Cid looked up as he heard a thud outside of his door. "Hello? Is someone there?" when he heard nothing he went back to his work. It wasn't until he looked up and saw a red substance leaking under his door that he became alarmed. Getting up he through open his door only to find Squall unconscious and bleeding upon the floor. "SQUALL? SOMEONE QUICK GET MEDICAL!" A crowd began to form as someone ran off to get medical and Cid checked Squall's pulse. "It's ok. Medical will be here soon." Cid said. No one noticed the first year that had summoned Squall fade into the shadows with a sly grin. She raised her wrist to her mouth "Ace to command" "we read you Ace what's the situation" "First phase complete. Moving into phase 2." "Copy the Ace. Good job we'll report it to the boss." "Copy that." Ace smiled as she looked at Squall "Welcome back Squall" she whispered as she leapt to the roof and disappeared into the building.
Squall groaned as he sat up and looked around. "Where am I?" he wondered as he closed his hand around the blood red sand and trailed it through his fingers. "Don't you remember?" Squall shot up and spun around trying to locate the voice. "It's you! You're the one in my head." "Well at least you still have your wits about you." "Where are you? Show yourself." "Calm down Squall. You're not ready to see me yet." "What the hell is going on? What were those flashes? Where did that pain come from?" "All very valid questions but unfortunately I cannot answer them." "Why not." "Because you aren't ready to hear them." "What use are you then? Leave me alone. I want to be normal again! I want to be able to talk to my friends without hearing YOUR voice! I want to be able to sleep at night without being haunted by dreams I don't remember!" "Again all very valid requests but unfortunately that can't happen." "Then just tell me where I am." "Don't you remember?" "No remember what?" "This is where you met her." "Met who?" "The girl that cries out to you in your dreams." "Squall?" "What?" "Squall?" "WHAT STOP CALLING ME" "SQUALL!"
Squall shot up in bed and looked around only to see the very worried face of Cid and his friends. "Ugh" Squall tried to talk but only gagged as the coppery taste of blood filled his mouth. "Aw man you ok?" Zell said as he stepped forward and handed Squall a cup of water. "What happened?" Squall brought up a hand and rubbed his temples. "We were hoping you could tell us" Cid said as he stood "I opened my door only to find you lying outside in a pool of your own blood." Squall grunted and clutched his head as memories of the pain flashed through his head. "Squall? Are you ok?" Rinoa said as she rushed forward to hug him. Squall looked up and watched in horror as Rinoa's image was replaced by a woman with flowing red hair and emerald green eyes falling toward him with blood flowing from various wounds and a tortured pain haunting her eyes. "NO GET AWAY FROM ME?" Squall screamed as he flung himself from the bed and slammed his back up against the wall. He closed his eyes trying to rid himself of the horrible picture. "WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?" He opened his eyes only to see a terrified Rinoa looking at him confused and hurt. "Squall? What's wrong with you." Rinoa said as she walked toward him again only to be stopped by Zell. Cid walked in front and looked down at Squall "Maybe you should take some time off?" Squall shook his head as he stood and once again donned the mask. "I'm fine I don't need any time off. What was the emergency earlier by the way." He looked at Cid only to see a very confused expression. "There was no emergency….." "Then why would a new first year tell me that you summoned me for an emergency?" This only seemed to confuse Cid more "Who told you that?" "A new Student I didn't know them." Squall let out a frustrated sigh as all of his friends looked between each other. "What?" "Squall….There hasn't been any new students in months….You know every student here…." "That's impossible. I didn't know her." Cid sighed and shook his head "I'm putting you on leave Squall. Take some time off and get it together." Squall's frowned and brushed past everyone with a "Whatever" and then he was gone.
#Wow this is getting bad, now even I'm starting to think you're crazy. # Shut up! You are the reason all this is happening! #Oh sure when things start to go bad blame the voice in your head. That's stereotyping. # Squall stopped as he heard the front door open and Zell's heavy footsteps. Squall sighed as they stopped outside of his door and he heard it creak open. "Alright Squall…..It's time to talk. We tried to give you your space…we tried being nice…but now it's time to talk." "I'm fine there's nothing to talk about. Why don't you try minding your own business for once." Zell hid his flinch and sighed "Look Squall. I don't know what happened to you on that mission but you've changed to much to ignore! Your completely crushed Rinoa it's taken her forever to get half-way normal again. You snap at us at every turn no matter how nice and understanding we try to be." Squall's head snapped up when he heard the snap pf Zell's fighting gloves. "Now we can do this the easy way or the hard way." Zell explained as he pulled on his gloves. "Don't be an idiot. There's no way I would ever let a Chickenshit like you beat me." Squalls eyes widened as he realized the words that had flown out of his mouth and tried to formulate an apology but no words would come out. "Zell…" was all he said as Zell turned on his heels and walked out of the room. Squall slid to the floor and lowered his head into his hands. What is wrong with me….. # Well which one do you want first? # I wasn't asking you!
Rinoa jumped up when she saw Zell whip around the corner and ran to find out what he and Squall had talked about. Unfortunately Zell did not notice her get up so what should have been a nice chat ended up as a crumpled heap upon the floor. "Whoa? I'm sorry Rinoa!" Zell said as he wrapped an arm around her and hiked her up off the floor. As Rinoa's feet hit the floor she giggled "I keep forgetting how strong you are. You're so small." "Hey! That hurt man. I'm not small I'm slightly not bigger then some." Rinoa giggled again and Zell grinned the unpleasant moment from before temporally forgotten until Rinoa looked up "So what did you find out?" Zell's face darkened and he sighed "Look I don't know why you worry about him so much! He's turning out to be a real asshole. He leaves on some mission without telling us, and when he comes back he drops you like a bad habit and treats us all like shit! I say fuck him. If he wants to be an asshole let him." Zell regretted his words as soon as he saw the stricken look on Rinoa's face. "Aw…..me and my big mouth…..I'm sorry Rinoa..." Rinoa just turned her head so he wouldn't see the tears coursing down her face. "Look I know he's been acting weird but we really don't know what happened to him! We found him on the brink of death babbling about something unintelligible. We know he was tortured and beaten. Even if he truly doesn't remember what happened that kind of thing leaves a lasting scar. The nightmares, the pulling away, the flashes of pain. I think his memory is starting to come back and he's not ready to handle is quite yet. That's why no matter what we need to be there for him. This isn't going to be easy for him."
"You may be right about that in more ways then one Rinoa." Zell and Rinoa turned as Quistis and Irvine walked in. "What do you mean?" Zell asked. "Well we decided to do a little checking up on the whole new student thing. We found at least 6 students who remember a new girl talking to Squall just before he went to Cid's office. They all backed up the story that they had never seen her before." "So there really was a girl…..But why would she mislead Squall?" Rinoa tapped her finger against her chin in thought. "I don't know but we got a description and went around trying to find her or any information on her but she's managed to disappear into thin air." Irvine explained. "This is seriously weird…..maybe it's time to get the details on Squall's mission." Zell said. They all nodded "Ok then…..Rinoa and Zell you go back to Garden and see if you can find anything at all that looks fishy. Me and Irvine will go to Galbida Garden and see if we can find any information about Squall's mission since it came from there." Quistis explained. "Sounds like a plan." Zell nodded in agreement as did the others. They were just turning to leave when the door flew open and Selfie barreled in and would have fell flat on her face if Irvine hadn't caught her. "Whoa hold your horses Selfie. Your gonna fall and break your pretty little neck." Selfie shook her head. "Not now Irvine! We have an emergency!" Selfie stood up and brushed herself off. Quistis looked up "What is it Selfie." "I just got back from Cid's office! Laguna's been kidnapped!" she rushed out. "WHAT?" Zell and Rinoa yelled as Quistis and Irvine got a thinking look. "My what a coincidence. Wouldn't you say Quistis." "Indeed Irvine." "What's a coincidence?" Zell asked. "Don't you think it's weird? All this stuff happening to Squall and now his father's gone? It's like someone's TRYING to completely mess up Squall." Selfie explained "What?" She said as everyone was looking at her in shock. "HEY it's not like EVERYTHING gets past me! I do get some stuff…" Selfie huffed. "Well we need to get moving. Selfie go back to garden with Zell and Rinoa and find out all you can about the kidnapping. Me and Irvine will head to Galbidia and find out what we can." Quistis and Irvine turned to head out when Quistis looked over her shoulder. "Oh, and Squall is not told any of this. I won't have him walking into some sort of trap." Everyone nodded in agreement and walked out.