind turned to what I knew of the name of the group. Ultimecia was the sorceress from the future that had forced time compression upon the world. She was evil, and had possessed first Adel, then Edea, then Rinoa. The sorceress had tried to use Ellone through them so she could achieve time compression. Squall and his friends had defeated her, thus freeing Seifer from her spell. Crusaders tended to fight hard for a religious cause, meaning these people believed Ultimecia was a great woman, maybe a goddess.
"Wait a minute... Shit.... Don't tell me this involves people thinking a sorceress is coming back to life or a new sorceress!"
"The President fears it might. We're on the verge of another war. Looks like you still have a chance to be a hero."
"This is a bad thing... I'll get planning now."
"You'll need more than SeeDs... They are great for securing things, but this is a major risk. We CAN'T afford to fail. We need a bit more power, and we have no one strong enough really..." Nida sighed.
"What about the Black Knights?" I asked of Nida.
The Black Knights were a group of mercenaries much like the SeeDs of the world headed up by a man by the name of Drew Kinneas, but he was not Selphie and Irvine's child. This man of 20 was their adoptive son, and I had no clue who his real parents were. His band of mercs were powerful men and women that never gave in to the discipline of any Garden. Their skills were all varied, but none would help us like the gunblade wielder I often dueled with. But that dark man expected a lot of money to be hired; this was why his group was normally called upon to act as body guards to the rich and famous.
"Expensive and we've not much funds. And of all their groups, I'd say only Drew Kinneas himself would have the skill to be useful in this. Plus we need to get a good hacker, something Esthar Garden lacks. Maybe we should focus on that first sir."
"Yes... I guess you are right. I am sure you can find that for us, as well as a security expert. And get in touch with Zell, Fujin and Selphie; I'm sure they can spare some students who need to get SeeD position so we can make this a mission for higher level students only."
"Yes sir Nida... I'll get right on it while you contact the President about using the Black Knights I assume. Will there be anything else?"
Nida chuckled, "Yes, could you fetch me lunch?"
I grumble in frustration and leave the room to the sound of my favorite Uncle laughing up a storm.